coverage. the president expected to speak live just a few minutes from now, he has on a tour since monday. our white house correspondent mike viqueira has been traveling with the president from day up with, he is live now in

brussels. mike gives us a head's up as to what we expect the president to say. >> well, the president -- this is a prescheduled meeting, del, that's what we should note first off, and there were other items besides ukraine on that agenda. this is something of a special occasion, the president has never been here to brussels for a summit of this type. there is a trade agreement on the table between the eu and the united states, there are outstanding issues including iran and what is going on in syria, very much a concern to all, but you are absolutely right, this has been three crucial days of talks between president obama and some of the united states closest allies from around the world, to try to come up on a united front on sanctions, not only for punishment, but to try to deter

russia from moving further into eastern ukraine. the troops are on the boarder very ominously. the president saying yesterday that he doesn't think it's a done deal that russia is going to move into -- into ukraine. but just in case he does, he gathered the g-7 in the netherlands on monday they are threatening sanctions against brood sectors of the russian economy. the problem all along is trying to convince europe to come on, because it is far more dependant on russia in particular, oil and natural gas being shipped here to europe, and particularly eastern europe, and that is part of the negotiation here. the europeans would like to have more american energy, the united states becoming the world's largest producer of oil,

and the europeans want to become less dependant on russia, and for that they are looking to the united states. >> and mike, the president pushing back against his critics here in the united states specifically former presidential candidate mitt romney indicating that he is more concerned about a nuclear bomb going off in manhattan than he is about russia being a security threat in the united states. elaborate more on what he had to say about that. >> right, which provoked the inevitable picture on the cover this morning with a mushroom cloud over the center of manhattan. but republicans have been hitting president obama over the course of the last weeks since of the advent of this situation,

when mitt romney said that russia was the number one political foe of the united states. the president knocked it down yesterday, and he knocked it down again today calling them not a world power, but he said russia is a regional power that is threatening its neighbors not out of a position of strength, but out of a position of weakness, he was asked about that mitt romney comment yesterday and that was his response. and it really did raise a lot of eyebrows. del? >> mike as always standing by. ukraine's military says it will get out of crimea. on tuesday the parliament responding to the loss of crimea by voting to replace its acting defense minister. jennifer glasse is live in crimea, and tell us about

tuesday's action by parliament, and what is next now for ukraine's military. >> well, del, the then interim defense minister in kiev tendered his resignation saying what hand here in crimea means he couldn't stay on. he only had the job a month del, them parliament accepted that resignation, and moved quickly to appoint a new defense minister. he has some experience here in crimea, he has served about 70 miles away from here in sevastopol. all of that comes as the last ukraine ship fell to the russians. the russians disabled the ship and boarded it. the captain made a deal saying they could fly the ukrainian flag flying overnight, and would leave with it flying this

morning, and then the russians could raise the flag as they have done before. >> and those ukrainian troops getting out, but is the withdraw possess going smoothly? >> it is not. right now it is kind of in a stop and start, and the mill stair people here are quite frustrated. they got the orders to move, but they still don't know exactly how they are going to do it. we heard there was going to be a gathering point to get together and train cars to set aside for people to leave from here and other pointeds, and then we got another note saying it had been delayed until tomorrow. the former ukrainian bases that are now russian bases, they are taking down names of sailors and service men who want to stay and those who want to leave. nobody is exactly sure how they are going to get off of the peninsula, and what they are

going to be able to take with them. a lot of these people are packing up their whole lives. their children are in school, they are not even sure exactly where their next assignment is going to be. so a very trying for them. >> that being said, then, what is life like now under russian rule in crimea, and how are those pro-ukrainian people in crimea being treated? are they facing reprisals? >> early on there were fistfights in the street. right now things a little bit less transition, but you still see people lining up at banks, because they want to get their money out. and a lot of uncertainty, because a lot of things have to change. >> jennifer glasse joining us live from sevastopol in crimea.

