国际英语新闻:Obama: 'US Cannot Be in Isolation'

In a sweeping defense of his expansion plans for enhanced American trade worldwide, President Barack Obama on Friday said the U.S. cannot be in isolation.

"We cannot stop a global economy at our shores,” he told reporters during a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. “We’ve got to be in there and compete."

His comments were the first since a deal was made between Republicans who head congressional tax committees and a key Democratic senator to advance a proposed controversial trade agreement called the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA).

Republican Senator Orrin Hatch and Representative Paul Ryan this week changed the TPA to add provisions intended to protect human rights, make the bill's contents public, and other concessions in order to win the support of Senator Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate finance committee.

"In many respects, this is the most far reaching and progressive trade promotion authority that we’ve seen going through Congress," Obama said Friday.

President Obama said his trade advance will protect working class Americans but admitted support within his party was divided.

“The politics around trade have always been tough, particularly within the Democratic Party," he said.

President Obama’s comments came at a wide-ranging press conference in which he touched on hot button issues including Russia-Ukraine, Iran nuclear negotiations and the battle against the Islamic State group.

Earlier, Obama and Renzi affirmed the strong ties between their two countries, stressing common goals of stabilizing global security and improving their respective economies.

"This morning, we focused on our shared security," as well as on economics, trade and Libyan unrest, Obama said.

Ukraine

Obama said the United States and Europe should maintain sanctions against Russia until it implements a cease-agreement in Ukraine, as Moscow warned that the arrival of U.S. paratroopers to train Ukrainian solders could "destabilize" the region.

"At minimum, we have to maintain the existing sanction levels until we've seen that they've carried out the steps that they're required to under the agreement,'' said Obama.

The U.S. and Europe have imposed a series of sanctions on Russia since its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine last year and subsequent support of separatists in eastern Ukraine.

U.S. and European officials say Russian military forces have crossed into Ukraine to support the separatists, a charge Russian officials have repeatedly denied. President Vladimir Putin repeated that denial Thursday in an annual televised question-and-answer session in which he took questions from members of the Russian public.

Meanwhile, Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters Friday in Moscow that the presence in Ukraine of instructors from "third countries," besides Russia or Ukraine, is "by no means conducive to conflict resolution, by no means fosters an environment conducive to the implementation of the [cease-fire] agreements, but on the contrary, could seriously destabilize the situation."

Violating the sovereignty of Ukraine or any other country "carries a cost for Europe and for the world," Obama said.

Economy

The American leader noted the European country has greatly shaped the United States. "The United States would not be what we are and who we are without the contributions of Italian Americans," Obama said.

The prime minister, who took office a year ago after serving as mayor of Florence, said he looked to the United States for guidance in for helping Italy climb out of economic recession. Renzi, head of the center-left Democratic Party, has pushed economic reform.

Over a working lunch, the two will focus on economic issues, "clearly the top priority of both our peoples," Obama said.

The president is pushing a trade deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which he predicted would create opportunities for businesses and workers on both sides of the Atlantic.