President Obama reacted to suggestions that his credibility was on the line if his resolution is rejected by congress over the Syrian situation after his meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Frederick Reinfeldt in Stockholm on Wednesday

President Obama replied to the suggestions saying, “The international community’s credibility is on the line. And America and Congress’ credibility is on the line, because we give lip service to the notion that these international norms are important.”

Obama told the audience at the joint news conference held in Sweden’s capital, “that the international community cannot be silent” on the issue of chemical attacks in Syria. The Prime Minister agreed that the use of chemical weapons was unacceptable but also pointed out his country’s “deep belief” in the United Nations, and so, could not support a unilateral response to the situation.

Obama spoke of the “red line” statement he made in August of 2012 to the White House Press Corps where he said, “We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.”

Obama told reporters in Stockholm today, “I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line when governments representing 98 percent of the world’s population said the use of chemical weapons are abhorrent and passed a treaty forbidding their use, even when countries are engaged in war. Congress set a red line when it ratified that treaty.”

The president is on a three-day trip that continues on to St. Petersburg for the G-20 Summit. He is spending 24-hours in Sweden after landing there at the end of his overnight trip across the Atlantic.

He has met with Sweden’s Prime Minister and is to meet with Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and other Nordic leaders from Norway, Iceland, Finland and Denmark.

This visit marks the first time first time that a sitting president has visited Stockholm, Sweden. The stop-over there was penciled in after the cancellation of talks between Obama and the Russian president.