Thank you for joining us on this trip.

Ben Rhodes, the President's Deputy

National Security Advisor for Strategic

Communications, is joining me today.

He can go over the meetings the President has

had today thus far as well as preview some of the

meetings he will have later today.

He'll take questions on those subjects or any

other subjects that you have for him and I will

stand by for questions on other matters.

With that, I give you Ben Rhodes.

Mr. Rhodes: Thanks, everybody.

And thanks for people joining us virtually.

I'll just give a brief readout of the President's

meetings this morning.

You saw his comments with the Prime Minister of the

Netherlands after their meeting.

I'd just note in particular that there was

strong agreement in their meeting about the need

to support the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian

government; to continue to impose costs on Russia

for its actions.

And as one of our key allies here in Europe

and in NATO, we'll be consulting closely with

the Dutch going forward.

We also very much welcome the announcement made

today by the Dutch to join the effort that the

United States is leading to end financing for coal-fired

plants abroad as part of our efforts

to combat climate change.

Turning to the meeting with President Xi

of China, first of all, the President expressed

his thanks, as he did publicly, for the welcome

and hospitality the First Lady and his family

has received in China.

The President also indicated his condolences

for the loss of life in the recent terrorist

attack in China, and also noted our determination

to work with the Chinese to continue to try to locate

the Malaysian airliner that has gone missing,

and expressed his sympathies to the Chinese families.

In terms of issues, the President reviewed

a number of global and bilateral

issues with China.

On climate change, the President stressed

a need for the United States and China to work together

to set a strong example in terms of reducing

our emissions as we head into the 2015 climate

negotiations; also noted the importance

of continuing to work together to phase

out HFCs, something that was committed

to at Sunnylands.

And we're working to bring other countries

into a global effort to phase out the use of HFCs.

On the situation in North Korea, the President

underscored the need for close coordination

in sending a clear message that there needs

to be denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and

that any discussions or dialogue among the six

parties around the situation in North Korea

needs to be based upon actions taken

by North Korea, which has not yet demonstrated

its willingness to come to the table seriously.

We've had good cooperation with China in applying

some pressure on North Korea,

but we as an international community need to continue

to insist that North Korea abide by its obligations.

On Iran, the President welcomed China's

leadership within the P5-plus-1,

where they've been a constructive partner.

The two leaders agreed that we have a good

opportunity here to reach a diplomatic resolution

to the Iranian nuclear issue.

The President reviewed a number of bilateral

economic issues, including our desire to continue

to see China move to a more flexible and market-based

exchange rate, expressing our concerns

in that regard.

The President also discussed a range

of other economic issues, including our continued interest

in seeing China move forward with the economic reform

package that President Xi has put forward,

the importance, for instance, of transparency

in Sino enterprises, and also the potential for greater

energy cooperation between our two countries.

On cybersecurity, the President once again

underscored the need for the U.S.

and China to cooperate closely on this issue.

He raised, again, our concerns about the theft

of trade secrets for commercial purposes,

reiterated that the United States does not engage

in intelligence for the purpose of gaining

a commercial advantage.

The two leaders welcomed the good progress

that's been made on military-to-military

exchanges and agreed to continue

to expand those exchanges.

On maritime security and regional security issues,

the President reiterated our concern over

the Chinese ADIZ that was recently announced.

He also expressed a concern over the need

to reduce tensions in the East and South China Sea,

noting that the United States is not a claimant.

He underscored the need for resolutions to these

issues based on dialogue and international law,

and expressed continued

U.S. support for that effort.

In that context, of course, the President

reiterated his support for the security of our

allies, Japan and the Philippines.

The two leaders also discussed the need to

cooperate on counterterrorism issues.

The President also raised issues related to human

rights and the rule of law in China, specifically

expressing concern over the recent

lack of visas to U.S.

media outlets like The New York Times and Bloomberg

and Voice of America.

On Ukraine, the President reiterated our interest

in seeing the sovereignty and territorial integrity

of Ukraine respected, reaching

a diplomatic resolution that deescalates the crisis

and allows for the Ukrainian people to make decisions

about their own future.

With that, we'd be happy to take your questions

on this or any other matters.

Yes, Steve.

The Press: Did it come up, the NSA report having

to do with China?

Did the Chinese President bring that up?

And, secondly, how do you interpret

this Russia troop buildup along the border?

Is that an ominous sign?

Do you see signs of --

Mr. Rhodes: Well, President Xi did raise

those recent reports in the context

of their discussion on cybersecurity.

What President Obama made clear to him is that,

again, the United States does not engage

in espionage to gain a commercial advantage.

We don't share information with our companies.

Both the United States and China, understandably,

like other countries in the world,

engage in intelligence activities on behalf

of our national security.

But there's a clear distinction, in our view,

between intelligence activities that have

a national security purpose versus intelligence

activities that have a commercial purpose.

And what we've tried to stress to the Chinese

in our cyber dialogue is that while we understand that

different nations are going to have approaches

to cybersecurity and intelligence collection,

that we need to cooperate in setting clear rules of

the road that wall off theft of tradecraft

related to commercial entities,

theft of intellectual property.

And so that was President Obama's message on those

issues generally, including

when those recent reports were raised.

With respect to the Russian troop movements,

we've been very concerned by the potential

for escalation into eastern and southern Ukraine.

We've monitored very closely Russian troop

movements along the border of Ukraine and,

frankly, it underscores the need for there

to be a de-escalation because any further steps into eastern

and southern Ukraine would represent

a very dangerous escalation of the situation.

At the same time, I think we've sent a clear message

that we are prepared to continue escalating

our response to Russia and imposing costs

for that type of activity.

To take one example, the executive order

the President signed gives us the authority

to sanction and designate major significant sectors

of the Russian economy.

And the message to Russia is clear:

They're already facing consequences.

They're already going to face costs.

Should there be any further escalation,

we have the ability, together with our partners here

in Europe and around the world,

to dramatically escalate those costs on Russia.

Jim.

The Press: In his interview with

de Volkskrant, the President was asked what

he would say the members of the EU with regard

to imposing heavy sanctions against Russia and he said,

"There have to be consequences.

And if Russia continues to escalate the situation,

we need to be prepared to impose a greater cost."

What the EU has announced has been short

of what the U.S. has --

the steps the U.S. has taken.

The economic sanctions are not as specific

as the executive order the President signed.

So I wonder what will we see from the G7 today

and the EU tomorrow that goes beyond just harsh rhetoric

against the Russians?

Mr. Rhodes: Jim, I'd say a few things.

First of all, the EU has moved with

us in a coordinated fashion and imposed

sanctions on Russia.

They've implemented visa bans, asset freezes,

designated individuals,

often in coordination with us.

Their lists coordinate broadly with ours,

for instance, in terms of the individuals

who we've designated.

They've also moved to politically isolate

Russia, cancelling several upcoming

meetings and engagements.

So we've had good cooperation to date.

And in that European Council statement,

they indicated clearly that there would

be broader for the Russian economy going

forward if the situation continues.

In terms of the meetings coming up with the G7,

I think what we want to send is a strong message

in several respects -- number one, that there will

be growing costs for Russia for its actions.

And frankly, Jim, the type of consequences

we'd like to see are what the President foreshadowed

in his executive order.

So we identified sectors of the Russian economy.

We believe that those broader sanctions have

the ability to send a powerful message to Russia

that it will face costs.

And so, consistent with the European Council's

statement that foreshadows consequences

for the Russian economy, I think out of that G7 meeting

we're looking to send a message that we're

not done with building out the types of sanctions

that we would impose upon Russia for its actions.

We'd also, though, I think, importantly,

with the G7, want to underscore our support

for the Ukrainian government and people,

our support for a very robust IMF package getting done as soon

as possible, and our support for individual member

states of the G7 and of the EU providing

assistance to the Ukrainians as well.

The Press: Is there any talk -- obviously a lot

of those sanctions are something

for the EU and in those countries.

Is there any talk in the conversation

with the Chinese President about China putting any economic

pressure on Russia?

Mr. Rhodes: They had a good

discussion on Ukraine.

Again, what the President said is China has always

held sovereignty and territorial integrity

as a core of its foreign policy and national security

approach and that that principle needs

to be applied to Ukraine, and that China's interest

should be in working with us to deescalate