European foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration signal to the Muslim world and firmly anchor the country in Europe. The trip marked Obama's first visit to a Muslim majority country. Obama has asserted that a close relationship with a stable, democratic, Western-oriented Republic of Turkey is an important U.S. national interest. His administration declared that the U.S. will support the promotion of democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression in Turkey and support its efforts to join the European Union, which the president confirmed on his April visit. While Obama has gone on the record in the past as referring to the massacre of Armenians under the
European foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration after a visit by President Obama to Russia in July 2009 Vice President Joe Biden visited Ukraine. During the visit Biden assured the Ukrainian government that the United States would continue to support Ukraine’s bid to join NATO despite Russia’s objections, "the reset of relationship with Russia" (that the Obama administration wants to pursue) will not come at Ukraine’s expense and Biden (once again) rejected the idea of a Russian "sphere of influence": "We do not recognize anyone else's right to dictate to you or any other country what alliances you will seek to belong to or what relationships you