is jenks traub is a writer for the mourn policy magazine, and nina is a associate professor at the new school. i want to thank you both for joining us this morning. mr. toub, the president spoke at the nuclear security summit yesterday. i want you to take a listen. >> what we can bring to bear are the legal arguments, the diplomatic arguments, the political pressure, the economic sanctions that are already in place, to try to make sure there is a cost to the process. >> as you hear that, mr. traub, is the president doing enough? >> yes, he didn't say as he said before to undo what putin did. >> but he said it is not a done deal. >> sure he knows it's a done deal. everybody in the white house understands that crimea -- first

of all it was too easy, but also it was too central for russian goals for that to be undone. and it would be much more dangerous for putin to second troops across the eastern seas. that's is the big fear. because once he has done that, then suddenly russian trips are facing westwards towards nato allies. the whole question is what can the west do now that will seem like a powerful enough deterrent that putin will think it is not in his interest to do that. >> the deputy chair of duma, and others sending letters to the heads of poland, and other countries, urging them to take control of what we now consider modern-day ukraine. parts of this region used to

belong to poland, romania, and hungary. is he just trying to provoke more interest? >> i think so. the party is being lead by people who are very much on the right of the agenda, and really believe that russia should take over whole world. so for them it's just a counter balance to putin still deciding whether he is going to go into ukraine or not going to. he will keep the world wondering for a number of probably weeks or months, and then another side is to say by the way if we decide to go we can go and we will have support of other people. >> we have a lot more to catch up on, and we're going to

continue our dialogue in just a moment. we're going to take a break. we have mike viqueira and jennifer glasse standing by live. and we are awaiting word from president obama who will be speaking live in brussels, belgium. we'll be bright back.

welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters in new york. this is continuing coverage of the president's trip to brussels, belgium and the european union. a our jennifer glasse is live in sevastopol, and this has not

been a smooth transition. >> it hasn't been an entirely rough transition, but it has been so terribly fast, del. a week and a half ago people hadn't chosen, it was only independent one day before we saw russian forces start to take over base by base, and while basically it seems very much a done deal here, and a lot of people have gone about their daily lives with not much difference, but still there are a lot of changes that have to be made. igor kiselyov is looking for a buyer in so -- sevastopol. how much will it be? sadly, i can't put a price on it, because with the change between russia and ukraine the rules just aren't clear yet. and that could mean a difference

of $25,000 or more on its asking price which is around $200,000. real estate agent irina rundnevya saying all she can do is wait for things to become clear. >> translator: we still don't know what the russian rules are yet saturday. but i think we will know soon. >> reporter: she doesn't even know what interest rates will be. her firm is selling dozens of apartments all over the city. now it's just a waiting game she says. russia wasted no time on taking control of crimea. on the streets a sign says we're one russia. it doesn't feel like a lot has changed here, the shops are open and people are going about their daily lives, but there is still a lot of work to be done. and much of it falls on

officials like nina. people ask her about pensions, property, new passports. no one she says not one person from sevastopol or anyone who wants to stay will be thrown out. everyone is welcome here. >> translator: i thanked them for the sanctions she says, because it will force us to take care of ourselves faster. >> reporter: ivan kamilov is also working to make the transition smother. >> translator: the ukrainian government won't give us access to registries. they just won't give them to us. >> reporter: he says ukraine is also withholding health and court records, proof he claims ukraine doesn't care about the

people of crimea. as officials here work to bring sevastopol in line with russia, a new generation is practicing old traditions. and there's an unagainsy to get through all of that democracy. they need to know whether tourists will need visas, what kind of visas, the economy is very much dependent on that. so not just wanting to get back to their lives being able to buy and sell appoints, but also knowing their livelihoods will be preserved as the summer season begins. >> jennifer stand by. we continue to await word from the president right now. in the meantime i want to go back to our two guests in studio, james trob, and nina at the new school. nina we were talking at the

commercial break, and you maintain up with of the things we seem to be missing when it comes to vladimir putin is that he has a terrible height complex, and you think that president obama being african american is a problem. >> i do think that putin does belong to the category of small men who do have that, especially because he is the president of a very large country, so his height becomes an issue, but also he feels that he is a small man that runs over that incredible big space. i think that russians just by -- by nature, slightly kind of ethnically challenged. it's a homo genius country despite -- >> what is the difference for him? >> it's a difference for him because in some ways -- but also

