Q: President Obama, President Kikwete, thank you very much. President Obama, the first question goes to you, and I want to get your reaction to a breaking news alert that just came in a few minutes ago. According to Reuters, a senior Russian security official says that you and President Putin have asked the FBI and FSB to seek a solution on Snowden, so can you confirm that report?

Also, the latest leaks by Edward Snowden suggest the United States have been monitoring the phone and email records of its allies in the EU. So is the United States spying on its European allies? Also, France and other countries are demanding an explanation with France saying that free trade talks could be threatened. So how can you reassure your allies to make sure that free trade talks aren‘t threatened and that your relations abroad are not threatened? (..)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I can confirm — because I said so I think at the beginning of this trip in one of the first questions that was asked — that we have gone through regular law enforcement channels in enforcing the extradition request that we‘ve made with respect to Mr. Snowden. And that’s been true with all the countries that have been involved, including Russia. And so, there have been high-level discussions with the Russians about trying to find a solution to the problem. (..)

Now, there‘s a second set of issues that this article seems to be raising, and that is how our intelligence services operate generally around the world. And I think we should stipulate that every intelligence service — not just ours, but every European intelligence service, every Asian intelligence service, wherever there‘s an intelligence service — here‘s one thing that they‘re going to be doing: they‘re going to be trying to understand the world better and what‘s going on in world capitals around the world from sources that aren‘t available through the New York Times or NBC News; that they are seeking additional insight beyond what‘s available through open sources.

And if that weren‘t the case, then there would be no use for an intelligence service.