Obama says confident US will continue commitment to NATO

“And we Americans take pride in Michael Phelps, who set the new record this summer”.

“History doesn’t move in a straight line”, he said.

In fact, when the two discussed Obamacare, a compromising Trump agreed to consider preserving two key provisions of the healthcare policy – the part that bans insurers from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions and the part that allows young Americans to remain on their parents’ healthcare plans until age 26.

He said he hoped Greek citizens’ sacrifices in the past seven years would avert default, restore stability and return the country to growth. “But at the same time, there are challenges as people feel like decisions are made beyond their control, in some cases, as economies change, as inequality has persisted and, in some cases, has grown”.

“The problem was I couldn’t convince the Republican Congress to pass a lot of them”, Obama said.

In an address to the Greek people, Obama said growing distrust of elites and institutions demands that democratic governments work to become more responsive to the people they serve.

“Sometimes [that] gets wrapped up in issues of ethnic identity or religious identity or cultural identity and that can be a volatile mix”, he said.

He said: “Now we need to satisfy the people who are fearful, angry or concerned and that’s going to be a pretty big test”. I dare say that we all have said things that we regret.

He said that there was an impulse among some people to “pull back from a globalized world” and that this is visible in Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and in the recent US presidential campaign.

“It is my belief that democracies are more likely to try to resolve conflicts between nations in a way that does not result in war”.

On Tuesday, Obama acknowledged the impact of the financial crisis on Greece, which has wiped out a quarter of its economy and led to unemployment rates above 25 percent.

Obama’s remarks came as part of the outgoing president’s last major trip overseas.

He said he expected him to change his style when he became president and that Europe should “build bridges, not walls” with the incoming U.S. leader, however.

But Greece will be anxious. “The U.S. presidents and administrations have played-and still play-a leading part in the bailout-linked plundering of our country … and their interventions are drowning our part of the world in blood and creating refugee waves”.

US President Barack Obama walks from the Parthenon during a tour of the Acropolis on November 16, 2016 in Athens, Greece.

Trump, in his campaign, said he would not defend North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies who spent too little on defence and that he wanted to make a new deal with Russian Federation. For Baltic states, this can be an alarming declaration when they are now on threat with a Russian attack.

Obama will hold a joint news conference with Merkel on Thursday.

“In our globalized world, with the migration of people and the rapid movement of ideas and cultures and traditions, we see increasingly this blend of forces mixing together in ways that often enrich our societies but also cause tensions”, he said.

Greece agreed a third economic bailout package with global creditors in the middle of past year.