Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney may not yet be able to speak on behalf of the United States, but as he stands alongside the leaders of Britain, Israel and Poland in coming days he hopes to show gravitas on the world stage.
In a rare turn to foreign policy for a campaign that has had its sights set squarely on the faltering US economy, Romney hopes to draw a sharp contrast with President Barack Obama, dpa reported.
The presumptive conservative nominee began earlier this week by calling for a harder line toward US foes, especially Iran, and rivals such as Russia and China.
"If you do not want America to be the strongest nation on Earth, I am not your president," he told a veterans' gathering in Nevada ahead of his trip.
Beginning with a series of meetings Thursday with British Prime Minister David Cameron, Foreign Secretary William Hague and other British leaders, Romney hopes to demonstrate to his potential foreign colleagues - and above all voters at home - that he is fit to lead.
On July 27, Romney will attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games, a reminder to voters of his role spearheading the 2002 Salt Lake City Games after a bribery scandal, which he has pointed to as evidence of his ability to turn around a faltering ship.
Voter polls show that Obama has a clear advantage on foreign policy, with an NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey released this week showing a 10-percentage-point lead for Obama as the better commander-in-chief.
Obama and his campaign have pointed to his hefty record on international issues, such as ending the war in Iraq and nabbing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Democrats have questioned whether Romney is ready to be president by pointing to a lack of specifics in Romney's foreign policy plans.
"Given his lack of experience on these issues, and his support for failed policies that were pursued during the (George W) Bush administration, I think this trip should be judged on the type of substantive ideas that Mitt Romney outlines, and whether he would continue the proven policies of President Obama or return to a time in which our foreign policy was a sore spot, quite honestly, in the world," Obama campaign advisor Robert Gibbs told reporters.
The Obama campaign and its allies have tried to tie Romney to international interests in a negative light, with television ads pointing to off-shore bank accounts and the shifting of US manufacturing jobs overseas.
Romney, meanwhile, has hit Obama hardest for not standing by Israel, and his stop in the Middle East for meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is sure to draw headlines. Romney spoke Tuesday of the Obama administration's "shabby treatment of one of our finest friends," but indicated he would refrain from directly criticizing US policy while abroad.
Romney and Netanyahu have a decades-long friendship, dating back to their time as young consultants in Boston in the 1970s, but despite some tensions with the Obama administration in recent years the Israeli leader has kept out of the US electoral campaign.
"I will receive Mitt Romney with the same openness that I received another presidential candidate, then-senator Barack Obama, when he came almost four years ago, almost the same time in the campaign, to Israel," Netanyahu said in a US television interview Sunday, in which he declined to comment on the friendship. "We extend bipartisan hospitality to both Democrats and Republicans."
Obama made a similar trip as a candidate in 2008, drawing an adoring crowd of hundreds of thousands in Berlin as well as visiting US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, meeting leaders in the Middle East, holding a joint press conference with France's then-president Nicolas Sarkozy and meeting with British leaders.
Romney's trip is on a smaller scale with no publicized plans for speeches to mass crowds, only remarks on US Mideast policy while in Israel.
"I think there's a fundamental difference in how they view the world," said Romney foreign policy advisor Rich Williamson, painting his candidate as one with his eye on how countries' interests must shape how the US approaches them.
Romney will wrap up the visit with meetings in Warsaw with Polish leaders, including Prime Minister Donald Tusk, in a possible opportunity to draw a contrast with Obama on policy toward Russia. He will also meet with former president and anti-communist leader Lech Walesa, who has snubbed Obama in the past.