Obama sees peaks, valleys on Europe trip

President Obama prepared to end his first overseas trip at the nexus of Europe and Asia having received a crash course in the strengths — and limits — of his popularity when it came to forging foreign policy.

He handily won over the G-20, wrapping up the summit with a solo address and press conference while his host, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, bore the brunt of criticism over the leaders’ agreement to pony up $1 trillion in loans and guarantees in an attempt to shake off global recession. While Michelle Obama casually threw her arm around Queen Elizabeth II and emerged from the ensuing media frenzy relatively unscathed, The Sun newspaper capped the summit with a cover featuring Brown as Dr. Evil from the “Austin Powers” flicks, plotting to “save the world” with $1 trillion.

{mosads}Obama mugged for the cameras with Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev, chatted with Chinese President Hu Jintao, and kept tea time at Buckingham Palace. His few stumbles included giving the queen an iPod on the heels of widespread mockery over his earlier gift of a DVD set to Brown, and appearing to bow upon shaking hands with Saudi King Abdullah, an image that has had right-wing blogs on fire since the summit’s conclusion.

But even though some in the British media panned Obama, who said he was suffering from a cold, as less than the great orator they’d imagined, and even though he went into the summit facing opposition from Germany and France over more stimulus packages, Obama managed to convey his message that he is the leader of the free world — but not a unilateral one.

Obama left the G-20 with leaders vowing to triple resources available to the International Monetary Fund to $750 billion, pushing $100 billion in additional lending by multilateral development banks and providing $250 billion to support the finance of international trade, as well as backing regulatory reform and new standards for executive compensation.

“I am committed to respecting different points of view, and to forging a consensus instead of dictating our terms,” Obama said as he wrapped up the summit. “That is how we made progress these last few days. And that is how we will advance and uphold our ideals in the months and years to come.

“I believe strongly that this era must not end at our borders,” he added. “In a world that is more and more inter-connected, we have a responsibility to work together to solve common challenges.”

And on the heels of Obama’s vow to repair America’s image, he offered a mea culpa of sorts for past foreign policy while speaking to an audience of students in Strasbourg, France.

“In America, there is a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world,” he said. “Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.

“But in Europe, there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual, but can also be insidious. Instead of recognising the good that America so often does in the world, there have been times where Europeans choose to blame America for much of what is bad.”

The Europe that pined for an American president more open to multilateral solutions, though, showed that its “no” vote is now more resounding.

The cooperation Obama sought on his Afghanistan troop surge plan was elusive as he attended the 60th anniversary NATO summit. “Europe should not simply expect the United States to shoulder that burden alone,” Obama said in asking for assistance in his planned 17,000-troop increase. “This is a joint problem; it requires a joint effort.”

Few jumped at Obama’s plea. NATO allies committed to providing 5,000 personnel to help train Afghanistan’s military and aid in security operations surrounding the Aug. 20 presidential elections.

Obama downplayed the disagreements, saying that the commitments equaled valuable support and further talk of troop contributions would come down the road. “I am pleased that our NATO allies pledged their strong and unanimous support for our new strategy. Keep in mind it was only just a week ago that we announced this new approach,” Obama said at a news conference at the summit’s conclusion.

If coming away from NATO with relatively empty hands was a low point for Obama, his stock rose again with his journey to meet European Union leaders in the Czech Republic.

Arriving in a region where many have been suspicious of the depth of his commitment to the Eastern European missile defense shield, Obama spun the visit into a crusade against the nuclear proliferation that would make such a shield necessary.

Obama issued a sweeping call for an end to nuclear weapons before an outdoor crowd of some 20,000 on Sunday. Though Obama stood before Prague Castle, the real backdrop for his speech was North Korea’s timely test launch of a long-range missile just hours beforehand.

“Just this morning, we were reminded again of why we need a new and more rigorous approach to address this threat,” Obama said. “North Korea broke the rules once again by testing a rocket that could be used for long-range missiles. This provocation underscores the need for action — not just this afternoon at the U.N. Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons.

“Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something. The world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons.”

After a request from Japan, the U.N. Security Council convened Sunday for an emergency session on North Korea.

Away from the crowds and back with the other leaders, though, Obama found the audience to be less adoring as he backed Turkey’s quest to join the European Union, much to the chagrin of France and Germany. Obama told other leaders that doing so would be seen as positive outreach to the Muslim world, as President George W. Bush had similarly argued during his tenure.

While maintaining the positive image that he first cultivated on a rock-star swing through Europe on the campaign trail, Obama found on his first overseas trip that while financial recovery may be a shared task between the world’s 20 largest economies, other goals — like increasing troop levels in Afghanistan and ridding the world of nuclear weapons — may share less of a communal spirit.