President Barack Obama said Donald Trump told him that he can assure European leaders that the U.S. will not back off its commitments to the NATO alliance under the incoming Republican president.
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Trump questioned the U.S. commitment to the alliance during the presidential campaign, saying that European NATO members should pay more for their own defense. Asked about how the U.S. would respond to a hypothetical Russian attack on one of the Baltic nations in NATO, Trump responded that he would consider its contribution to the alliance before deciding whether to meet the NATO treaty obligation to defend a member state.
But in a White House meeting between Trump and Obama last week, the incoming Republican assured the president of his "great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships," Obama said at a White House news conference Monday ahead of a trip to Greece, Germany and Peru. Obama said the assurance he will convey to NATO members in Europe is to "let them know there is no weakening of resolve" under Trump.
"There is enormous continuity, beneath our day-to-day news, that makes us that indispensable nation when it comes to promoting order and prosperity around the world," Obama said, describing U.S. military and diplomatic relationships in foreign countries. "That will continue."
[TRUMP: Timeline of president-elect's career + list of appointments so far]
Obama also urged Americans to give Trump time to rise to the daunting responsibilities of the office, breaking sharply from his Democratic allies who have quickly condemned Trump's first major decisions.
Calling Trump pragmatic, Obama said he believed the first-time officeholder would do his best to unite the nation. He also expressed hope that the weight of the presidency would force Trump to overcome his perceived shortcomings.
"He has won. He's going to be the next president and regardless of what experience or assumptions he brought to the office, this office has a way of waking you up," Obama said. "And some of his gifts that obviously allowed him to execute one of the biggest political upsets in history, those are ones that hopefully he will put to good use on behalf of all the American people."
Obama acknowledged that he had offered advice to Trump, saying he emphasized the need to shift from campaigning to governing, and the importance of resetting the tone after a contentious election.
"I don't think he is ideological," Obama said. "And that can serve him well as long as he has got good people around him and he has a clear sense of direction."
Obama suggested he would continue to offer his advice. For example, he said, he would urge Trump "to think long and hard" before making good on his promise to upend Obama's program that deferred deportation for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who came to the country illegally as children.
Asked about Trump's move to appoint Steve Bannon, a far-right conservative media mogul as chief strategist and senior adviser, Obama said it was up to the president-elect to appoint a team.
"It's important for us to let him make his decisions," Obama said of the choice of Bannon, a man celebrated as a force for the far right. But Obama said he counseled Trump: "It's really important to send some signals of unity."
While Obama is in Germany, Greece and Peru, he said his team would accelerate efforts to ensure a smooth transition to the Trump administration.
Enhancing EU's defense
Top European Union diplomats, meanwhile, remained concerned about defense, calling Monday for more robust defense across the bloc and a greater European voice in world affairs as Trump prepares to assume the U.S. presidency.
With many question marks around Trump's foreign policy plans, EU foreign ministers agreed at talks in Brussels on the need to strengthen Europe's role in world affairs until the future of trans-Atlantic relations becomes clearer.
A day after the anniversary of the deadly Paris attacks in which 130 people died last year, the ministers signed off on a sprawling new security and defense plan. But the plan is a far cry from the idea of an "EU army" with a military headquarters that drew criticism from some EU partners at NATO. It identifies Europe's main tasks as responding to external threats, building the security resilience of partners outside the EU and protecting the 28-nation bloc and its citizens.
"This is a qualitative leap in the European Union's security and defense," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told reporters after the meeting. She said that work on taking it forward would begin within weeks.
"We are in an uncertain world, and it has not started with the election of Mr. Trump," said French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. "But Europe must not wait for others' decisions, it must defend its own interests -- that is to say the interest of Europeans -- and at the same time reaffirming its strategic role on the global level."
His Belgian counterpart, Didier Reynders, said Trump's election was "a possibility for the EU to go further. We need to enhance our capacity in defense and security."
"The EU needs to find a way to have its voice heard in the search for political solutions ... and ensure that it's not simply a conversation between Washington and Moscow, so that we can have the EU really at the table," he said.
In another move Monday, the ministers reaffirmed their support for the Iran nuclear agreement, which Trump has branded the "worst deal in the world" and vowed to renegotiate. They said "the European Union reiterates its resolute commitment" to the part of the action plan that EU heavyweights Britain, France and Germany agreed upon with Iran.
The plan includes lifting "nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions and engaging with the private sector and economic operators, especially banks, to promote growth in trade and investment."
While campaigning, Trump called the pact made last year a "lopsided disgrace" and railed against its time-limited restrictions on Iran's enrichment of uranium and other nuclear activity.
Another pressing question for Europe regards Trump's plans for working with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The EU has imposed sanctions on Russia over its 2014 annexation of Crimea and destabilizing role elsewhere in Ukraine. Any signal from Trump about a warming of U.S. relations with Russia is likely to embolden already reluctant countries such as Germany, Italy and others to push for an end to the sanctions regime.
Trump and Putin spoke Monday. In a statement issued after the call, the Kremlin said Putin expressed readiness to establish a "partnerlike" dialogue with Trump's incoming administration.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson insisted Monday that Trump's presidency could be a "moment of opportunity" for Europe.
Johnson, who championed Britain's exit from the EU, said Trump "is a dealmaker and I think that could be a good thing for Britain, but it can also be a good thing for Europe. I think that's what we need to focus on today."
Migrant issues
When Obama arrives in Europe, he will touch down in Greece, a country at the center of the continent's refugee crisis. Then, he will head to Germany, which has helped guide the continent's response.
While he plans to buttress Greek efforts to cope with migrants fleeing the battlefields of the Middle East, he must contend with other European Union members' desire to keep more refugees out of their countries.
The task became more complicated after Trump won the White House, in part by campaigning to severely restrict asylum seekers from entering the U.S.
"The election will be the primary topic on people's minds everywhere we go," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser -- especially "given the direction the election took."
In Greece, the primary entry point for Middle Eastern migrants, roughly 50,000 asylum seekers remain corralled in refugee camps and United Nations-sponsored accommodations, most of them waiting for EU countries to make good on pledges to resettle tens of thousands of refugees in countries across the bloc.
Germany was the destination of choice for the majority of arriving asylum seekers, and it is still dealing with a backlog of hundreds of thousands of applications for sanctuary.
Greek Migration Minister Ioannis Mouzalas said in an interview Friday that his country expects Obama to emphasize "how important it is to manage the crisis and not close your eyes to such a crisis."
"It's not a Greek problem, it's a European problem," Mouzalas added.
In Peru, Obama will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, a meeting of 21 Pacific Rim governments. Obama once hoped he would arrive at the event able to boast of congressional ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation free trade agreement involving many of the group's members.
But Trump dashed those dreams, campaigning in adamant opposition to the deal, and Republican congressional leaders have all but ruled out ratifying it before the president-elect's inauguration.
Information for this article was contributed by Mike Dorning, Margaret Talev and Toluse Olorunnipa of Bloomberg News; by Lorne Cook, Sylvain Plazy, Maria Danilova, Angela Charlton and Kathleen Hennessey of The Associated Press; and by Juliet Eilperin and Anthony Faiola of The Washington Post.
A Section on 11/15/2016