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Politics Barack Obama U.S. President Barack Obama, left, shakes hands with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, right, in front of Dutch master Rembrandt's The Night Watch painting during a visit to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on Monday, March 24, 2014. Frank AugsteinAP

This wont be the trip he planned.

President Barack Obama departed Sunday night for a six-day whirlwind tour through Europe and the Middle East that was supposed to be an ordinary trip to friendly countries to discuss nuclear security and trade while basking in the glow of the new Pope. Instead, as he visits the Hague, Brussels, Rome and Riyadh, Obama will be devoting his time to maintaining increasingly strained alliances with American allies across the globe, as global conflicts are placing the concerns of jittery partners on the front burner.

If theres a common theme to this trip, its the fundamental strength and importance of our alliances and partnerships, National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Friday. The strategic importance of this effort really cant be overstated. From Europe to Asia to the Middle East, our ability to lead strong coalitions is essential to making progress.

Obama is convening a meeting of the G-7s leaders on Monday in the Netherlands to discuss the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, conspicuously declining to invite G-8 member Russia. The meeting may well serve as a substitute for the scheduled May meeting of the G-8 in Sochi, which was placed on indefinite hold following Russias annexation of Crimea. Obama, who has promised costs for Russian actions, is facing a fractured caucus of allies, with Europeans simultaneously wary of President Vladimir Putins aggressive stance and concerned about the impact of U.S. sanctions (and U.S.-supported European sanctions) on their business interests and energy supplies. Unilateral American sanctions are only so costly to the Russian government, so Obama is seeking support for tougher sanctions in coordination with European leaders.

Obama will then meet with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Wednesday to discuss not just the situation in Ukraine, but the steps that we are taking to reinforce the security of our allies in Eastern Europe, said Ben Rhodes, the deputy national-security adviser for strategic communications. Obama will then deliver a speech on trans-Atlantic relations and European security, and Ukraine will be a focus of his remarks, the White House said.

The nuclear summit will provide an indication for how well the U.S. and Russia can compartmentalize the Ukraine conflict while continuing to work on issues of shared interest, such as Irans nuclear program.

Asked Friday whether the U.S. has sensed any shift in Russias commitment to nuclear security, Rice told reporters, We havent seen any evidence to the contrary.

Obama will meet also meet trilaterally with President Park Geun-hye of South Korea and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, each of whom is seeking U.S. reassurances over North Korea and China. Theyre particularly concerned about the latters imposition of an Air Defense Identification Zone in the East China Sea.

The final stop of the trip will be Riyadh, where Obama will meet with King Abdullah to discuss the Middle East peace process and the Iran nuclear talks. The Saudi Arabian government has been anxious about the level of support it receives from the American government since the Arab Spring, and the two countries have clashed over the Iran talks and the Syrian civil war. Saudi Arabia has armed the rebels opposing Syrian President Bashar Assad, while the U.S. government has taken a lower-key approach. The reverse is true on Iran, as Saudi Arabia looks warily on the nuclear talks with its regional rival.

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Obama Tries to Reassure Jittery Allies on Foreign Trip

President Barack Obama delved into a day of delicate diplomacy Monday as he sought to rally the international community around efforts to isolate Russia following its incursion into Ukraine.

Hours after arriving in the Netherlands for a nuclear summit, Obama held one-on-one talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. China has often sided with Russia in disputes with the West, but U.S. officials have been appealing to Beijing's well-known opposition to outside interference in other nation's domestic affairs.

Obama treaded carefully in statements with Xi before their meeting, saying only that they planned to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

"I believe ultimately, that by working together, China and the United States can help strengthen international law and respect for the sovereignty of nations and establish the kind of rules internationally that allow all peoples to thrive," Obama said in a subtle appeal for Chinese support.

He added that he and the Chinese leader would also seek to "work through frictions that exist in our relations" on matters like human rights and maritime disputes.

Xi, for his part, pointed to areas of potential cooperation with the U.S. as he settled in for what Obama described as a wide-ranging session. "It is like a menu and a rich one at that," Xi said through an interpreter.

Obama's meeting with Xi opened a week of international travel where crisis in Ukraine tops the agenda. After arriving in the Netherlands on a sunny and brisk Monday morning and meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Obama asserted that the U.S. and Europe stand together behind Ukraine.

No issue commands more of Obama's and Europe's attention than Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and the fear that Moscow could decide to expand further into Ukraine. But Obama also is attempting to use his weeklong trip to personally reconnect not only with Europe but Asia and the Middle East, all strategically crucial regions with their own tensions and qualms about the U.S.