putin is a conservative leader, and he is very much molded in the soviet union, and there is an important observation -- they dealt much better with republican presidents than democratic presidents. so when barack obama comes in with all of his liberal ideas plus being african american and being tall, putin has an issue that. >> james you didn't disagree. >> no, i was reminding nina something that she remembers well, which the former president of jordan has a tremendous ability to get under putin's skin, he once called him willie putin. and he later said he didn't say that, but i think that's a very plausible idea. >> we want to go more now into

what is appearing to be the world's new way of dealing with crisis, and that being economic sake -- sanctions. take a listen to this. >> russia's actions are a problem. they don't pose the number one national security threat to the united states. i continue to be much more concerned when it comes to our security with the prospect of a nuclear weapon going off in manhattan. >> based on what we were talking about, do you think this is a way of tweaking the president, trying to get under vladimir putin's skin just a little bit, trying to make him a little bit more irrational. >> i think this is a step back from the original tweaking, sort of getting under putin's skin. because this time around president obama [ inaudible ] which i never thought it was a

good idea when he called him the kid at the back of the room. because you don't want to insult a president. this is what putin wants to hear is that the world thinks of russia as a regional power, and it is still a regional power. >> i want to add something to that point, del, which is obama does not want to spend the next two years of his presidency focused on russia. this is a guy when you talk about a pivot in asia, he got very upset, no, i'm pivoting away from the middle east. now i think he is concerned that the next two years will be consumed by a problem he never saw before. >> and i also want to go back to another point which is when we focus on world leaders, we

sometimes forget about the population that they lead. when crimea became part of russia they were celebrating on the streets of russia and crimea. how does the russian populous, james, view the actions of the west with regards to vladimir putin who is now more popular than he has been in quite sometime. >> russia does not have a free media. there are a small number of people who are tuned in to the western media and other forms but most people live inside the kind of conspiratorial fantasy that have been propagated about russia's relationship to the west. so at least the taking of crimea was tremendously popular for lots of reasons. and i think that will continue to be the case unless and until the russian people see that there are serious consequences for having pursued this vision.

>> and mike viqueira i want to bring you into this conversation, because is it not true that the number one concern right now among the european leaders is not only the russian invasion in crimea, but also the sense that if not russia for energy, who? >> well, you know, it's an interesting point, del, and picking up on the thread of the conversation that you have had with our guests on stage there, i think you really have to read between the lines. and i think it was relatively obvious what the president was saying yesterday in terms of crimea and it being a done deal or not a done deal, although when he used that phrase he was talking about putin's intentions in crimea. he said is there a way to compel vladimir putin to get out of crimea. the sanctions imposed in response to that is punishment of the invasion of crimea were

really personalized, those close to putin, the oligarchs, freezing their assets and things of that nature, and the president said there are no simple solutions. and if you read between the lines, what the president is saying is that may be a lost cause and now we have to turn our attention to deterring russian's ambitions. and so the president calls the g-7 together no longer the g-8 of course, in -- in the netherlands they get around the table and they say if the -- if president putin were to invade eastern and southern ukraine, if we were to expand this land grab, we're going to impose sanctions on a brood section of the economy. now if the rubber hits the road

and the unfortunate occurrence happens, there is no guarantee they are follow through on those sanctions. and it was the president in 2009 shortly after coming into office who said the g-7, then the g-8 process was archaic, and emphasized an expansion to the g-20, which we have seen, but it was the g-7 he was relying on this week to rattle that saber. >> mike, i want to remind our ahhed yen that we are awaiting word from the president who will be speaking in brussels, belgium, but as we await, the president made it clear yesterday that the foreign leaders are now studying the sanctions to determine where they are going to hurt, who is going to be hurt the most, and also admitting that there will be pain both in europe and the

united states once these sanctions are placed. >> the president has made that clear on a couple of occasions, you are absolutely right, and much more pain as you go east, the figure is 2% of american trade is with russia. and much more dependent is eastern europe, these former members of the warsaw pact we might add, including the baltic states, when you -- the further east you go, the more you see a dependence not only on the $300 billion in trade between europe and russia, but also dependence on the former warsaw pact states on russian energy.

that's one why of the bullets on this agenda is what is going to happen to those states. what can the united states do, the european leaders want to know to increase their poeshthss of energy. there is a moratorium of oil being imported from the united states. and liquified natural gas, new permits have been granted to construct some support facilities that could conceivably export liquified natural gas to europe, but that's obviously not a short-term solution, del. >> mike, stand by. our jennifer glasse remains on the ground in sevastopol as we continue to follow the crisis in ukraine. we also have our special guests

in the studio here that are providing expertise not only in terms of what may happen next, but also behind the actors. we are now getting a text concerning the president's speech, discussing why it may be necessary to reexamine the world as you heard mike say to a energy producing globe. we're going to take a break, we'll be right back.

as we await word from the president who will be speaking in brussels, belgium, we want to

get you caught up on some of the other developments that are happening today. one of them in washington state, that mud slide in washington creating a one-square mile path of destruction. now 16 deaths, and officials say that number could climb to 24 after 8 more bodies were found on tuesday. >> reporter: as every hour passes, the hope for survivors in this square-mile site dwindles. >> it is very devastating. we knew a lot of the people down there, and with no sign of them, it's very frustrating. >> reporter: everyone here in this small town knows someone that is missing. >> this is transition into recovery from my sister.

>> reporter: five days into the search and the death toll keeps rising. several other bodies were located but have not yet been recovered. >> healing has to take place. >> reporter: hundreds are rallying together volunteering to be involved in the search. >> you have to keep hope. >> reporter: so many came out. most were turned away. more than 200 responders are now on the ground. including the 70-person fema team who set up camp in the fairgrounds. >> i consider it still a rescue operation. it's a rescue and recovery operation. we haven't lost hope that there's a possibility we could find somebody alive. >> that is abby gib from

arlington, washington. the state department saying north korea launching missiles into the sea of japan, the missiles were fired earlier this morning. in a statement, the state department had this to say, they say the missile launch represents a troubling and provocative escalation that the united states takes very seriously. we're coordinating with oural lyes to develop a response to this. tar balls are washing ashore near galveston, texas. there is still plenty of work to do, and as erika pitzi shows us, gulf businesses are taking action. >> reporter: cleanup crews are in a race against time. the oil is moving quickly, nearly two miles a day towards land. the next 24 hours are critical

in the cleanup operation that has nearly 700 people involved. >> we'll continue to monitor it constantly. >> reporter: four days later, the tar-like oil is seeping into an important bird refuge. >> we estimate that we have something like 100,000 birds that migrate through here at any one time. >> reporter: plus this spill comes at a sensitive time, mating season. at least ten birds have died from the spill. survivors are being cleaned from their wings to their beak. >> they do need to be cleaned. but they don't want to be held. >> reporter: limited travel is being allowed in the shipping channel from cargo to cruise ships that have been docked and anchored for days. >> we will be here until the end until the last bird has been

recovered. >> reporter: and people who live and work here hope that happens soon. erika pitzi, al jazeera. and some charter boat captains who have not been able to work since the spill now pushing to be paid. they have already filed a class action lawsuit against the owners of the oil barge. a bp refinery spilled oil on into a lake that is a major source of drinking water. the epa says the water is safe. and then amazing video shot on a cell phone showing a worker being rescued from a fire in houston. you can see the man dangling, and then he drops down to the

floor below. firefighters managed to get a ladder to him, and then moments later the floor collapses. >> oh, my god! oh, no! my god! >> reporter: the app -- apartment building was under constructi construction. let's check in on the weather. >> we're very fortunate that most of this is well off of the coastline, because that's limiting the amount of snow that is coming in. there are some high winds out there, and we have definitely seen snow in places like nantucket, winds up to 60 miles an hour have already been reported, and once you get interior, hardly any snow if you are seeing any at all, but any

that you get is going to be blowing around and into maine later today more snow moves in. as we continue to watch all of this, it's already starting to start to move away from massachusetts, as i said maine for the rest of the day. the entire region will see the high wind gusts in the 20 to 30 mile an hour range. that's not the only thing we're watching. this rain into texas very beneficial. but into the day tomorrow could be this system setting us up for potential severe weather. and we were talking more about that mud slide situation in washington. not only is more rain coming in, but we keep those chances persist act over the next couple of days. >> nicole thank you very much. we want to remind our audience that we are awaiting a news conference from president obama in brussels, belgium.

