Obama to lay out defence of foreign policy in West Point speech

U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, May 22, 2014. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Stung by criticism, President Barack Obama will use a speech on Wednesday to launch a sweeping defence of his approach to foreign policy, one that he will say is reliant on multilateral diplomacy instead of military interventions.

Obama is to deliver the commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, the first in a series of speeches that he and top advisers will use to explain U.S. foreign policy in the aftermath of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and lay out a broad vision for the rest of his presidency.