Najib arrives in Tokyo for talks with Abe

A. Jalil HamidNovember 15, 2016

ricky l

18 seconds ago

As US officially signal that it will not ratify the TPP during this period, both Malaysia and Japan which are the members of TPP should consider alternative solution to replace US as the lead member of the TPP.

Among the choices are :-
(1) Seeking China to replace US as the lead TPP.
(2) Seeking EU to replace US as the lead TPP.
(3) Ratify TPP without US - and open the option to infuse future members into the TPP when they are ready.

We cannot afford to wait for US who are figuring out whether to ratify, suspend, freeze or even the possibility of canceling the TPP.

ricky l

5 seconds ago

Japan may even want to consider taking up the lead role as TPP member to replace US as the Trans-Continental trade treaty is already a big market to start with even without US.

(1) Trans-Pacific - including Japan, ASEAN
(2) Trans-North America - including Canada, Mexico
(3) Trans-South America - including Peru, Chile

And this modified TPP (without US) can keep the option open to welcome new members while we ratified the TPP (without US).

ricky l

5 seconds ago

Of course another option as suggested by Malaysia is to negotiate bi-lateral trade treaty one by one with the TPP members (excluding US) - though it will be a tiring process - to repeat 11 times (less US).
ricky l

16 seconds ago

Rice says TPP 'a challenge' but still in US interest
Posted 15 Nov 2016 04:20
US President Barack Obama and National Security Advisor Susan Rice (R). (REUTERS/Carlos Barria/Files)

WASHINGTON: National Security Advisor Susan Rice admitted on Monday (Nov 14) that passing a landmark trans-Pacific trade agreement is now a "challenge," but it remains in the US strategic interest.

President Barack Obama has championed the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), but President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to scrap it, saying it would cost American jobs.

"TPP is obviously a challenge at this stage," Rice told AFP, warning that a failure to pass the deal would leave a vacuum.

"Trade is not going to stop, it will continue, we'll be part of it but we won't be as able to shape the framework to serve our values and our interests," she said.

"That leaves a vacuum for countries like China and others to fill - that is not in our interest."

- AFP/de
- ricky l
  
  25 seconds ago
  
  Maybe as a matter of courtesy, PM Abe can check with the President-elect whether the new Administration is still interested to pursue the TPP when PM Abe meet the President-elect Donald Trump this coming Thu.
  
  If the answer is negative, PM Abe should consider taking up the role as the lead TPP.
  
  If in future US feel that they want to join at a later date as mention by Rice, Japan can consider taking in US as deputy lead with the consent of other TPP members.
- - ricky l
    
    5 seconds ago
    
    Since Japan has already ratified the TPP with its lawmaker in Japan Parliament, Japan should seriously consider this possibility.
    
    And also the possibility of infusing other new members when they are ready and the new members want to join.
    
    E.g. are Indonesia who express interest in the TPP.
    Must also not forget China.
    And even want to consider EU.
    
    All the above have very big market potential.
  - - ricky l
      
      5 seconds ago
      
      Huat Ah !!!
      $$$$$$$ Ah !!!
    - Asia-Pacific leaders to talk trade in a Trump world
      - Posted 15 Nov 2016 14:59
      - Updated 15 Nov 2016 15:00
      Obama's signature trade initiative in the Asia-Pacific, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), meanwhile faces near-certain death. (Photo: REUTERS/Yuri Gripas)
      
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      LIMA: Top world leaders will meet this week to chart a future for free trade - almost a dirty word in a world upended by Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election.
      
      US President Barack Obama, China's Xi Jinping, Japan's Shinzo Abe and Russia's Vladimir Putin will be among the leaders in the room in Lima, Peru for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit from Thursday to Sunday.
      
      APEC summits, which gather leaders from 21 Pacific Rim economies, are meant to forge unity on free trade in a region that accounts for nearly 60 per cent of the global economy and nearly 40 per cent of the world's population.
      
      But this year's event may be unlike any other, coming on the heels of Trump's shock win in the November 8 election.
      
      The brash billionaire has unleashed deep uncertainty about the postwar world order with his attacks on free trade, immigration and the US role as "policeman of the world."
      
