WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Barack Obama will head to Greece, Germany and Peru next month for what could be his final trip abroad before leaving the White House in January, his office said Tuesday.
The November 14-21 trip — which will fall between the November 8 election to choose his successor and Inauguration Day on January 20 — will aim to show Obama’s engagement with both his transatlantic and Asia-Pacific partners.
Obama will arrive in Greece on November 15 for talks focused on the country’s efforts to right its struggling economy and to hail the “remarkable generosity” shown by Athens towards the human sea of migrants arriving on its shores, the White House said.
He is due to meet with both Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
About 850,000 migrants fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan arrived in Greece last year, a majority of them on the island of Lesbos. In October 2015, at the height of the crisis, 10,000 migrants were arriving on Lesbos each day.
The UN says 160,000 migrants have arrived in Greece since January.
In Germany on November 17-18, Obama will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel, with Ukraine, Syria, the battle against the Islamic State group and US-EU economic relations on the agenda, the statement added.
It will be Obama’s sixth trip to Germany, where he will also hold multilateral talks with Merkel and the leaders of Britain, France and Italy on a range of issues.
Obama will then head to Peru from November 18-20 for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, bringing together 21 economies from the region.
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