President Barack Obama plans to make Egypt the setting for a promised speech on U.S. relations with the Muslim world when he sets out on an overseas trip early next month. Obama also will visit Germany and France, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced on Friday.
The president had promised to make an Arab country the setting for a major speech on U.S. relations with Muslims, part of a continued effort to reach out to that part of the world in an attempt to mend soured relations.
Asked why Egypt was chosen for the June 4 speech, Gibbs said: "It is a country that in may ways represents the heart of the Arab world."
Afterward, Obama is scheduled to travel to Dresden, Germany on June 5, where he will visit the Buchenwald concentration camp. A great-uncle of Obama's, Charlie Payne, helped liberate a sub-camp at Buchenwald in April 1945 as part of the 89th Infantry Division. Obama is scheduled to arrive in France on June 6 to participate in events marking the 65th anniversary of D-Day allied landings in Normandy.