      By successfully tapping the anger of working-class whites who feel left behind by globalisation, Trump has amplified a sense of malaise that began in June with Britain's "Brexit" vote to leave the European Union - another shock victory for a populist politics of disillusionment with an increasingly borderless world.
      
      President-elect Trump will not be at the APEC summit, but he may well be the dominant presence in the room.
      
      "I think APEC will be about two things - huge questions about what a Trump presidency will mean for trade and work on all non-US pathways forward to advance free trade," said Deborah Elms, executive director of the Asian Trade Centre in Singapore.
      
      "The US has apparently chosen to hunker down, raise barricades and return to a glorious past of splendid isolation."
      
      OBAMA'S 'REBALANCE' IN DOUBT
      
      It risks being an awkward summit for Obama, who will wrap up his final foreign tour as president in Peru after stops in Greece and Germany.
      
      Obama, who campaigned against Trump as "unfit" to succeed him, must now reassure colleagues that a Trump presidency will not in fact spell disaster.
      
      Leaders will be looking for signals on the future of Obama's much-vaunted "rebalance" to Asia and the Pacific.
      
      American allies such as Japan and South Korea are worried the Republican president-elect will cut back the US military, economic and diplomatic presence in the region - leaving them exposed to a dominant China and belligerent North Korea.
      
      Trump has caused concern in the region by suggesting Japan and South Korea get nuclear weapons to defend themselves, calling climate change a Chinese "hoax," and warmly embracing Putin.
      
      The Latin American leaders in the room, including Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, will also be looking nervously to the new US administration.
      
      On the campaign trail, Trump insulted Mexican immigrants as "criminals" and "rapists," vowed to build a border wall with Mexico to keep out illegal migrants and threatened mass deportations.
      
      TPP OBITUARY?
      
      Obama's signature trade initiative in the Asia-Pacific, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), meanwhile faces near-certain death.
      
      Trump has called the proposal a "terrible deal."
      
      China, which was pointedly excluded from the 12-member TPP, will be pushing its own alphabet soup of proposed trade deals: the APEC-wide Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) and the 16-member Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which notably includes India but not the United States.
      
      Both are seen as giving China an edge over the US in the battle for regional influence.
      
      WHITHER FREE TRADE?
      
      The very future of free trade will be up for discussion in Lima, analysts say.
      
      The world will be looking to the summit for "a strong statement" to counter Trump's anti-trade arguments, said Eduardo Pedrosa, secretary general of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council.
      
      "The evidence is not that strong that free trade is responsible for taking away jobs from countries, but that's how people feel and you have to deal with that perception," he said.
      
      Trump's win means free trade is "in trouble," said Robert Lawrence, a trade expert at Harvard University.
      
      Not only is the US role in promoting economic integration "severely compromised," he told AFP, American protectionism could now become a brake on world trade.
      
      "Trump trade policy, if it proceeds as advertised, is going to be very disruptive," he said.
      
      - CNA
    - WORLD
      
      Merkel, with nod to Trump, warns against protectionism
      - Posted 15 Nov 2016 20:05
      German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a news conference in Berlin, Germany, April 6, 2016. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo
      
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      BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Tuesday for globalisation to be framed in multilateral agreements rather than see countries adopt protectionist measures, in a thinly veiled warning to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
      
      In his campaign, Trump argued that international trade agreements had hurt U.S. workers and the country's competitiveness. He has promised to "get tough" with China and withdraw from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, which is still not finalised.
      
      Merkel, having last week offered to work with Trump on the basis of democratic values, used a speech to set out the case for strengthening international cooperation in the field of trade and avoiding a slide into protectionism.
      
      "We are at the moment in a situation in the European Union, in our country and worldwide where there is an argument about how we want to shape globalisation," Merkel told a meeting of Germany's BDA employers association.
      
      "Globalisation is happening. We can arrange it such that we strengthen multilateral instruments ... or such that we seal ourselves off and become protectionist."
      
      "I am pleased that you, like me, are convinced that we must fashion globalisation in a multilateral way," added Merkel.
      
      She said she would make globalisation a theme for debate during Germany's presidency of the G20 next year.
      
