Messages In This Digest (15 Messages)
- 1.
- Kazakhstan: U.S., NATO Seek Military Outpost Between Russia, China From: Rick Rozoff
- 2.
- U.S. Warship Arrives In Georgia For Joint Training From: Rick Rozoff
- 3.
- Afghans Demand Compensation For German Massacre From: Rick Rozoff
- 4.
- NATO Demand: Bosnian Troops Headed To Afghanistan From: Rick Rozoff
- 5.
- Afghanistan: German DM Visits HQ Of 4,500-Strong Contingent From: Rick Rozoff
- 6.
- Kyrgyzstan Upheaval Could Be Blow To Afghan War From: Rick Rozoff
- 7.
- Pentagon's No 2: "Remarkable Year For Military Space" From: Rick Rozoff
- 8.
- NATO And Sweden Launch Battle Laboratories Cooperation From: Rick Rozoff
- 9.
- Russia Returns To Latin America From: Rick Rozoff
- 10.
- Kosovo: U.S. Trains Swedish Troops For NATO Battle Group From: Rick Rozoff
- 11.
- Netherlands: NATO Holds Multinational Aerial War Games From: Rick Rozoff
- 12.
- Georgian Speaker Inspects Troops In Afghan War Zone From: Rick Rozoff
- 13.
- Four More German Soldiers Killed In Northern Afghanistan From: Rick Rozoff
- 14.
- Armenia Won't Allow Kyrgyz-Style "Color" Coup: Police Chief From: Rick Rozoff
- 15.
- Yemen: Thousands Protest Against Political, Economic Policies From: Rick Rozoff
Messages
- 1.
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Kazakhstan: U.S., NATO Seek Military Outpost Between Russia, China
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Apr 14, 2010 7:11 pm (PDT)
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/kazakhstan-u-s-nato-seek-military-outpost-between-russia-and-china
Stop NATO
April 14, 2010
Kazakhstan: U.S., NATO Seek Military Outpost Between Russia And China
Rick Rozoff
On April 11, the day before the two-day Nuclear Security Summit held in Washington, DC, U.S. President Barack Obama met with his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev and their deliberations resulted in the U.S. obtaining the right to fly troops and military equipment over (and later directly into) the territory of Kazakhstan for the escalating war in Afghanistan.
Michael McFaul, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and senior director of Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the United States National Security Council, "told reporters in a conference call that the agreement will allow troops to fly directly from the United States over the North Pole to the region."
McFaul directly stated, "This will save money; it will save time in terms of moving our troops and supplies needed into the theater." The Washington Post cited other White House officials claiming "Sunday's meeting between Obama and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was the turning point," [1] an allusion to the advance it signified over the last agreement on military transport for the Afghan war signed between the two countries in January, which permitted the transport of only non-lethal American military supplies and equipment across the country by rail.
The government of Kazakhstan has also allowed limited flights containing non-lethal military cargo over its territory, but that entailed a lengthy and circuitous route from the eastern United States to Europe and over the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan, ultimately headed to the Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan, which is currently in jeopardy after the overthrow of the government in that nation on April 7.
However, now "Kazakhstan has agreed to let the United States fly troops and weapons over its territory, a deal that opens a direct and faster route over the North Pole for American forces and lethal equipment headed to Afghanistan." [2]
The new arrangement will also substitute for a previous one under which U.S. military cargo planes flew combat troops and materiel to the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, from there to air bases in Kuwait and other destinations in the Persian Gulf, circumventing Iran which forbids American military overflights, and then either directly into the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan or to Pakistan. The second option often entails using treacherous land routes subject to regular attacks by militants on the Pakistani side of the border.
The Pentagon has also been working on a sea and land route beginning at the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti and from there to fellow Caucasus nation Azerbaijan and that country's Caspian Sea neighbors Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, conspicuously circumventing Russia, as do the oil and natural gas pipelines the West has promoted to transport hydrocarbons in the opposite direction, from Kazakhstan to the Black Sea.
