Saudi Arabia / UK / Vietnam / Japan - Obama - Obama Meets Saudi King Salman at Start of Visit / Obam

(27 May 2016) President Barack Obama opened a brief trip to Saudi Arabia on April 20th 2016 with a one-on-one meeting with King Salman in Riyadh.
The visit for a Persian Gulf summit comes against the backdrop of increasingly strained U.S. relations with the Saudis, who remain deeply opposed to his outreach to Iran and skeptical of his approach to Syria.
Under crystal chandeliers, the Saudi monarch greeted Obama in a grand foyer at Erga Palace, where the two walked slowly to a reception room as the small of incense wafted.
The two offered polite smiles as they sat down side by side for pictures at the start of their private meeting.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit opens on Thursday and focuses on stability, counterterrorism and Iran. T
he United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain are also attending.
The president was slated to spend little more than 24 hours in the Saudi capital before heading on to visits to London and Hannover, Germany.
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US President Barack Obama on April 22nd arrived at the royal residence of Windsor Castle and met Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.
Obama was accompanied by his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, while Prince Philip accompanied the Queen.
Obama is on a three-day visit to the UK, likely the last to the country of his presidency.
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US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron played a round of golf in Hertfordshire on April 23rd.
It was Obama's first overseas golf round as president
The two leaders played at The Grove, which is hosting The British Masters later this year.
The course's website says The Grove is one of England's finest luxury golf courses.
Obama is an avid golfer who takes his clubs with him on many domestic trips.
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In his first ever visit to Vietnam, US President Barack Obama met with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on May 23rd and also paid a courtesy call to the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong.
Earlier, Obama lifted a half-century-old ban on selling arms to Vietnam, looking to bolster a government seen as a crucial, though flawed partner in a region that he has tried to place at the centre of his foreign policy legacy.
Obama announced the full removal of the embargo at a news conference where he vowed to leave behind the troubled history between the former war enemies and embrace a new era with a young, increasingly prosperous nation.
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US President Barack Obama said on May 27th his visit to Hiroshima was an opportunity to honour the memory of all who died during World War II.
Obama will become the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima's hallowed ground later on May 27th.
Some 140-thousand people were killed when the US dropped an atomic bomb on the western Japanese city in August 1945.
His comments came in a speech to US Marines in Iwakuni.

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