Barack Obama supports Zapatero's Alliance of Civilisations

Barack Obama supports Zapatero's Alliance of Civilisations
larger | smaller
By h.b. - Mar 10, 2009 - 5:48 PM
The second annual meeting of the alliance takes place in Istanbul on April 6 and both Obama and Zapatero will be in attendance

Barack Obama - EFE

United States President, Barack Obama, has given his blessing to the Spanish Prime Minister’s project, the Alliance of Civilisations, by agreeing to attend the second annual meeting of the group in Turkey next month.

U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, confirmed that Obama will attend the meeting at the end of his European Tour which starts in London with the G20 summit on April 2, and is followed by trips to Strasbourg, and now Istanbul on the 6th and 7th.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero will be present at the meeting in Istanbul hosted by the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It a marked policy change for the United States with George W. Bush previously ignoring or mocking the initiative, but it remains to be seen whether Obama will use the venue to outline any new policy towards the Arab and Islamic world.

The first meeting of the Alliance for Civilizations was held in Madrid in January last year and saw 350 guests from 63 countries. P.P. leader Mariano Rajoy also joked at the time at the ‘lack of political weight’ at the meeting.

Click here for related stories

mobile |

email this article | print

printer friendly page

More Spain News : National

Readers' comments:
Please keep to the subject. Opinions published here are of our visitors, not the Typically Spanish team. Comments which go against Spanish laws or which are libellous are not allowed. We reserve the right to delete any comment we wish. Placing a comment indicates you have read our terms and conditions and privacy policy.

Por favor, céntrate en el tema. Son las opiniones de los internautas, y no las de Typically Spanish. No está permitido verter comentarios contrarios a las leyes españolas o injuriantes. Reservado el derecho a eliminar los comentarios que consideremos fuera de tema. Escribir un comentario indica que has leído nuestros condiciones de uso y politica de privacidad.