European leaders, Obama agree to maintain cooperation through North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday ended his final presidential visit to Europe with a six-party talk here with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of government from France, Italy, Spain and Britain over key issues of foreign policy such as combating “Islamic state” (IS) and sanctions against Russian Federation.

President Barack Obama departed Europe on Friday after a final round of crisis talks with USA allies about hotspots including Ukraine and Libya, even as he sought to ease concerns about possible policy shifts under the new White House.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump and Nato’s chief “underlined the enduring importance of Nato”, the military alliance said.

Germany has always been criticized by the alliance for not meeting its obligation to commit at least 2 percent of its GDP to defense spending.

Trump raised concerns during the campaign when he said he could withhold military aid from North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies if they had not met their defence commitments and said he would forge closer ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Referring to the historic Brexit vote on June 23, she added: “And there we ask for fairness: Whoever is leaving the European Union should not in their last metres block the caravan”.

When Barack Obama came to Berlin in 2008 he was greeted like a rock star. Germany is the last European stop.

Obama is holding a news conference in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The victory of President-elect Donald Trump has startled European allies after campaign pledges that seemed to pull back from the traditional USA commitment to transatlantic security.

Still, he noted that he considered the European Union “one of the world’s great political and economic achievements”. He says those achievements should be nurtured and cultivated, not taken for granted.

During eight years in office, Sasha Obama has relied on Merkel’s strength in Europe on several fronts, including staying in contact with Putin to seek to defuse the Ukraine conflict and taking in hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is preparing her country for negotiations to leave the trade bloc.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who recently won his country’s Parliament’s backing to head a minority government after 10 months of political deadlock, said Germany’s stability was important for Europe as a whole.

But Obama said he was “cautiously optimistic” that transitioning from candidate to president-in-waiting would force Trump to focus and get serious about “gaining the trust even of those who didn’t support him”.

The US president-elect has criticized worldwide trade agreements, campaigning on a promise to scrap them once he is elected. Moscow denies targeting civilians, saying it is bombing Islamic militants. “I do not think it is good to try to ensure continuity on negative issues”, Lavrov said during a press conference in Lima, Peru.

Obama acknowledged that Merkel would have big worldwide burdens to shoulder.

“The two administrations have not agreed on any separate meetings, but we can assume that President Putin and President Obama will cross paths on the sidelines of the forum and will talk”, Peskov said.

Obama seemed to underscore that reality as he effusively thanked Merkel for her “deep friendship”.

Obama also warned not to underestimate the consequences of globalization.

If Trump has felt patronized by Obama, so far he hasn’t shown it.

In a new interview with The New Yorker, the president said he urged daughters Malia, 18, and Sasha, 15, to face bigotry head-on and “constantly affirm and lift up and fight for treating people with kindness and respect and understanding”.

The White House says they will press ahead with the transatlantic agenda.

On his farewell visit to the continent, Mr Obama “urged his European counterparts to continue seeking solutions to common challenges with the incoming USA administration on the basis of the core values that define the United States and Europe as open democracies”, the White House said. His eight years in office have helped erase much of the anti-American sentiment that had grown during the administration of George W. Bush over the Iraq war and other policies. The session expands on lengthy talks he held the day before with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.