Obama: Belligerent Russia poses 'testing' moment for Europe, US (+video)
Obama, in Brussels, warns Russia of further isolation if it 'stays on course' in Ukraine, but precludes Western use of military force. His speech urges defense of the post-World War II 'architecture of peace.'
The United States and Europe must stand firm in rejecting Russias aggression against Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea not just because they challenge the principles a peaceful and prosperous Europe is built on, President Obama said Wednesday in Brussels, but also because they thwart "universal values" of freedom and self-determination that stir all humanity.
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The presidents speech the format Mr. Obama has favored for delivering big messages in foreign places came at the end of a day during which the American leader visited for the first time two pillars of trans-Atlantic relations: NATO headquarters and the executive offices of the European Union.
At both institutions Obama discussed with leaders the steps that Western powers must be ready to take including broad sanctions on Russian economic sectors such as the dominant energy industry and banking and finance if Russia moves to engage in further incursions into Ukraine, as he put it at EU headquarters.
Obama assured his audience of about 2,000 diplomats, officials, and university students at Brussels Palais des Beaux-Arts that the West has no intention of meeting Russias aggression with military force. But in a clear warning to Moscow, he pledged expanded Western measures to match continued Russian aggression.
If the Russian leadership stays on its current course, he said, this isolation will deepen.
The president sought in his speech to take the case for a firm stand against Russias actions beyond a mere geopolitical fight to a defense of the values and rules that a war-traumatized world forged from the ruins of World War II.
We meet here at a moment of testing for Europe and the United States, and for the international order that we have worked for generations to build, Obama said. After World War II, America joined with Europe to reject the dark forces of the past and to build a new architecture of peace, he said.
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Obama: Belligerent Russia poses 'testing' moment for Europe, US (+video)