President Obama continued his tour of Europe as he arrived in France this morning for the NATO conference being held in Strasbourg.
French President Sarkozy gave Obama a surprisingly warm welcome and even greeted the president with something of a welcome gift; the symbolic announcement that France will take one detainee from the soon-to-be-closed Guantanamo Bay prison. Wow!
Obama will hold a town hall in Strasbourg this morning before focusing on the NATO summit.
President Obama traveled to France today for the start of a two-day summit of 26 leaders of NATO countries as members of the World War II-era alliance commemorate the past and contemplate the future of their mutual defense pact.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy welcomed Obama and, in a symbolic gesture of support for the new U.S. leader, said his country would accept one of the detainees from the American detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in an effort to help shut it down.
But in making the offer, he also said he must “speak the truth,” and blasted the decision by the Bush administration to open and maintain Guantanamo Bay to indefinitely detain terror suspects.
“I appreciate the values of the United States,” Sarkozy said, standing beside Obama at a news conference in Strasbourg. “Guantanamo Bay did not conform to the values of the United States.”
Obama met said he brought U.S. allies the message that they should expand their national defense capabilities. “We’re not looking to be patrons of Europe,” Obama said. “We’re looking to be partners of Europe.”
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