      Merkel was the driving force in Europe behind the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), an ambitious trade deal between the European Union and United States).
      
      That agreement, still in the negotiation phase, seems sure to die under Trump, whose protectionist promises, should they become reality, would hit few countries harder than Germany, whose economic strength depends heavily on the openness of the global trading system.
      
      Looking ahead, Merkel said: "This dispute over openness or sealing ourselves off (in trade) will keep us very busy in the coming years."
      
      (Reporting by Paul Carrel; Editing by Madeline Chambers and John Stonestreet)
      
      - Reuters
    - ASIA PACIFIC
      
      Malaysia pins trade pact hopes on Abe-Trump meeting
      - Posted 16 Nov 2016 18:56
      - Updated 16 Nov 2016 19:03
      Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak (L) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attend a joint press conference after bilateral talks at the latter's official residence in Tokyo on Nov 16, 2016. (Photo: AFP/Kimimasa Mayama/Pool)
      
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      TOKYO: Malaysian leader Najib Razak expressed hope on Wednesday (Nov 16) that Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe can persuade US President-elect Donald Trump of the merits of a languishing Pacific free trade deal.
      
      The plea from Najib came a day before Abe is set to meet Trump in New York and as Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also reiterated to Japan's leader the economic and strategic importance of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
      
      Asian leaders are scrambling to save the TPP, championed by US President Barack Obama but which Trump has vowed to scrap, claiming that the 12-nation deal would harm the US economy and costs jobs.
      
      Najib and Abe, after their summit in Tokyo, told reporters that their nations are moving ahead toward ratifying the TPP.
      
      Besides Australia, Japan, Malaysia and the United States, the accord also includes Brunei, Canada, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
      
      The group accounts for an enormous 40 per cent of the global economy, and was envisaged as a counterweight to Asian giant China's expanding economic influence.
      
      "We hope that the TPP agreement will come into force," Najib told reporters with Abe by his side. "That is why I told Prime Minister Abe that his meeting ... with President-elect Donald Trump is very much awaited by all TPP countries."
      
      Najib added that he hopes the "strategic importance of the TPP will be recognised by the incoming administration as well as by all participating countries".
      
      Abe's office announced that he separately spoke with Australia's Turnbull by phone to discuss the TPP.
      
      Turnbull highlighted his shared resolve with Japan to work with the incoming US administration, Abe's office said in a statement.
      
      "TPP's significance goes beyond setting economic rules for the Asia-Pacific region, but also has strategic significance of securing peace and stability of the region by countries that share basic values," Abe told Turnbull.
      
      Abe and other leaders of TPP countries will caucus on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima, Peru that begins this week.
      
      - AFP/ec
    - US manufacturing groups urge Trump to think hard about trade threats
      - Posted 16 Nov 2016 08:45
      U.S. President-elect Donald Trump (L) gives a thumbs up sign as he walks with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 10, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
      
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      WASHINGTON: America's manufacturers are urging President-elect Donald Trump to back off from his most threatening trade rhetoric and pursue a more nuanced approach to trade with China and Mexico, avoiding unilateral tariff actions and focusing on negotiations.
      
      Corporate lobbying groups, some chief executives and pro-trade lawmakers also say they eventually even hope to persuade Trump that free-trade agreements can help grow the U.S. economy and create jobs.
      
      For now, these groups are bracing for higher trade tensions with China and potential changes to the 22-year-old North American Free Trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.
      
      Trump has said he would quit NAFTA unless it is renegotiated to his satisfaction and that he would declare China a currency manipulator to force negotiations for better trade terms. His suggestions that his administration could impose 45 percent across-the-board tariffs on goods from China have drawn threats of retaliation by Chinese state media against U.S. soybeans and companies such as Boeing Co and Apple Inc .
      
      "I think it's easy to paint this is a trade war versus nothing," said Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a group representing steel and other basic industries that has argued in favor of tougher trade remedies to combat Chinese imports.
      
      "I'm of the belief that there is a lot of space between our current policy and an all-out trade war," Paul said, adding that he would like to see Trump be more proactive on enforcing existing trade rules.
      
