Barack Obama in Dar es
Salaam. The president insisted the US was behaving no differently from
other countries. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Barack Obama sought to defuse growing international tension on Monday over fresh revelations of US surveillance programmes on its allies by claiming European countries are also spying on him.
Amid an outcry among EU leaders at alleged diplomatic espionage including the bugging of embassies and parliament buildings, the president insisted the US was behaving no differently from other countries.
"We should stipulate that every intelligence service – not just ours, but every European intelligence service, every Asian intelligence service, wherever there's an intelligence service … here's one thing that they're going to be doing: they're going to be trying to understand the world better and what's going on in world capitals," he told a press conference during a long-scheduled trip Tanzania. "If that weren't the case, then there'd be no use for an intelligence service."
"And I guarantee you that in European capitals, there are people who are interested in, if not what I had for breakfast, at least what my talking points might be should I end up meeting with their leaders. That's how intelligence services operate," Obama added.
Nevertheless, he acknowledged concern over the revelations in Der Spiegel and the Guardian and said the National Security Agency would evaluate the claims and will then inform allies about the allegations.
"What I've said to my team is: take a look at this article, figure out what they may or may not be talking about, and then we'll communicate to our allies appropriately," Obama said.
As the White House seeks to contain the diplomatic fallout from the controversy, Obama also sought to reassure fellow world leaders that the scale of US espionage against friendly nations did not signify a lack of trust.
"I'm the end user of this kind of intelligence," he said. "And if I want to know what Chancellor Merkel is thinking, I will call Chancellor Merkel. If I want to know President Hollande is thinking on a particular issue, I'll call President Hollande. And if I want to know what, you know, David Cameron's thinking, I call David Cameron. Ultimately, you know, we work so closely together that there's almost no information that's not shared between our various countries."
Earlier, secretary of state John Kerry, who is also seeing his foreign travel overshadowed by the continuing revelations, confirmed that he had spoken to EU foreign affairs representative Catherine Ashton on the matter.
"Lady Ashton did indeed raise it with me today, and we agreed to stay in touch. I agreed to find out exactly what the situation is, and I would get back to her," said Kerry at a press conference in Brunei.
"I will say that every country in the world that is engaged in international affairs of national security undertakes lots of activities to protect its national security, and all kinds of information contributes to that, and all I know is that that is not unusual for lots of nations."
White House officials insisted the controversy would not affect wider international relations amid reports that European leaders could block trade talks in retaliation.
Talking to reporters aboard Air Force One, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said: "I think that at the end of the day, we co-operate with Europe on so many issues and are so closely aligned in terms of our interests in the world that those relationships are going to stay strong and we're going to cooperate with them on security issues, economic issues and, frankly, obviously also share a set of democratic values with them that I think can transcend any controversy."
"We have very close intelligence-sharing relationships with these governments insofar as their questions and concerns raised about these various reports we can discuss that with the Europeans through those close relationships that we have," he added.
Kerry also tried to limit the impact that disputes over extraditing Edward Snowden, the source of the leaks, might have on relations with China and Russia.
"With respect to the conversation with the Chinese foreign minister, I think it's safe to say that the United States of America – the administration, the Obama administration – believes that our friends in China could, in fact, have made a difference here. But we have a lot of issues that we're dealing with right now," he said.
"So life in international relationships is often complicated by the fact that you have many things you have to work on simultaneously, and so we will continue to do that, even as we are obviously concerned about what happened with Mr Snowden."
President Obama declined to elaborate on reports that Russia had reached an agreement with the US on how to handle the impasse over Snowden's fate and White House sources insisted there had been no change in the co-operation between the two nations.
"We are hopeful that the Russian government makes decisions based on the normal procedures regarding international travel and the normal interactions that law enforcement has," Obama said.
Amid an outcry among EU leaders at alleged diplomatic espionage including the bugging of embassies and parliament buildings, the president insisted the US was behaving no differently from other countries.
"We should stipulate that every intelligence service – not just ours, but every European intelligence service, every Asian intelligence service, wherever there's an intelligence service … here's one thing that they're going to be doing: they're going to be trying to understand the world better and what's going on in world capitals," he told a press conference during a long-scheduled trip Tanzania. "If that weren't the case, then there'd be no use for an intelligence service."
"And I guarantee you that in European capitals, there are people who are interested in, if not what I had for breakfast, at least what my talking points might be should I end up meeting with their leaders. That's how intelligence services operate," Obama added.
Nevertheless, he acknowledged concern over the revelations in Der Spiegel and the Guardian and said the National Security Agency would evaluate the claims and will then inform allies about the allegations.
"What I've said to my team is: take a look at this article, figure out what they may or may not be talking about, and then we'll communicate to our allies appropriately," Obama said.
As the White House seeks to contain the diplomatic fallout from the controversy, Obama also sought to reassure fellow world leaders that the scale of US espionage against friendly nations did not signify a lack of trust.
"I'm the end user of this kind of intelligence," he said. "And if I want to know what Chancellor Merkel is thinking, I will call Chancellor Merkel. If I want to know President Hollande is thinking on a particular issue, I'll call President Hollande. And if I want to know what, you know, David Cameron's thinking, I call David Cameron. Ultimately, you know, we work so closely together that there's almost no information that's not shared between our various countries."
Earlier, secretary of state John Kerry, who is also seeing his foreign travel overshadowed by the continuing revelations, confirmed that he had spoken to EU foreign affairs representative Catherine Ashton on the matter.
"Lady Ashton did indeed raise it with me today, and we agreed to stay in touch. I agreed to find out exactly what the situation is, and I would get back to her," said Kerry at a press conference in Brunei.
"I will say that every country in the world that is engaged in international affairs of national security undertakes lots of activities to protect its national security, and all kinds of information contributes to that, and all I know is that that is not unusual for lots of nations."
White House officials insisted the controversy would not affect wider international relations amid reports that European leaders could block trade talks in retaliation.
Talking to reporters aboard Air Force One, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said: "I think that at the end of the day, we co-operate with Europe on so many issues and are so closely aligned in terms of our interests in the world that those relationships are going to stay strong and we're going to cooperate with them on security issues, economic issues and, frankly, obviously also share a set of democratic values with them that I think can transcend any controversy."
"We have very close intelligence-sharing relationships with these governments insofar as their questions and concerns raised about these various reports we can discuss that with the Europeans through those close relationships that we have," he added.
Kerry also tried to limit the impact that disputes over extraditing Edward Snowden, the source of the leaks, might have on relations with China and Russia.
"With respect to the conversation with the Chinese foreign minister, I think it's safe to say that the United States of America – the administration, the Obama administration – believes that our friends in China could, in fact, have made a difference here. But we have a lot of issues that we're dealing with right now," he said.
"So life in international relationships is often complicated by the fact that you have many things you have to work on simultaneously, and so we will continue to do that, even as we are obviously concerned about what happened with Mr Snowden."
President Obama declined to elaborate on reports that Russia had reached an agreement with the US on how to handle the impasse over Snowden's fate and White House sources insisted there had been no change in the co-operation between the two nations.
"We are hopeful that the Russian government makes decisions based on the normal procedures regarding international travel and the normal interactions that law enforcement has," Obama said.
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