The White House on Friday said that U.S. President Barack Obama is set to meet with several world leaders during the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced that Obama will meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and new Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama while the U.S. President is attending the General Assembly. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, who was a guest briefer at the daily White House press briefing on Friday, told reporters that Obama would meet with Hatoyama on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Assembly. In a statement released by Gibbs, he stressed that “Japan is a close friend and a key ally of the United States and the President looks forward to his first meeting with Prime Minister Hatoyama and exploring ways in which the two countries can deepen their partnership.”