"The new route over the North Pole to Bagram Air Base, the military's main air hub in Afghanistan, will allow troops to fly direct from the United States in a little more than 12 hours." [3]
The Air Force Times detailed that "Flying over Russia and Kazakhstan means Air Force cargo jets could fly from Alaska to Afghanistan without refueling, U.S. Transportation Command officials have said. Chartered passenger jets could leave from Chicago and fly over the North Pole to deliver troops." [4]
Colonel Jon Chicky, a faculty member at the National Defense University, said of the new transport route, "Just look at a map, it's a lot easier to go over the polar ice cap than all the way across the Atlantic and Europe." [5]
U.S. military planes would necessarily have to fly over Russia from the North Pole to reach Kazakhstan, but there is no information that Russia has approved such overflights.
Sunday's deal is the latest in a steady and expanding series of moves by the Pentagon and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to establish a permanent military outpost in Kazakhstan, the most critically important spot on the earth for the West to monitor its two main potential challengers and to hold joint Russian-Chinese initiatives like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization [6] in check (if not to tear the heart out of them). Kazakhstan is a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as well as the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) along with Russia and five other former Soviet states. In terms of land mass it is the second largest member of the CSTO and the third most populous behind Russia and Uzbekistan.
The geopolitical significance of the country in general has not escaped the U.S. since the day the Soviet Union was fragmented into its fifteen federal republics in 1991 and has been an even greater cynosure of Washington's attention since Barack Obama was elected president on November 4, 2008.
And with good reason. Kazakhstan borders Kyrgyzstan, the most vital transit country for the war in Afghanistan, where according to U.S. Central Command 50,000 U.S. troops passed through on their way to and from Afghanistan last month alone. [7]
It also borders Uzbekistan, which evicted U.S. military forces in 2005, and fellow Caspian Sea nation Turkmenistan, a country in transition since the death of President Saparmurat Niyazov in 2006 and until now the only state from the Balkans to Central Asia not pulled into the Pentagon's and NATO's greater Afghan war network.
Kazakhstan has a 950-mile (1,533-kilometer) border with China and a 4,030-mile (6,846-kilometer) one with Russia, the longest continuous border between any two nations in the world. It is the second largest nation in terms of territory to emerge from the Soviet Union next to Russia and the ninth biggest in the world.
As stated during a visit to the country by then NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in June of 2009, it is "a nation almost the size of the whole of western Europe and bordering Russia and China [and] is also part of all the economic and military alliances of its two powerful neighbours, including the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO)." [8]
Kazakhstan has projected oil reserves of 100-110 billion barrels, which if realized will be the third largest in the world. Its projected natural gas reserves are as high as 5 trillion cubic meters.
It possesses the world's largest reserves of uranium, barite, lead and tungsten, and last year became the world's leading uranium producer. In addition, the Central Asian nation has the second largest reserves of chromite, silver, and zinc, the third largest of manganese, and substantial if not yet reliably established deposits of copper, gold and iron ore. [9]
The country has the largest economy in Central Asia and more energy reserves than the other four nations there combined.
It is also home to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the world's first and largest space launch facility, from which the first manned space flight was launched in 1961. It is currently managed by the Russian Federal Space Agency and the Russian Space Forces under a lease with the Kazakh government. Should Kazakhstan shift further into the U.S. and NATO orbit that arrangement will be subject to change.
In appreciation of its geostrategic location and role, Kazakhstan was brought into NATO's counterintuitively-named Partnership for Peace (PfP) program in 1994 and the bloc's 50-nation (28 full member and 22 PfP states) Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council.
In 2003 the U.S. Defense Department signed a five-year Military Cooperation Plan with the country, the only nation in the region the Pentagon has such a program with, which included "such important directions of cooperation as the development of the peacekeeping potential of the Kazakh Armed Forces, improvement of the Kazakhstan system of military education and mutual participation in trainings." Kazakh troops were deployed to Iraq in the same year.