      While U.S. steelmakers have been successful in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against Chinese competitors that have led to substantial U.S. duties, consumer products makers often are reluctant to pursue such cases due to the cost, complexity and potential retaliation.
      
      The Commerce Department under the Trump administration could launch more of investigations on its own of targeted U.S. industries, Paul said.
      
      Paul and Business Roundtable President John Engler, who represents chief executive officers of the largest U.S. companies, said they would like to see Trump take steps to boost U.S. growth by reforming taxes and embark on a negotiating effort similar to that of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s to stem the tide of imports.
      
      The 1985 Plaza Accord brought down the highflying dollar's value against currencies from Japan, Germany and other major trading partners, helping to quell protectionist sentiment in Congress and encouraging foreign producers to build more factories in the United States.
      
      In renegotiating NAFTA, manufacturing groups had a clear message to the Trump team: first, do no harm to American exports.
      
      "There are 2 million manufacturing jobs in this country that are dependent on our trade relationship with Canada and Mexico," said Linda Dempsey, vice president of international affairs for the National Association of Manufacturers. "And so as we go forward, we certainly don't want to put those jobs in jeopardy."
      
      Ford Motor Co CEO Mark Fields said on Tuesday that the automaker would proceed with plans to shift production of its Focus small car to Mexico, a move that drew fire from Trump during the campaign.
      
      "We've laid out our corporate strategy based on the trade agreements," Fields told CNBC, adding that a 35 percent tariff on imports from Mexico would hurt the entire U.S. auto industry.
      
      "Obviously Congress and the president could always look at everything, but they have to keep in mind both the production and the supply chains are deeply integrated into the three countries and that integration also supports a lot of American jobs," Fields said.
      
      In a message to employees after Trump's victory last week, General Electric Co CEO Jeff Immelt said: "We believe in the importance of globalization and investment."
      
      (Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
      
      - Reuters
    - Pacific rim leaders to debate future of trade post-Trump
      - Posted 18 Nov 2016 16:15
      - Updated 18 Nov 2016 19:25
      U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) and Peruvian Foreign Minister Ricardo Luna Mendoza (L) before their bilateral meeting at the APEC Ministers Summit in Lima, Peru November 17, 2016. REUTERS/Mark Ralston/Pool
      
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      LIMA: Leaders of Pacific rim nations began gathering in Peru on Friday seeking to salvage hopes for regional trade as prospects of a Donald Trump presidency sounded a possible death knell for the U.S-led Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pact.
      
      Discussions between the 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit over the weekend will be dominated by fears of rising anti-globalisation sentiment in the West, where many worry about losing jobs to low-wage economies, and China's burgeoning role in global trade.
      
      "The leaders will meet on Sunday and the first thing will be this very issue (anti-globalisation)," Alan Bollard, the APEC secretariat's Executive Director, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
      
      U.S. President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Russian President Vladimir Putin are due to attend the summit that brings together leaders whose economies represent 57 percent of global gross domestic product.
      
      While campaigning, President-elect Trump had labelled the TPP "a disaster" and his populist stance on trade issues in some ways echoed sentiments heard in Britain, when it voted in June to quit the European Union.
      
      Though Obama championed the TPP, his administration has stopped trying to win congressional approval for the deal that was signed by 12 economies in the Americas and Asia-Pacific, but excluded China.
      
      The outgoing U.S. president had seen the TPP as a focal point of his "pivot to Asia" strategy, and a chance to set trade rules in the region before China could.
      
      Despite Trump's antipathy towards the TPP, Bollard said it was premature to write it off, but he expected it to be shelved "for a year or so."
      
      "I don't think we'll hear a lot on TPP for a while. We've got to wait for the US administration to get it through Congress, be clearer about its policies, which we're not clear on," Bollard said.
      
      China's Xi is expected to sell an alternate vision for regional trade by promoting the Beijing-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which excludes the United States.
      
      OPEN TO OPTIONS
      
      Summit host Peru is one of the world's most open economies.
      
      On Thursday, Peru's trade minister and his Indonesian counterpart agreed to start negotiations for a bilateral free trade deal, potentially adding to more than 20 such agreements Peru already has.
      
