Monday, November 10, 2008 2:00 PM

Obama Doesn't Wait To Begin Diplomacy

By PATRICK B. PEXTON, National Journal deputy editor

As if he needed it, President-elect Barack Obama got a quick lesson in the delicacies of diplomacy as he continued calling world leaders on Friday and through a working weekend. He has now spoken with 18 heads of state or government.

On Saturday, Obama called Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese leader Hu Jintao and promptly stepped into the missile defense issue that is making Russia upset and Poland nervous.

After Obama spoke with Poland's top two leaders on Friday, President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Kaczynski put out a statement indicating that Obama had expressed support for the missile defense program that President Bush has pushed to install in Poland and the Czech Republic. That caused Obama's camp to put out a statement clarifying that the president-elect had not committed to the new missile shield, which is designed to protect Europe from long-range missiles fired from Iran or the Middle East. Russia strongly opposes the system and on the day after the U.S. election threatened to put short-range missiles on the border of Europe if the U.S. system goes forward.

"President Kaczynski raised missile defense, but President-elect Obama made no commitment on it," Denis McDonough, Obama's senior foreign policy adviser, said in a statement. "His position is as it was throughout the campaign, that he supports deploying a missile defense system when the technology is proved to be workable."

After Obama's subsequent call to Russia's President Medvedev on Saturday, no mention of the missile defense system was made by officials for either side, but the Kremlin did put out a statement saying the call was cordial and that both men agreed to meet as early as possible.

Chinese officials said that Hu and Obama spoke of the importance of the U.S.-China relationship to the world, and that Hu pointedly raised the issue of Taiwan with the president-elect. The Chinese have objected to a U.S. arms package to Taiwan recently approved by the Bush administration.

Obama also spoke to Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, a call that was greeted with hosannas in the Pakistan press, in part because rival India's leader, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has not yet been phoned by the president-elect. Statements issued by Pakistani officials said that Obama and Zardari agreed that they would continue to cooperate in the war on terrorism and that the two men agreed to meet as soon as possible. Pundits in the Indian press were outraged that Obama reached out to Zardari before Singh, but the Indian government put out statements that were more even-handed and patient. They noted that Singh was traveling in the Persian Gulf and a convenient time could not be arranged for a call.

Obama telephoned Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Friday, just one day after the Italian leader set off a storm in Europe when he called Obama "young, handsome and even tanned." The Italian and French press had a field day with that remark, calling it racist, and Italians of all stripes sent e-mails to Obama apologizing on behalf of their gaffe-prone prime minister. Carla Bruni, the Italian-born wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, also spoke out against the remark, saying that at this moment she was proud to be French. Bruni recently became a naturalized French citizen.

"When I hear Silvio Berlusconi... joke about the fact that Obama is 'always tanned,' that makes me feel funny," she said in an interview published Sunday. "We'll put it down to humor. But often, I am very happy that I have become French." Bruni has said that the election of Obama should spur the French to do more to eradicate racism in their own society.

Here is the list of 18 leaders Obama has phoned:

• Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
• Chinese President Hu Jintao
• Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
• Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
• Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari
• Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk
• Saudi Arabian King Abdullah
• Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
• Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
• Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper
• French President Nicolas Sarkozy
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel
• Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
• Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso
• Mexican President Felipe Calderon
• South Korean President Lee Myung-bak
• British Prime Minister Gordon Brown

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