US must engage through diplomacy, Obama says

Obama, in a news conference capping a three-day meeting of leaders from the Western Hemisphere, also said the United States must engage other countries through humanitarian gestures, not simply military intervention.

Obama said it would be a mistake to measure the Summit of the Americas by specific agreements reached. But by listening to his counterparts and eschewing heavy-handed diplomacy, he said he was creating an atmosphere in which, "at the margins," foreign leaders are "more likely to want to cooperate than not cooperate."

A running theme of the summit was Obama's cordial dealings with Chavez, who once called President George W. Bush the "devil" and who last month dismissed Obama as an "ignoramus." The two were photographed smiling and clasping hands.

At one meeting attended by South American leaders, Chavez made a show of walking around the table as the cameras rolled and handing Obama a copy of "Open Veins of Latin America," a 1971 book by Eduardo Galeano chronicling US and European imperialism in the region.

Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada, told CNN yesterday that it was "irresponsible" for Obama to be seen "laughing and joking" with the Venezuelan president.

Obama dismissed such concerns. He said the 2008 campaign proved that American voters want the president to engage his counterparts, whether they are avowed friends of the United States or not.

Obama said it "was a nice gesture to give me a book. I'm a reader." He added that the election was a referendum of sorts on the argument that US solicitude toward foreign leaders could be seen as "weakness."

"The American people didn't buy it," the president said. "And there's a good reason the American people didn't buy it - because it doesn't make sense."

The United States has nothing to fear from Venezuela, a large supplier of crude oil to the United States, Obama said.

"Its defense budget is probably 1/600th of the US," he said. "They own Citgo. It's unlikely that as a consequence of me shaking hands or having a polite conversation with Mr. Chavez that we are endangering the strategic interests of the United States."

That said, Obama aides were not so charitable toward Chavez. In a background briefing earlier, one senior official accused Chavez of performing for the cameras.

The official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, said, "Anybody who's been at international conferences with Chavez knows that if there's a camera around, he's going to find a way to get in it."

Impressed with Obama, Chavez seemed ready to reevaluate relations with the United States. He announced that he was considering appointing an ambassador to Washington, an idea he discussed over the weekend with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The two countries expelled each other's ambassadors last year.

"We have a different focus, obviously," Chavez said on Venezuelan state television. "But we are willing. We have the political will to work together."

Although Cuba's fate was not part of the official agenda of the summit, which only included democratically elected leaders from the hemisphere, many Latin American leaders pressed Obama to lift the 47-year-old trade embargo and to normalize relations with the island nation. Obama resisted.

His administration announced beforehand that it was loosening travel restrictions on Cuban Americans wishing to visit family. But at this point, Obama has refused to go further, calling upon Cuban leader Raul Castro to move toward a more open and democratic form of government.

Lawrence Summers, a top economic adviser in the White House, said yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the embargo won't fall any time soon.

In his news conference, Obama said he welcomed Raul Castro's statement last week that the Cuban government wanted a full dialogue with the United States about a range of issues, including human rights, treatment of dissidents, and media restrictions. Castro also allowed that the Cuban government might have been wrong in some positions.

"And so we're going to explore and see if we can make some further steps," Obama said.

With three foreign trips behind him, Obama was asked to outline the "Obama doctrine" - the principles by which he will conduct foreign policy. The president stressed the importance of acting in collaborative fashion, rejecting the more unilateral approach taken by Bush.