but jennifer glasse is in sevastop sevastopol, crimea, what is next for the ukrainian military? >> well, del, the ukrainian military here has gotten orders to come out, but they are waiting to see how that is all going to work, meanwhile in kiev on tuesday, the interim defense minister tendered his resignation because of what happened here on the crimea peninsula, he said he couldn't remain defense minister anymore. the parliament accepting the resignation, and moved quickly to appoint a new defense minister. he has some experience here in crimea. that comes just a day or so after the acting president of ukraine finally ordered troops to leave here. they had been told to standing

their ground here in crimea. the last ship only being taken last night. it fought valiantly to keep ahold of the ship to get out of the bay where the russians has sunk ships to keep it from fleeing, and getting back to ukraine with the equipment. all of the ukrainian black sea fleet that was here, those ships have all been seized. all of these bases are flying ukrainian flags, and the personnel are trying to get back. some have some back -- sorry -- from [ inaudible ] we have seen groups of marines head back to the mainland in buses. they are trying to organize some sort of transport for the families here as well as the sailors and soldiers here in sevastopol, and at other points in the crimean peninsula.

the russians are taking down names of those servicemen who want to stay here and join new forces and those who want to leave. many of the families here rather frustrated with the wait. they say they have been waiting for a long time. they have children in school, they have lives here. they have obviously all of their things, many have apartments, and many are very depressed. humiliating to be thrown off of their ships out of their bases. they weren't allowed to take any equipment with them. the russians basically took over everything. >> jennifer glasse thank you very much. >> our guests here in the studio, james and nina. nina as we were talking you wanted to address this issue of

whether or not the people in moscow are celebrating this annexation of crimea. >> i wanted to follow up on this. because i don't want russians to be not responsible for their leader. russian media is kremlin controlled. but what is disturbing is that first of all russian print media is still [ inaudible ] so you can get your information. it started scaling back in the last few months or so. i think the problem is russians are very used to propaganda. the problem with the russians today is they are very willing to believe putin's propaganda, and that is very worrying. they have access to the world, and they have their great russia. and that's when access to the world is going to be canceled, then we'll see how putin's propaganda will work for them?

>> james are we seeing a bit of rearviewer mirror diplomacy in the sense of people longing for the good old days that happened before they were born when they see this land grabby putin and saying the darkest days in history was the redrawing of the boundaries of the soviet union. >> everything that happens after 1991 was an historical disaster which was not russia's fault, but was forced upon it. that's something which i think has not been a weeding element of russia life but has been there all the while, and putin has really capitalized on that on the sense that we are suffering, and it must be somebody else's fault. who's fault is it? the west. so as nina pointed out, he uses

the moral sense that the west is this corrupted a vant guard, but also the west and the united states is scheming to keep us down and deny us our natural sphere of interest. >> when he announced the annexation of crimea, he said when those borders were drawn, when the sanctions were lifted, they didn't lift all of the sanctions against russia, they kept many of them in place, it stunted the growth of russia, and he blamed the west for the economic conditions that exist in moscow today. >> yeah, though -- here is the failure. he could have chosen, given the power he has, to make russia part of the modern global economy. he chose a different way, which is basically the way of power. and ultimately he is going to pay that price. but he has to persuade the

russian people that it's this conspiracy on the part of other powers which can only be counter acted by using the kinds of force russia has. the force of military and blackmail through natural resources. >> thank you very much. we're going to take a break. we are awaiting the president's news conference when it occurs. we're going to lift the vail off of life right now off of the streets of moscow, and we will discuss that with our jennifer glasse who is in see vast pole to talk about the current situation in crimea. we're going to take a break. we will be right back.

welcome back. i'm del walters in new york. the president of the united states just moments ago right now the world leaders have taken to the stage in brussels, belgium, the president of the united states scheduled to speak third on the podium.