Over 300 Kazakh officers have been sent for training to U.S. military institutions, including the West Point Military Academy and the National Defense University, as part of the agreement
As the Kazakh news source from which the above information originated reported in January of 2009, "Realization of the first Plan successfully ended in 2008. In February 2008 a 2008-2012 Cooperation Plan was signed. Kazakh-American cooperation in defense and security has achieved significant results within implementation of the first plan." [10]
Before that, "Kazakhstan signed two agreements supporting U.S. and NATO military operations in Afghanistan, within the framework of the Enduring Freedom plan, on December 15, 2001, and on June 10, 2002," [11] which were formally ratified by the nation's senate in late 2008.
In December of 2008 the Jamestown Foundation, a U.S. think tank concentrating on the former Soviet Union, featured an analysis of "the renewed focus by American President-elect Barack Obama on Central Asia, particularly Kazakhstan," which is worth quoting from at some length.
The nation even then, sixteen months ago, was being prepared for a larger, even preeminent, role in expanding U.S. war plans for South Asia in light of "Obama's pledge to raise the American contingent in Afghanistan to 20,000 [as] the U.S. forces will not be able to rely entirely on Manas airfield in Kyrgyzstan."
More importantly, "by expanding their military presence in Central Asia, the United States and NATO forces are determined to squeeze Russia and China out of the oil-rich and strategically important region.
"This strategy also corresponds to the U.S.-backed plan of creating a Greater Central Asia extending from Afghanistan, through the Central Asian states, to the Middle East."
Specifically, by ratifying the previously-mentioned military agreements, "allowing U.S. and NATO coalition forces to use Almaty airport as an emergency airfield for fighter planes flying on missions to Afghanistan," the Kazakh Senate provided the U.S. "an opportunity to watch and gather intelligence on Chinese nuclear facilities...." [12]
"It appears that for Kazakhstan, NATO, and the United States, the backup airfield will be a symbol of military cooperation between the West and Central Asia...." [13]
The month after that feature appeared, Indian political analyst M. K. Bhadrakumar wrote a column which featured these observations:
"The US is working on the idea of ferrying cargo for Afghanistan via the Black Sea to the port of Poti in Georgia and then dispatching it through the territories of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. A branch line could also go from Georgia via Azerbaijan to the Turkmen-Afghan border.
"The project, if it materializes, will be a geopolitical coup - the biggest ever that Washington would have swung in post-Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus. At one stroke, the US will be tying up military cooperation at the bilateral level with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
"Furthermore, the US will be effectively drawing these countries closer into NATO's partnership programs."
"Besides, The US will have virtually dealt a blow to the Russia-led Collective Security Treat Organization (CSTO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)."
"[T]he proposed land route covering Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan can also be easily converted into an energy corridor and become a Caspian oil and gas corridor bypassing Russia.
"Such a corridor has been a long-cherished dream for Washington. Furthermore, European countries will feel the imperative to agree to the US demand that the transit countries for the energy corridor are granted NATO protection in one form or the other. That, in turn, leads to NATO's expansion into the Caucasus and Central Asia.
"The time may not be far off before they begin to sense that the 'war on terror is providing a convenient rubric under which the US is incrementally securing for itself a permanent abode in the highlands of the Hindu Kush and the Pamirs, Central Asian steppes and the Caucasus that form the strategic hub overlooking Russia, China, India and Iran." [14]
Bhadrakumar's contentions had been verified before the fact as it were in June of 2008 when then U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew Bryza delivered an address in Washington, DC called "Invigorating the U.S.-Turkey Strategic Partnership," which contained the following comments:
"Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev welcomed international investors to help develop the Caspian Basin's mammoth oil and gas reserves. Then-Turkish President Suleyman Demirel worked with these leaders, and with Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, to develop a revitalized concept of the Great Silk Road in the version of an East-West Corridor of oil and natural gas pipelines."
