Obama Europe Trip Aims to Deepen Russia's 'Isolation'

The White House on Friday billed President Barack Obama's Europe trip next week as a chance to show the United States leading a campaign to isolate Russia over its annexation of Crimea.

Obama will meet G7 leaders and confer with the leadership of European Union nations and NATO, as he seeks to impose costs on Moscow for its takeover of the Ukrainian region.

On a trip including stops in The Hague, Brussels, Vatican City and Saudi Arabia, Obama will also meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and try to ease tensions between key Asian allies South Korea and Japan.

The primary focus however will be sending a strong message to NATO allies, including those in eastern Europe, and to Moscow, that Russia must pay a price for Crimea's swift decision to leave Ukraine.

U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said that in the post-Cold War period, the West's effort to integrate Russia into the wider international community had been based on an understanding that it would play by "the rules of the road" and accept international law.

"What we have seen in Ukraine is obviously a very egregious departure from that," she said.

"It is causing the countries and people of Europe and the international community... to reassess what does this mean and what are the implications?"

Rice would not say whether Europe, which imposed visa bans and asset freezes on some Moscow officials, would be prepared to further toughen its stance and match Washington's threats to directly target the Russian economy.

Obama's trip, which includes a nuclear security summit in The Hague, suddenly took on heavy geopolitical overtones when the Ukraine crisis erupted last month, catapulting Viktor Yanukovych from power in Kiev and leading to Russia's absorption of Crimea.

Obama called G7 leaders to a meeting on Monday in the Dutch capital in a symbolic snub to Moscow, host of a G8 summit this year in Sochi which now looks unlikely to take place.

Rice said that the trip, Obama's first across the Atlantic this year, would showcase his administration's preference for tackling global crises through a network of strong alliances.

Obama will discuss a proposed transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP) with European leaders as well as the importance of NATO for collective security.

His meeting with Xi and trilateral summit with South Korean President Park Geun-Hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will highlight his policy of rebalancing U.S. resources towards Asia, which he will visit in April.

Washington is worried about acrimony between Japan and South Korea over historic disputes linked to World War II, at a time of rising regional tensions and territorial disputes.

After a visit to a World War I battlefield site in Flanders on Wednesday, Obama will hold a summit with EU leaders and meet NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Brussels.

Then he will give a keynote speech at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels laying out his vision for transatlantic relations after Russia's move on Crimea.

The situation "reinforces the need for the United States to remain committed to a strong trans-Atlantic alliance, to the security of Europe, the integration of Europe and to the values that the United States and Europe stand for together," said Ben Rhodes, a deputy U.S. national security adviser.

On Thursday, Obama will have an audience with Pope Francis in Vatican City, after speaking admiringly of the pontiff's warnings about economic inequality.

While in Rome, Obama will also have a first face-to-face meeting with new Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

The final leg of Obama's trip will be to Saudi Arabia, where he will meet King Abdullah in an apparent attempt to ease skepticism about his nuclear diplomacy with Iran.

But U.S. hopes for a summit between Obama and the leaders of Gulf allies were put on hold owing to tensions between regional states and Qatar.