Friday, November 7, 2008 2:00 PM

Obama Reaches Out To Friends Abroad

By PATRICK B. PEXTON, National Journal deputy editor

President-elect Obama spent more than two hours calling nine foreign leaders on Thursday, thanking them for having phoned to express their congratulations on his election. The list is interesting in that all of those he chose to call back first are close U.S. allies, and not U.S. competitors such as President Hu Jintao of China or President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia.

Medvedev greeted the president-elect with a saber-rattling speech on Wednesday, threatening to put short-range missiles right along Russia's border with Europe should the U.S. continue developing its missile defense system with the Poles and Czechs. The Russian press today spoke in miffed tones that Obama hadn't called Medvedev.

According to press accounts in foreign capitals, Obama's longest conversation was with French President Nicolas Sarkozy; the two spoke for 30 minutes, when most of the other calls were characterized as lasting 10 to 15 minutes. That South Korea's president Lee Myung-bak was on the list was a bit of a surprise, even to Lee himself, as South Korea is often put on a second-tier list of U.S. allies -- although its economy is now the world's 11th-largest. Press reports in Seoul described the conversation as warm, and officials said that Obama expressed admiration for South Korea's accomplishments and indicated familiarity and fondness for Korean food, particularly the fiery cabbage dish kimchee and the beef dish bulgogi.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia described his conversation with Obama as particularly warm and revealed that he and Obama had had several conversations throughout the presidential campaign.

Several foreign press reports suggested the possibility that Obama would try to meet with some of the heads of states in Washington prior to President Bush's economic summit, which begins Nov. 15, but no word from the Obama camp on if that's a possibility yet.

Three subjects consistently came up in the conversations, according to press reports: the worldwide financial crisis, the war in Afghanistan and global climate change, perhaps an indicator of Obama's and his interlocutors' priorities for 2009.

Here's the list of foreign heads of state that Obama phoned:

1. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia
2. Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada
3. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France
4. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany
5. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel
6. Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan
7. President Felipe Calderon of Mexico
8. President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea
9. Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom