Gregory Korte

USA TODAY

BERLIN — President Obama urged his successor to continue a tough-but-open policy on Russia, saying Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump should not fall into the trap of seeking short-term deals with the rival power for the sake of expediency.

Obama said he hopes Trump would not "just cut some deals" or "do whatever is convenient at the time," saying that policy would lead to longer-term problems in Syria and Eastern Europe. Instead, Obama said, Trump should take a constructive approach, "finding areas where we can cooperate with Russia where our values and interests align." He said Trump should be "willing to stand up to Russia where they are deviating from our values and international norms."

Even as Obama warned against what he called a "realpolitik approach," Trump met in New York with perhaps its most well known modern practitioner: former secretary of State Henry Kissinger. "I have tremendous respect for Dr. Kissinger and appreciate him sharing his thoughts with me,” Trump said in a statement.

The president's comments on Russia were his most extensive since Trump's election in a campaign often influenced by reports of Russian involvement in the hacking of his opponent's campaign emails and by Trump's own public entreaties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Obama spoke with his most important European ally, Chancellor Angela Merkel, in what will probably be their last meeting of his presidency. Merkel said she was impressed with how smoothly the presidential transition was going. "This is to us a sign of encouragement to continue the cooperation we have built," she said. "I approach this with an open mind."

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Their meeting in Berlin covered hot-button issues such as Ukraine, the Islamic State and Syria and broader issues of climate change, migration and trade. They shared an optimistic vision for a new kind of globalization, tacitly rejecting the more isolationist philosophy that drove Trump's campaign.

"It is my conviction that globalization — and I think we share this conviction — globalization needs to be shaped politically, it has to be given a human face, but we cannot fall back to pre-globalization times," Merkel said at a joint news conference after meeting with Obama in Berlin.

Obama and Merkel expanded on that global vision in a joint op-ed in the German magazine Wirtschaftswoche, which echoed Obama's speech on democracy and globalization in Greece on Wednesday.

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"It's particularly important that we reach out to everybody in our countries, those who feel disaffected, those who feel left behind by globalization, and address their concerns in constructive ways as opposed to more destructive ways," Obama said Thursday. "It's hard, it requires creativity, it requires effective communications. Part of what's changed in politics is social media and how people are receiving information. It's easier to make negative attacks and simplistic slogans than it is to communicate complex policies."

Obama's trip is the sixth of his presidency to Germany, which ties France as his most-visited foreign destination. "I could not ask for a steadier or more reliable partner on the world stage, often through some very challenging times," Obama said. The leaders' last official meeting had an air of nostalgia to it, even for the usually stoic German chancellor.

Obama said he would be back. "I have somehow continued to miss Oktoberfest. That is something that is probably better for me to do as a former president than as a president," he said. "I'll have more fun."

"We have freedom of movement in the whole of Germany, so if we want to see each other, well, I'm game," Merkel said as Obama feigned a happy cry and pantomimed picking up a phone to call her.

Friday, Obama and Merkel will have more meetings with the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain, as Western leaders try to adapt to a world order shaken up by Trump's election and the U.K.'s vote to leave the European Union.

Though the trip was planned before the election, Obama said his mission is to reassure Europe that the U.S. commitment to common defense is steadfast. Before departing Washington, Obama said Trump had "expressed a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships."