President Obama and his wife, Michelle, will make a three-day trip to the United Kingdom and Germany around the Group of Eight summit in June, the White House said Friday.
Mr. Obama will look to ease tensions with Russia during the annual meeting of world leaders, scheduled for June 17 and 18 in Lough Erne, a resort in Northern Ireland, by meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin. Relations have soured amid American efforts to punish Russian citizens accused of human rights abuses, but new recognition of shared security concerns after the Boston Marathon bombings has prompted something of a thaw. Mr. Putin skipped last year’s summit when Mr. Obama held it at Camp David.
Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain will host the meeting this year, just a month after his planned visit to the White House on Monday.
Before the conference, Mr. Obama is scheduled to start his trip in Belfast, where he will “engage with the people of Northern Ireland and highlight the hard work, dialogue and institutional development they have undertaken together,†the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said in a statement.
Mr. Obama will end his June trip in Berlin, where he will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck of Germany.
