In February and March 2009, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made separate overseas trips to announce a "new era" in U.S. foreign relations with Russia and Europe, using the terms "break" and "reset" to signal major changes from the policies of the preceding administration.[243] Obama attempted to reach out to Arab leaders by granting his first interview to an Arab cable TV network, Al Arabiya.[244]
On March 19, Obama continued his outreach to the Muslim world, releasing a New Year's video message to the people and government of Iran.[245][246] In April, Obama gave a speech in Ankara, Turkey, which was well received by many Arab governments.[247] On June 4, 2009, Obama delivered a speech at Cairo University in Egypt calling for "A New Beginning" in relations between the Islamic world and the United States and promoting Middle East peace.[248]
On June 26, 2009, in response to the Iranian government's actions towards protesters following Iran's 2009 presidential election, Obama said: "The violence perpetrated against them is outrageous. We see it and we condemn it."[249] On July 7, while in Moscow, he responded to a Vice President Biden comment on a possible Israeli military strike on Iran by saying: "We have said directly to the Israelis that it is important to try and resolve this in an international setting in a way that does not create major conflict in the Middle East."[250]
On September 24, 2009, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to preside over a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.[251]
In March 2010, Obama took a public stance against plans by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue building Jewish housing projects in predominantly Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.[252][253] During the same month, an agreement was reached with the administration of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new pact reducing the number of long-range nuclear weapons in the arsenals of both countries by about one-third.[254] Obama and Medvedev signed the New START treaty in April 2010, and the U.S. Senate ratified it in December 2010.[255]
In December 2011, Obama instructed agencies to consider LGBT rights when issuing financial aid to foreign countries.[256] He criticized Russia's law discriminating against gays in August 2013,[257] stopping short of advocating a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics held in Sochi, Russia.[258]
In December 2014, Obama announced that he intended to normalize relationships between Cuba and the United States.[259]