WASHINGTON, May 18: US President Barack Obama will seek to cement a bond with France’s new leader at the White House today before heading to Camp David for a G8 summit where he is set to press Europe to do more to fix the region’s deepening economic crisis.
Francois Hollande, sworn in this week as French president, has already made waves by challenging Europe’s austerity focus and saying he will pull French combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year.
Obama, 50, may use their introductory meeting in the Oval Office to encourage the 57-year-old Socialist to rethink his Afghanistan plans that put France on an earlier exit timetable than other NATO allies.
But the two leaders, who have both expressed support for pro-growth policies in Europe, are expected to form a common front on the euro zone crisis that could dominate this weekend’s Group of Eight talks.
Obama’s administration spent heavily to tackle the 2007-2009 US recession, and Hollande is seeking to take the edge off austerity with more job-creating infrastructure investments.
The G8 summit comes as Greeks are pulling cash from banks amid growing fears that it might crash out of the single currency euro zone, and financial markets have turned fearful about the prospects of a full-blown crisis in Europe.
Obama and other US officials have urged European leaders repeatedly to do more to stimulate growth in the region, fearing contagion from the euro crisis could hurt the US economy and threaten Obama’s chances of re-election on November 6.
Heather Conley, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Hollande and Obama ‘see things very similarly about the need for a better balance between fiscal consolidation, austerity and economic growth.’
That could put pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has stressed the need for fiscal discipline to get the euro zone finances back on track even as voters have toppled belt-tightening governments. (AGENCIES)
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