Obama Proposes $5bn Anti-Terrorism Fund

President Barack Obama has unveiled a $5bn (£3bn) fund to help countries tackle extremists, in a speech outlining his foreign policy doctrine.

Speaking at the Military Academy in West Point, New York, the President said the planned US withdrawal from Afghanistan would enable it to focus on emerging threats from the Middle East to North Africa. 

He said he would ask Congress to support the establishment of a Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund to tackle such threats.

Mr Obama's speech was widely seen as a riposte to critics who accuse him of an overly cautious approach that has given succour to adversaries in Syria, Russia and China.

Mr Obama spoke during a graduation ceremony at West Point

Standing by his decision not to intervene militarily in Syria's civil war, Mr Obama said he aimed to "ramp up" US support for moderate Syrian rebels.

He also laid out his argument that modern foreign policy should be rooted in diplomacy rather than intervention.

"Here's my bottom line," he said, "America must always lead on the world stage.

"If we don't, no one else will. The military that you have joined is, and always will be, the backbone of that leadership.

"But US military action cannot be the only - or even primary - component of our leadership in every instance.

"Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail." 

Mr Obama defended his approach to the Ukraine crisis

He said that extremism remained the principal threat to the US at home and abroad.

"But a strategy that involves invading every country that harbours terrorist networks is naive and unsustainable," he added.

He continued to defend his use of drone strikes in countries like Yemen and Somalia, but called for increased transparency on such covert operations.

Republicans have criticised Mr Obama's plan, announced on Tuesday, for the US to keep 9,800 troops in Afghanistan after the war there formally ends later this year.

But he said on Wednesday the US had made much headway in Afghanistan against al Qaeda, and "sustaining this progress depends on the ability of Afghans to do the job". 

He also defended his approach to the Ukraine crisis, of seeking to build a multilateral consensus against Russia.

"This isn't the Cold War," he said. "Our ability to shape world opinion helped isolate Russia right away. Because of American leadership, the world immediately condemned Russian actions."

Mr Obama also said he would continue to press for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, and place new restrictions on how America gathers intelligence, amid the fallout from the NSA leaks.

"I believe in American exceptionalism with every fibre of my being," said the President.

"But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law."

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