Obama's meeting with Xi highlighted another tricky front in U.S. international relations and comes just a day after The New York Times and the German magazine Der Spiegel reported that the U.S. National Security Agency had hacked into the servers of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

Meanwhile, China has been wary of Obama's efforts to increase U.S. influence in the Asia Pacific region. The U.S. has also called for restraint in China's maritime territorial disputes with Japan and its Southeast Asian neighbors.

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Obama to Try to Rally World to Isolate Russia

Top Ukrainian and NATO officials both said Sunday they worried of an intensifying conflict.

Obama said Europe and the United States must approach that challenge united in imposing a cost on Russia for its actions so far and prepared to go further if the situation escalates.

Obama is to meet in the Netherlands with top world leaders including Chinese president Xi Jinping on Monday, and also with other major industrial nations in a session of the Group of 7. That gathering including Japan, Canada and large European powers will pointedly exclude Russia, which has typically joined sessions of an expanded Group of 8.

Russian president Vladimir Putin is not attending the summit, but sent the countrys foreign minister.

Whether that sort of diplomatic isolation matters, however, remains to be seen. Ukrainian interim president Oleksandr Turchynov said in the national parliament on Monday that he had told the defense ministry to issue withdrawal orders for any remaining military personnel in Crimea, the disputed region where government installations have steadily fallen under Russian control.

Russian troops are now in control of the entire Ukrainian marine base at Feodosia, said a defense ministry official, and two senior commanders have been taken into custody.

Russian troops stormed the facility, home to a well-trained and armed force, in the early morning hours, firing automatic weapons and using stun grenades, said Vladislav Seleznyov, a defense ministry spokesman. Some of the Marines had their hands bound, he said, and 80 to 100 have been gathered together in one spot.

Seleznyov said the Russians flew commander Dmitri Deliatizkii and his deputy, Rostilav Lomtev, off the base in a helicopter.

The commander of a Ukrainian base in Belbek, Yuli Mamchur, has been held by Russians since his base was stormed Saturday. Ukrainian television has reported it is believed he is being held in a jail in the port city of Sevastopol.

Russias defense ministry announced Sunday its troops have taken control of 189 Ukrainian bases and facilities in Crimea. It is not clear how many, if any, still have a Ukrainian flag flying.

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Obama in Europe with Ukraine high on agenda; Kiev orders Crimea withdrawal

President Obama has told a Dutch newspaper that the United States does not see the ongoing crisis in Crimea and Ukraine as a "zero-sum game" between Washington and Moscow as pro-Russian forces reportedly overran a third Ukrainian military base in the Black Sea peninsula Monday.

In the interview, published in Monday's edition of de Volkskrant, Obama said, "The United States does not view Europe as a battleground between East and West, nor do we see the situation in Ukraine as a zero-sum game. Thats the kind of thinking that should have ended with the Cold War."

The president went on to say, "The Ukrainian people do not have to choose between East and West. On the contrary, its important that Ukraine have good relations with the United States, Russia, and Europe. As Ive said, the future of Ukraine ought to be decided by the people of Ukraine."

Obama also addressed the possibility of additional sanctions against Russia, saying "There have to be consequences," if the crisis continued to escalate. "And if Russia continues to escalate the situation," Obama continued, "we need to be prepared to impose a greater cost."

This past Monday, Obama issued an executive order freezing the U.S. assets of seven Russian and four Ukrainian officials. On Friday, the European Union imposed sanctions against 12 members of Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, including Russia's Deputy Prime Minister. In all, European leaders have hit 33 officials with asset freezes and visa bans.

The White House provided an English translation of the interview as Obama began a six-day trip that will take him to The Hague, Rome, Vatican City, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The trip's European leg is expected to be dominated by discussion of the annexation of Crimea by Russia earlier this week.

Also Monday, Ukrainian officials told the BBC that Russian troops had seized another Ukrainian military base. Defense Ministry spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov claimed that the Russians attacked the naval base at Feodosia from two directions with the aid of automatic weapons and stun guns. Seleznyov also claimed that the Ukrainians were rounded up and the base's officers were bound by the invaders.

The Defense Ministry told the Associated Press that up to 80 Ukrainians had been detained on-site, and two injured servicemen had been taken away by helicopter. A soldier at the base told Reuters that the installation had been taken over and confirmed that shots had been fired.

The BBC reported that the Feodosia base had been surrounded by Russian forces for some time, but had remained one of the last bases under the control of the Kiev government.

On Sunday, NATO's top military commander, Gen. Philip Breedlove, warned that Russia had built up a "very, very sizeable and very, very ready" force on its border with Ukraine. Breedlove added that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be considering moving against another region with a large ethnic Russian population: Transdniestria, in the former Soviet republic of Moldova.

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Obama: Ukraine not 'zero-sum game' as Russian troops take Crimea base

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