President Barack Obama has met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and endorsed the company's new payment system, Apple Pay, for federal payment cards issued through GSA SmartPay.

It comes a few days before Cook is scheduled to speak on the privacy and security of the internet following the NSA leaks by contractor Edward Snowden, and the Sony Pictures cyber attack.

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Obama has come to Silicon Valley at a hard time since many tech companies hold his administration responsible for the backdoor attacks on thousands of servers, potentially opening the doors to other foreign attackers.

Google CEO Larry Page, Chairman Eric Schmidt, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer or Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg won't attend the talk at Stanford University in protest of pervasive government surveillance.

It's interesting that Zuckerberg won't be making an appearance, considering he's been courting China's internet regulator, Lu Wei, over the second-half of 2014. Zuckerberg even showed his socialist streak when Wei visited the Facebook campus in Silicon Valley.

Obama is looking to have a stronger connection with the private sector and tech companies, allowing these sectors nd the government to work together to make a secure and more cooperative U.S. cyber team. Tech companies seem uninterested in the President's proposal, however.

Apple Pay has a long way to go before it's recognized globally as the mobile payments service of choice, especially when it's not available on the most popular platform globally -- Android.

This might come alongside other updates in 2015 to the payments service, which has already gained significant support in the U.S. and in the UK ahead of its European launch in the next few months.

TagsPresident Obama, Tim Cook