"The East-West Corridor we had been building from Turkey and the Black Sea through Georgia and Azerbaijan and across the Caspian became the strategic
air corridor, and the lifeline, into Afghanistan allowing the United States and our coalition partners to conduct Operation Enduring Freedom."[15]
If the former Indian diplomat asserted that the military corridor from the Black Sea to Afghanistan could be transformed into a strategic energy route running in the opposite direction, the State Department's Bryza had already revealed that under the guise of solely oil and natural gas projects the U.S. and its NATO allies had long in advance of the so-called global war on terror created the infrastructure required to move troops and equipment from Europe to Central and South Asia.
In November of 2008 U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman was in the capital of Azerbaijan, on the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea, and said eleven days after the election of Barack Obama that "the incoming Obama administration will maintain an interest in Caspian Sea energy resources.
"It is my firm belief that this effort and this region of the world will also be a priority for the next administration." [16]
To give an indication of how far-reaching U.S. plans are for a trans-Eurasian (Caspian-to-Black-to-Baltic Seas) energy strategy to drive Russia out of the European market, Bodman's comments were delivered at an energy summit attended by the presidents and other leading officials of host nation Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey and Ukraine.
At the same time "the state energy firms of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan agreed [on November 14] to begin shipping Kazakh oil across the Caspian Sea from 2013.
"The deal follows up on a 2006 deal for Kazakhstan to partake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline project, a pipeline that bypasses Russia to transfer oil from Azerbaijan, through Georgia, to Turkey." [17]
The month before Washington's Special Envoy for European Affairs and Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy C. Boyden Gray, speaking of the Nabucco natural gas project, spoke in a vein similar to Bodman's in stating "a deal may soon be sealed allowing natural gas from ex-Soviet nations to reach western Europe bypassing Russian territory." [18]
The following January, after the change in U.S. presidential administrations, U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan Richard Hoagland stated that "President Barack Obama's administration will adhere to policies to develop alternative energy routes from Central Asia," and "I am quite confident that Obama's administration will adhere to several alternative-routes policies for hydrocarbons transportation."[19]
Shortly afterward the same American envoy promoted the long-nurtured U.S. ambition to construct an oil pipeline under the Caspian Sea to transport Kazakh oil to Azerbaijan and connect with the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline into Europe, a project fiercely opposed by fellow Caspian nations Iran and Russia for both environmental and economic reasons.
In February of last year Hoagland said: "The U.S. government backs the so-called Kazakh Caspian transport system which calls for supplying crude oil from Eskene in Kurik [in Kazakhstan, the beginning of an Eskene-Kurik-Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan route] via a pipeline and onwards to Baku via tankers....We think the Trans-Caspian pipeline is technically and economically more advantageous than providing supplies via tankers. It is also politically well-grounded." [20]
It was announced in April of 2009 that Barack Obama would be the first American president to visit Kazakhstan, relations with which he described as "strategic." The plan didn't materialize, but may now after the further warming of relations between the two nations. [21]
On June 24-25 of last year NATO held its third-ever Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council Security Forum in the Kazakh capital of Astana, the first conducted outside Europe and on former Soviet space. It focused on "discussions of Afghanistan, Central Asia and the Caucasus and energy security." [22]
Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer presided over the event and said, "My presence here today means that cooperation between NATO and Kazakhstan is deepening." [23] Kazakhstan is the only Central Asian nation with a NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan.
"Today, Kazakhstan is NATO's most active Partner in the Central Asian region. We have also achieved solid progress in defence and military co-operation, particularly in enhancing the ability of our military forces to work together," Scheffer added. [24]
The Kazinform news agency conducted an interview with Scheffer after the forum, a gathering in which "NATO [was] seeking to deepen cooperation with its partner countries in Central Asia - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan," and the Alliance's chief's comments included:
"I do believe that both Kazakhstan and NATO influence each other. Kazakhstan's position as an energy supplier and the political role of your president play an important role in different areas and international organizations active in this region.