that gives us just a little bit of time. nina i want to begin with you, when we were talking about what life is like realistically on the streets of moscow right now, and how is the russian economy surviving because we saw the ruble drop. >> it has been very few weeks, so it didn't hit the streets that well -- that much. but there is a lot of fear of people who want to travel, like to travel go skiing in the alps, and go other places, so they are very afraid that these sanctions will affect their daily lives -- >> so it's not all roses? >> no, no, no. no propaganda is ever roses. but now putin is back at 70% of his popularity and actually

james is completely correct that this is probably not going to last long, because only a few months back his pop lair dove under 50%, which is very, very little. so today russians are still waiting to see, but the emotional patriotism works for him right now. i think in a month's time especially there are more sanctions and more united front of european union. ukraine is probably going to be helped well enough -- i think russians will reassess their view of vladimir putin and will really start counting their rubles that are really at this point are not going to -- the amount of which is not going to increase, and i think that's where we see the sanctions working. >> what i wonder is whether -- i agree with everything nina said -- whether putin is going to feel that he has to counter

act that by further successes. so he is deciding right now, exactly what instruments he wants to used to be able to destabilize ukraine. because if ukraine is seen as a successful project of the west and having been europe-ized then everything he has said is seen as a failure. i think he has to decide by what levers. and that's what he is deciding. >> mike viqueira we're going to go to you as we await the world leaders now. they are speaking in brussels, belgium, the president of the united states scheduled to speak third. mike the question has to be asked of you in europe right now, european leaders are concerned about all of these represents because they have just come out of an economic crisis of their own? >> right. and of course the united states

has. japan remains mired in a two-decade-long crisis, and even president obama when he talks about the prospect of heavier sanctions than those already levied, he makes allowance for the fact that it is not going to be easy. and the question is do these leaders and the public here in europe have the will to withstand economic headwinds that will result from the kinds of sanctions that the president is urging the europeans to undertake. the president will be speaking -- this is going to be a relatively brief question and session. just two questions. and then he has got in a couple of hour's time what the white house has billed as a major keynote speech that he is going to be delivering here in brussels, so once again, these

two long meetings that the president has attended over the course of the last three days, and now in brussels for the eu summit, have been dominated by the crisis in ukraine. and it's sort of a very fortuitus circumstance that the president would be here to discuss these matters in which he needs european cooperation to a great extent. >> as i read parts of the text of the president's comments he seems also to be trying to explain why the events in ukraine are important. why it is necessary to forge these partnerships in europe, and why vladimir putin has to be stopped at this point in time. >> that's a great question, and i attended that closing press conference in the netherlands yesterday, unfortunately i didn't get a question in. but when the president said that russia is a regional power, you

know, it's really interpreted by those of us who watch and listen to the president to be the -- the implication is that russia is not on the world stage. it's g-8 membership now suspended notwithstanding, and when the president said they are threatening their neighbors, i think he was trying to underscore that this was on a threat to the united states at large, and the comment about a bomb going off in the center of manhattan, the comment that surprised a lot of people -- and getting back to your question, what does the united states have in it, where the united states should sacrifice what is now finally, appears to be turning the corner from the great recession -- we have heard it before, i know, there have benefits and starts -- but some positive signs on the american economy and the european

economy, why should that be jeopardized if this is not something that threatens the united states directly, del. >> mike, thank you very much. jennifer glasse, i want to ask you a question -- and i'll give you the warning that when the president begins to speak, i may have to cut you off -- but are we seeing a situation in crimea where the people are celebrating what could be called fools gold in the sense they will be better off economically now that they are part of russia. >> many people do believe they will be better off. before this happened on the 16th of march, there was a lot of campaigning saying it is going to be a whole lot better than when they were part of the ukraine. they said the salaries will be better, as russian sailors tried to get ukrainians to join their

ranks, that's what they said. we saw early on, one of the senior admirals who was affected early and made a public plea to the ukrainian military that if they joined russia they would be higher salaries. so they are looking forward to a better, more stable future, but this is a tourist culture here in crimea. they depend an awful lot on tourists coming. they are confident that the tourists will continue to come again. the question is will they need visas, and will the united states and other countries do what they have done, for example, in cuba, where they say if you bring a cruise ship in here, you can't go to an american port for six months, that could kill a lot of cruise ships. but still ukraine won't release

legal documents that they need to run things here. some of the banks are pulling out. so it is uncertain, i think. but russia also nationalized anything that belonged to the ukrainian government here. there is an awful lot of military companies here that service helicopters, ships, that also meant a lot to the ukrainian military, and brought a lot of money to the ukrainian economy. >> jennifer glasse from sevastopol. right now you are looking at jose manuel baroso, now yielding the microphone to president obama. this is live right now from brussels, belgium. >> thank you for welcoming me here today. over the years we have met in prague, london, at the white

