U.S. President Barack Obama will not be attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit (APEC-2012) in Russia’s Vladivostok, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said on Monday.
“I'm not aware of any foreign travel that we’d be taking, with the exception of the Mexico trip, before November, but I’ll have to take the question,” Carney told a press briefing.
The question concerning Obama’s participation in the 2012 APEC summit came in the wake of the news that Russian President Vladimir Putin decided against participating in the G8 summit in the U.S. on May 18-19. Former president and current Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will go in Putin's place.
“The President spoke with President Putin and will be meeting with President Putin at the G20 in Mexico and looks very much forward to that. The fact of the matter is we have a comprehensive relationship with Russia that's built on working together in areas where we agree and that has borne significant successes, that approach, and then be very clear about where we disagree but not letting those disagreements undermine the overall relationship,” Carney said.
U.S. Obama earlier said that he understood Putin's decision not to attend the summit and welcomed Medvedev's participation.
The G8 summit will be held at Camp David, the U.S. presidential country residence, on May 18-19.