"I've just come back from the Palace of the President. We did not only discuss the Central Asian region but the Middle East region as well." [25]
In August U.S. Ambassador Hoagland met with Kazakh Defense Minister Adilbek Dzhaksybekov, and the Kazakh Defense Ministry later issued a statement that said in part: "Speaking about interaction in defense and security, it is necessary to stress the importance of the five-year cooperation plan. Operations are successfully conducted in peacekeeping, training, technical assistance and development of military education.
"During the meeting Kazakh Defense Minister Dzhaksybekov paid special attention to the increased number of actions of the plan of military contacts directed to developing Kazbrig, the study of the advanced experience and organization of the U.S army, as well as the exchange of experience.
"Opportunity for training of teachers of our military institutions in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point is new and a very promising trend. During the training they can familiarize [themselves] with advanced methods of teaching and various training programs." [26]
KAZBRIG is "an airborne assault battalion...for deployment in NATO-led peace support operations" provided by Kazakhstan. [27]
In the same month General David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, visited Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to enlist support for the war in Afghanistan, at the time particularly for the transit of non-lethal military freight. There was speculation that Petraeus was also soliciting troop contributions.
Four months before, NATO's Special Representative for the South Caucasus and Central Asia and Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Security Cooperation and Partnership Robert Simmons, the individual most responsible for extending NATO bases and troop presence from the Balkans to the Chinese border, [28] was quoted saying "NATO is awaiting a decision from Kazakhstan on dispatching a peacekeeping contingent to Afghanistan." [29]
He made that statement while addressing Kazakh journalists at NATO headquarters in Brussels. "Simmons said Kazakh peacekeepers could be sent to Afghanistan and appropriate documents had been developed by NATO and passed to Kazakhstan." [30]
In September Simmons was in Kazakhstan where he "discussed the further
development of Kazakhstan-NATO cooperation at a meeting in the Kazakh Senate." [31]
In September U.S. Ambassador Richard Hoagland reiterated the request. While giving a speech at the opening ceremony of the Steppe Eagle-2009 military training exercise which included "1,300 servicemen from Kazakhstan, the UK, and the U.S." and "100 units of combat and special equipment and military transport aircraft" to "check the coordination of Kazbrig units and NATO forces in peacekeeping operations," he "offered to Kazakhstan to take part in the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan." [32]
In the same month NATO held its first military exercise in Central Asia, ZHETYSU 2009, in Kazakhstan. A six-day disaster response exercise, it included 500 Kazakh and an equal amount of NATO and non-Kazakh Partnership for Peace forces.
In early October French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited the capital of Kazakhstan, which took over the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) this year, and signed a bilateral military agreement which allows "France to use Kazakh territory and airspace to supply its 3,070 troops deployed in Afghanistan."
"Paris's unique relationship with Astana might help secure a policy objective long pursued by Washington and London. This relates to convincing Astana to operationally deploy peacekeepers from its peacekeeping brigade (KAZBRIG) to support the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.