      Peru has already said it would like to join a Beijing-backed trade pact, though it hopes the TPP will eventually come to fruition as well.
      
      Vice President Mercedes Araoz said several options would be discussed among APEC members in coming days, including joining RCEP.
      
      Others like Japan have expressed interest in continuing TPP negotiations without the United States, she added.
      
      "We are not going to start negotiations right away, but we probably will have several paths we could take, always with the commitment of having a free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific region," Araoz told journalists.
      
      Trump loomed large over bilateral talks taking place before the leaders hold their session on Sunday, Australia's Trade Minister Steve Ciobo told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.
      
      “The American people have had their say..." he said. "It doesn’t impact on my advocacy of trade to pursue Australia’s national interest. I want trade deals that are good for Australia."
      
      Ciobo said he hoped negotiations on TPP would continue, but in the meantime believed the Chinese-led agreement presented a big opportunity.
      
      "If we are able to successfully land it over the coming months or the year ahead it would create again a terrific opportunity for Australian businesses to export through a common set of rules across the region.”
      
      (This story corrects to President Vladimir Putin in paragraph 4)
      
      (Additional reporting by Jamie Freed in Sydney; Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
      
      - Reuters
    - TPP delayed for now, but countries need to press on with free trade: PM Lee
      - By Liyana Othman
      - Posted 18 Nov 2016 23:02
      - Updated 18 Nov 2016 23:10
      Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong speaks during a joint press conference with US President Barack Obama as part of a State Visit in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, August 2, 2016. (SAUL LOEB / AFP)
      
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      LIMA, Peru: While the fate of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) hangs in the balance, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said there are other pathways to the broader Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) - a trade pact involving all 21 APEC economies.
      
      He cited the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the ASEAN Economic Community as examples of "building blocks drawing economies towards an eventual FTAAP".
      
      Speaking at a panel discussion at the APEC CEO Summit in Lima on Friday (Nov 18), Mr Lee stressed that to ensure continued global growth, economies must press on with free trade, and pursue cooperation and integration amid political pressures.
      
      Pointing to events like Brexit, the resurgence of far-right political parties in Europe and the reactions of lower- and middle-income white voters in the recent US presidential election, he said: “We are seeing a nativist response and reaction in developed countries by those who blame globalisation for making them worse off.”
      
      Mr Lee added: “I still believe that trade liberalisation is a win-win proposition, but I understand why there has been a reaction against trade in many countries, and the political difficulties of a pro-trade agenda. Each country has to make sure that the benefits of trade are shared with all.”
      
      Mr Lee noted that over the last 26 years, closer integration has brought about prosperity for APEC economies. He urged leaders to "do our best to hold on to the progress we have achieved, which has taken decades, and not do things that will hurt ourselves and lead to retaliation, undoing the progress that we have achieved over the past two decades.”
      
      Growth remains subdued, acknowleged Mr Lee, who cited an APEC CEO survey released on Thursday which showed that only 28 per cent of all APEC business leaders are confident about growth.
      
      Despite this, there are still “bright spots” around the world like Asia, where economies are developing, partly due to a rising middle class and rapid urbanisation.
      
      Mr Lee highlighted China and its One Belt One Road initiative, and India’s momentum under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership.
      
      He noted that exploiting technology and globalisation are still the “most effective” ways to improve lives, even though it must be recognised that they cause disruption, and result in both winners and losers.
      
      Mr Lee said this is where governments need to step in - by creating inclusive policies like affordable healthcare and investing in lifelong learning, especially as workers now need to “unlearn and learn to stay relevant”.
      
      “In the midst of these worries, the tendency is to get caught up in the news headlines and the sense of uncertainty,” said Mr Lee. “But I think if we take a step back and focus on the fundamentals … that’s how we can deliver growth and improve the lives of our people,” he said.
      
      - CNA/hs
    - Obama urges nations not to give in to isolationist impulses
      
      JOSH LEDERMANNovember 17, 2016
      
      Raw: Obama in Athens, Tours Parthenon
      
      ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Standing in democracy's birthplace, President Barack Obama on Wednesday issued a parting plea to world leaders not to let the fear of globalization tugging at Europe and the U.S. pull them away from their core democratic values. He argued it wasn't too late for a course correction.
      
      On his last foreign trip as president, Obama has repeatedly tried to draw lessons from Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election, hoping it can serve as wake-up call in the U.S. and abroad. Conceding that many feel left behind by globalization, Obama said there was an understandable impulse toward isolationism and that if people feel their futures are at risk, "they'll push back."
      
      "People have to know that they're being heard," Obama said in a speech to the Greek people in Athens. But, he added, "We can't look backward for answers. We have to look forward."
      
      While fewer people in the U.S. are looking to Obama for direction now that his successor has been chosen and his agenda largely rebuked, Obama has retained significant clout abroad. His message Wednesday appeared aimed at other world leaders facing pressures of nationalist movements and economic anxiety, exemplified by Britain's recent vote to leave the European Union.
      
      From Greece, Obama took a short flight to Germany, which has emerged as one of the strongest voices for preserving a unified, inclusive Europe. Yet even German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces her own threat from a nationalist right-wing movement, fueled in part by anger over her generous policy toward resettling Syrian migrants pouring into Europe.
      
      "We cannot sever the connections that have enabled so much progress," Obama said.
      
      Obama's argument centered on the notion that economic inequality, while a growing problem, can be addressed without a full rejection of globalization. Rather, he said it demanded a "course correction."
      
      "In the years and decades ahead, our countries have to make sure that the benefits of an integrated global economy are more broadly shared by more people and that the negative impacts are squarely addressed."
      
      Obama argued nations must strengthen alliances and expressed his confidence that the U.S. would remain loyal to NATO despite Trump's suggestions to the contrary during the 2016 presidential campaign.
      
      He elicited nervous chuckles as he acknowledged that he and the president-elect "could not be more different." But in a message of reassurance, Obama argued that democracy is bigger than any one person.
      
      "As long as we retain our faith in democracy, as long as we retain our faith in the people, as long as we don't waver from those central principles that ensure a lively, open debate, then our future will be ok," Obama said.
      
      And to listeners at home fearful about Trump, he offered a path out of the wilderness, albeit a long and winding one.
      
      "Any action by a president, or any result of an election, or any legislation that is proven flawed can be corrected through the process of democracy," Obama said.
      
      Though Obama's trip to Greece was planned before the election results were known, the White House hoped the setting would form a powerful reminder of the basic tenets of democracy: fair elections, a free press and tolerance for ethnic, religious and sexual minorities.
      
      Before his speech, Obama climbed up the Acropolis, the ancient citadel that serves as a monument to free thought and artistic expression. He strolled through the Propylaea, the complex's monumental gateway, and gazed up at the famed Parthenon temple dating to the 5th century B.C.
      
      The entire site was closed to the public for Obama's visit, which has played out amid stringent security measures. Demonstrations were banned in parts of Athens, and road and subway stations were shut down for the first official visit of a sitting U.S. president since Bill Clinton came in 1999.
      
      Obama said concepts like minority rights and equality under the law "grew out of this rocky soil" in a democratic project not yet complete. He said inequality, on more vivid display due to widespread technology, now posed one of the biggest threats to democratic nations, their stability and prosperity.
      
      Even in Greece, there were parallels to the deep divisions now on display in America. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras won elections last year on what critics say was a populist platform, though one on the left of the spectrum. He pushed his formerly small party to the forefront by telling Greeks weary from six years of financial crisis that he would reject austerity measures imposed in return for bailouts.
      
      But after the near-collapse of negotiations with Greece's creditors, Tsipras performed a political about-face: He signed up to a new bailout and more austerity to prevent his country being forced out of the euro.
      
      Greece's government hoped Obama would help persuade some of Greece's more reluctant creditors to grant debt relief — a message they hoped he'd stress in Berlin — and also pressure other European countries to share more of the burden of the migrant crisis. Appearing receptive to Greece's woes, Obama repeated his belief that debt relief should be granted.
      
      ___
      
      Associated Press writer Elena Becatoros contributed to this report.