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Obama: ‘Equal partnership’ in Americas

U.S. will not ‘dictate our terms’

President Barack Obama (left) shakes hands with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez before the opening session of the 5th Summit of the Americas on Friday in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

President Barack Obama (left) shakes hands with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez before the opening session of the 5th Summit of the Americas on Friday in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad – Venturing into an unfamiliar region of the world, President Obama made a splash on a stage of leaders from across the Americas on Friday and promised to offer them a new style of U.S. politics: more pragmatism, less arrogance.

“We have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms,” the president told the heads of every democratic government across the Western Hemisphere.

“But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership,” Obama said. “There is no senior partner and junior partner in our relations.”

Such an idea – that the United States is equal, despite being keeper of the world’s most powerful military and leader of an economy that helps steer the globe – was telling.

Obama’s drive to reshape the image of the United States as a humble, cooperative partner is perhaps his most significant mission here. Grappling with an economic swoon that has touched them all, the heads of 34 nations have gathered for the first time in almost four years to fashion a fresh agenda – and in some cases, to size up Obama.

“I’m here to launch a new chapter of engagement that will be sustained throughout my administration,” Obama said at the opening of the Summit of the Americas in the two-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago.

Until now, Obama had never been south of Mexico in the Western Hemisphere.

And until Thursday, the 47-year-old president had only been to Mexico once in his life, during college.

The summit itself is not expected to produce any major breakthroughs. The final document is an already locked-in declaration of joint efforts on the economy, energy and security.

But Obama’s mission is broader. It is to get the countries in this part of the world – a mix of emerging, hurting, tiny and overshadowed places – to believe the United States is truly engaged.

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