"U.S. and U.K. military cooperation with Kazakhstan since 2003 has focused, among other key goals, on developing the country's peace support operations (PSO) capabilities, in line with its NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) goals...." [33]
As part of what was described as a strategic partnership, "The military transit deal had been under discussion for two years and covers both air transit and train transit of French military personnel and equipment via Kazakhstan, according to a French Foreign Ministry spokesman. He said train
traffic could then go through neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan where France already has a military presence." [34]
To again illustrate that the NATO corridor from the Black Sea to Central Asia runs in both directions:
"Kazakhstan also awarded a consortium of French companies a deal to take part in building a crucial $2 billion oil pipeline linking the vast Kashagan field to the Caspian. Energy supplies through the route will be transported across the inland sea by tanker to Azerbaijan and pumped by pipeline westward to Europe, circumventing Russia....Other commercial accords included an agreement to create a joint venture between the two countries' state-owned nuclear power companies to produce and market fuel for nuclear power plants." [35]
Only days earlier it was reported that the governments of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan had announced further plans for oil transit arrangements between the two countries: "Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest oil producer, already ships some of its output by tankers across the Caspian to Baku, where it is fed into the Baku-Ceyhan and Baku-Supsa pipelines....Kazakhstan plans to double oil output to 150 million tonnes a year within the next decade, largely by starting production at Kashagan, the world's biggest oil find in the last 30 years." [36]
Earlier in the year the Kazakh Defense Ministry "asked Israel to help it modernize its military and produce weapons that comply with NATO
standards." [37] In July Israeli President Shimon Peres became first high-ranking official of his nation to visit Kazakhstan as well as Azerbaijan. He led a delegation that included Defense Ministry Director-General Pinhas Buchris and "some 60 representatives of military-industrial companies." [38]
At the time the Jerusalem Post reported that "Kazakhstan's commitment to purchase satellite and surveillance technology from Israel reflects the growing role of Israeli defense industries in the country." [39]
The preceding year it was reported that "Jerusalem [has been] supporting the massive Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, or BTC, pipeline that opened its taps across the south Caucasus in 2006.
"The Jewish state also embraced ambitious plans to one day build underwater pipelines beneath the Caspian that would tap into the oil reserves of Kazakhstan and natural-gas fields of Turkmenistan - purportedly the world's second largest - and deliver them westward along those same BTC pipelines." The newspaper account added, "the U.S.-led NATO military alliance considers it a top priority, with many of its members frantic about 'energy security.'" [40]
In mid-October NATO military observers inspected an airfield at the Almaty International Airport in the former Kazakh capital to familiarize themselves with ground assault and airborne units and military aircraft. [41] It is the base that will receive direct military flights from the U.S. in the future.
At the beginning of this year NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in acknowledging the transit agreement with Kazakhstan for the war in Afghanistan that will involve 150,000 U.S. and NATO troops by August said:
"I am...pleased to announce the finalisation of an agreement with Kazakhstan that will allow the transit of supplies for NATO and Partner forces. I thank the Kazakh Government for coming to this agreement with us. This allows supplies for our forces to start moving from Europe to Afghanistan, beginning in the coming days, complementing the very important transit route through Pakistan. [42]
Slightly over two months later the Pentagon would obtain the right to fly troops and military equipment over Kazakhstan via the Arctic Circle.
If developments proceed in the manner they are headed, the Afghan war will secure for the Pentagon and NATO a bulwark in the heart of Eurasia and a permanent military presence in a country bordering almost 5,000 miles of Russian and Chinese territory, far broader in scope than comparable plans for Mongolia. [43]
1) Washington Post, April 12, 2010
2) New York Times, April 12, 2010
3) Ibid
4) Air Force Times, April 12, 2010
5) Eurasia Insight, April 12, 2010
6) The Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Prospects For A Multipolar World
Stop NATO, May 21, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/150
7) Associated Press, April 8, 2010
8) EUobserver, June 26, 2009
9) About Kazakhstan
http://aboutkazakhstan.com/Kazakhstan_Overview.shtml