house, northern ireland, so it is good to meet the presidents of the european union at the european union. as i said before, europe is america's closest partner. europe including the european union is the cornerstone of the engage around the world. the world is safer and more just when europe and america standing as one. and later today i look forward to speaking to the young people from across europe about how we can sustain the values and ideals that are at the heart of our partnership. as the presidents just mentioned our work today touched on a full range of issues where we worked together. we agreed to step up our efforts to boost growth and job creation on both sides of the atlantic, and that includes working to

conclude a trade partnership. and once we have a trade agreement in place, export licenses for projects for liquified natural gas destined to europe would be much easier. we reviewed our negotiations with iran, which i believe give us the opportunity to peacefully resolve the world's concerns with the iranian nuclear program. we pledge to sustain our support for the effort to eliminate syria's chemical weapons. and we discussed a number of global challenges, including the desire to step up our cooperation with the asia pacific region and our commitment to a new global agreement to combat climate change. obviously much of our focus today was on the situation in ukraine. russia's actions in ukraine aren't just about one country. they are about the kind of

europe, and the kind of world that we live in. the european project was born from the ashes of two word wars, and the united states has long supported european integration as a force for peace and prosperity. and europe's progress rests on basic principals, including respect for international law, as well as the sovereignty and territorial integrity. that's what russia violated against ukraine. we're united in our support for ukraine and the need to provide economic assistance to help stabilize the economy, we're united stated in our commitment to europe's security. we're united in our determination to isolate russia and impose costs for russia's actions. every step of the way i have

coordinated with our allies in europe. and i want to thank the leadship you have shown during this difficult time. i want to come mend the eu for the important steps taken already by implementing visa bans and freezing assets and designating individuals for sanctions, as well as canceling a number of engagements with russia, and making it clear that if russia stays on its current course the consequences will continue to grow. of course all of this comes atop the measures and sanctions the united states and others around the world are imposing on russia, and they are the most significant sanctions russia has faced since the end of the cold war. more over russia standings alone, and standings alone when trying to defending its actions. the 28 members of the european union and 28 members of nato are

united. every member of the g-7 has imposed sanctions on russia. and the g-7 will meet here in brussels in june without russia. so if anyone in the russian leadership thought the world wouldn't care about their actions, or they could drive a wedge between the european union and the united states, they miscalculated. there is still a way for russia to work with ukraine and the international community to de-escalate the situation through diplomacy. that's the only way the issue will be resolved. if russia continues on its current course, sanctions will increase, and there will be a growing consequence for the russian economy. and that reflects the grow commitment to the goal that has brought europe and the united states together for

decades, a europe that is whole and free and at peace. in closing i just want to say to the presidents as you prepare to conclude your tenures later this year, thank you for all of the outstanding work that you have been able to do together. we have gone through some very rocky waters. we persevered through some very difficult economic times. but out there this process, we have been able to deepen the ties between the european union and the united states. we have been able to advance the cause of security and human dignity around the world. i'm great for your leadership and friendship, and for the purposes of our countries that we represent here today, your dedication to the transatlantic relationship. so thank you very much. >> thank you for your statement, president obama. now it is time for two questions.

>> it is now 9:58 eastern standard time. you are listening to the president speaking live from brussels belgium. they are going to take questions from reporters, each reporter being allowed to ask two questions. let's listen in. >> reporter: -- for the presidents, first on russia and ukraine, given that the u.s. has less to lose from economic sanctions against russia, would it be appropriate to [ inaudible ] support for european allies for example in the realm of energy. second you mentioned the trans-atlantic trade and partnership, a lot of citizens have concerns, their fear that standards for environment protection or consumer protection might be at stake. how do you want to convince these citizens?

thank you very much? >> with respect to sanctions, so far what we have seen is excellent coordination between the united states and europe. i think on both sides of the atlantic there was recognition that in the initial incursion into crimea we had to take very specific steps and we did, identifying individuals that were in part responsible for those actions. when the russian government made the decision to annex crimea after a referenda that nobody outside of russia, i think, could take seriously, we then heightened those sanctions, again in coordination. what we're now doing is coordinating around the potential for additional deeper sanctions should