article_snippet.sent: Frugal entertainer: President Barack Obama (center) offers a toast on stage to French President Francois Hollande at the State Dinner on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington.
article_snippet.sent: First lady Obama and Obama welcome French President Francois Hollande for a State Dinner at the North Portico of the White House in February 2014 .
article_snippet.sent: French President Francois Hollande could cement relationships with foreign leaders without spending hundreds of thousands of public dollars on an opulent black-tie dinner.
article_snippet.sent: Aides say Obama's overall level of engagement with foreign counterparts and the different ways he interacts with foreign counterparts is more important than the number of state dinners penciled on he calendar. '
article_snippet.sent: Obama has met hundreds of times with Obama counterparts and other foreign officials in settings as formal as the Oval Office and as casual as a Hawaiian golf course.
article_snippet.sent: They also speak by phone. '
article_snippet.sent: Obama and recent presidents have used multiple formats and settings apart from a state dinner to forge ties with Obama and recent presidents counterparts.
article_snippet.sent: In 2013, Obama met Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Sunnylands retreat in Southern California.
article_snippet.sent: Obama returned there the following year to consult with Jordan's King Abdullah II.
article_snippet.sent: Obama also took German Chancellor Angela Merkel to dinner at the upscale 1789 restaurant in Georgetown; French President Francois Hollande to the Virginia estate of Thomas Jefferson, a former president and former U.S. ambassador to France; and British Prime Minister David Cameron to an NCAA tournament game in Ohio.
article_snippet.sent: On Hawaii vacations, Obama has shared an NCAA tournament game in Ohio with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key.
article_snippet.sent: Obama welcomed more than a dozen foreign leaders to Obama Texas ranch, which became a popular venue for Obama's brand of casual diplomacy.
article_snippet.sent: Obama even treated then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to a tour of Graceland, the Memphis, Tennessee, home of Elvis Presley, one of then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's musical idols.