Pushing out the horizons to his agenda for change, Barack Obama stood before an audience of young Europeans yesterday and reached out to proclaim a renewed transatlantic partnership. He dangled the most daring ambition of all: the forging of a "world without nuclear weapons".
As Nato leaders gathered for a summit co-hosted by France and Germany in Strasbourg, Mr Obama paced the stage of a city sports stadium, and called for an end to "tensions" between America and Europe. "Our fates are tied together," he said.
With its cement floors and echoing rafters, the venue offered no grandeur or pomp. But as Mr Obama introduced himself to mostly French and German school students with a "bon après-midi" and launched into a speech more sweeping than anyone had anticipated, the occasion evoked the "Ich bin ein Berliner" moment of John F Kennedy nearly five decades ago. If Europe wants to be in love with Mr Obama, he will not resist.
In his frankest terms yet, the President admitted that relations across the Atlantic had been marred in part by America's dismissive "arrogance" towards Europe. But by the same token, he went on, Europeans had been guilty of "casual" and "insidious" anti-Americanism. "America is changing but it cannot be America alone that changes," he warned. The President then dropped a taster of a speech on nuclear non-proliferation he will make tomorrow in Prague. It was as brief as it was theoretically stunning. "I will lay out an agenda to seek the goal of a world without nuclear weapons," he declared to rapturous applause.
After two days of diplomatic theatrics at the G20 in London, Mr Obama showed that he understood his audience, playing up changes and promises in new American policy almost guaranteed to please here, from the planned closing of Guantanamo Bay to the forswearing of torture and the re-enlistment of the US in the global warming fight.
If, in his European tour as President, Mr Obama is revelling in not being George Bush, he is getting ample help from his hosts. "It feels really good to work with an American president who wants to change the world," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said earlier, adding that the new US leader "understands that the world does not boil down to American frontiers and borders". From the French public too, the reception was rapturous. Cries of "Formidable!" and "Il est magnifique!" rose up from a crowd that had massed outside the towering, gothic spires of Strasbourg's Notre-Dame cathedral as the presidential Cadillac roared up. "C'est le plus grand président du monde!" clapped a five-year-old schoolgirl.
A war veteran wept as Mr Obama stopped to shake his hand. "I arrived here at 8am and waited for four hours but it was all worth it," he said before extending his own hand to people around him. "He shook my hand, come and shake mine."
But just as Mr Obama used the G20 to emphasise that the burden of combating the economic crisis must be a shared one, in Strasbourg he expanded that message into the sphere of security, in particular with reference to fighting al-Qa'ida and bringing peace and security to Afghanistan. America's request for more help from its allies is expected to dominate the Nato summit this morning.
"This is a joint problem and it requires a joint effort," Mr Obama said, before heading for a working dinner of Nato leaders in Baden Baden. That the events of the gathering were being held at sites on both sides of the Franco-German border was designed to stress the achievements in European unity. Nato, he said, was "one of the most successful alliances in modern history". Standing next to M. Sarkozy in the courtyard of Strasbourg's pink-stoned Rohan Palace, Mr Obama went so far as to suggest that "because of proximity", the countries of Europe were more likely to be the targets of future attacks by al-Qa'ida than America is.
It was back in the basketball arena that he rehearsed his views on what was partly to blame for a souring of transatlantic ties in past years. "There have been times when America's shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive," he began. Yet in Europe, he said, "there is an anti-America attitude that seems casual but can also be insidious. America can be unfairly blamed for many problems. On both sides of the Atlantic, these attitudes have become all too common. They are not wise".
He built on a theme about a new America ready now to lead by example. If Europe is to respect the US, the US must respect it back. Thus, he also argued, the US must learn to reduce its carbon footprint if developing countries are to be expected to restrain emissions as they seek to grow their economies.
Following the same thread, Mr Obama also acknowledged a point long made by critics of the US (and of Britain and France) that reducing its nuclear arsenal will give it "the moral authority" to ask other nations, including Iran, to abandon their own nuclear weapons ambitions. On the eve of the G20 President Obama announced that he intended restarting denuclearisation talks with Russia. He offered no details on how he envisages achieving a nuclear-free world.
He did invoke however, the lurking danger of nuclear warheads getting into the wrong hands. "Even with the Cold War now over, the spread of nuclear weapons or the theft of nuclear material could lead to the extermination of any city on the planet," he said.
Mr Obama also issued a robust warning to North Korea which is threatening to blast a long-range missile into orbit over Japan this weekend. He excoriated Pyongyang for responding in a way that was proving "not just unhelpful but resorted to the sort of language that has led to North Korea being isolated from the international community for a very long time".
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