10) Kazinform, January 14, 2009
11) Ibid
12) Eurasia Daily Monitor
The Jamestown Foundation
December 5, 2008
13) Ibid
14) The Day After, January 2, 2009
15) U.S. Department of State, June 24, 2008
16) Press TV, November 15, 2008
17) Ibid
18) PanArmenian.net, October 13, 2008
19) Trend News Agency, January 28, 2009
20) Trend News Agency, February 21, 2009
21) Russian Information Agency Novosti, April 7, 2009
22) Trend News Agency, May 29, 2009
23) Trend News Agency, June 25, 2009
24) North Atlantic Treaty Organization, June 24, 2009
25) Kazinform, July 5, 2009
26) Trend News Agency, August 7, 2009
27) North Atlantic Treaty Organization, February 24, 2009
28) Mr. Simmons' Mission: NATO Bases From Balkans To Chinese Border
Stop NATO, March 4, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/mr-simmons-mission-nato-bases-from-balkans-to-chinese-border
29) EurasiaNet, April 24, 2009
30) Interfax, May 15, 2009
31) Trend News Agency, September 11, 2009
32) Interfax, September 14, 2009
33) Eurasia Daily Monitor, October 13, 2009
34) Trend News Agency, October 7, 2009
35) Ibid
36) Reuters/Azeri Press Agency, September 26, 2009
37) Agence France-Presse, January 22, 2009
38) Ynetnews, June 28, 2009
39) Jerusalem Post, July 1, 2009
40) Jewish Telegraph Agency, December 18, 2008
41) Trend News Agency, October 13, 2009
42) North Atlantic Treaty Organization, January 27, 2010
43) Mongolia: Pentagon Trojan Horse Wedged Between China And Russia
Stop NATO, March 31, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/mongolia-pentagon-trojan-horse-wedged-between-china-and-russia
===========================
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U.S. Warship Arrives In Georgia For Joint Training
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Apr 14, 2010 7:12 pm (PDT)
http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20100414/158580760.html
Russian Information Agency Novosti
April 14, 2010
U.S. warship arrives in Georgia for joint training
Tbilisi: A U.S. frigate has arrived in Georgia's territorial waters to take part in joint Theater Security Cooperation (TSC) exercises with the Georgian Coast Guard, a Georgian official said on Wednesday.
USS John L. Hall, an Oliver Perry class guided missile frigate, docked on Wednesday in the port of Poti, some 50 km (31 miles) from the border with the former Georgian republic of Abkhazia.
The frigate will visit Batumi, another Georgian port on the Black Sea coast, on April 16 and leave Georgia's territorial waters on April 19.
During the visit, John L. Hall's crew will conduct multiple training sessions with the Georgian Coast Guard including first aid, damage control, search and rescue (SAR), rescue and assistance (R&A), and visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) tactics.
Georgia, which is actively seeking NATO membership, signed in January last year a strategic partnership treaty with the United States, which has long provided economic and military support for Tbilisi, including training for its troops. The John L. Hall took part in similar exercises with the Georgian Coast Guard in March.
President Mikheil Saakashvili pledged to build new and stronger armed forces after Georgia's military conflict with Russia in August 2008. He has expressed hope that Washington will provide stronger support to Tbilisi in developing its military.
Some Georgian politicians have urged the U.S. and NATO to send their warships to Georgian territorial waters in the Black Sea to stave off the potential threat of a Russian sea blockade of the Georgian ports in case of a military conflict.
Russia maintains several patrol boats in the area to help Abkhazia guard its maritime border in the Black Sea.
Under mutual assistance treaties signed in November 2008 following Russia's recognition of Abkhazia and the other former Georgian republic of South Ossetia as independent states, Moscow pledged to help both republics protect their borders, and the signatories granted each other the right to set up military bases in their respective territories.
===========================
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- 3.
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Afghans Demand Compensation For German Massacre
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Apr 14, 2010 7:12 pm (PDT)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/13/AR2010041302293.html
Reuters
April 13, 2010
Afghans demand compensation for German raid
By Qasem Noori
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan: Survivors and relatives of the victims of a German-ordered NATO air strike in northern Afghanistan gathered on Tuesday to demand compensation from German troops.
On September 4, a U.S. fighter jet called in by German troops struck two fuel trucks NATO said at the time had been hijacked by Taliban insurgents.
The Afghan government said 99 people, including 30 civilians, were killed. Independent rights groups estimate between 60 and 70 civilians were killed. The incident sent shockwaves around Germany and ultimately forced its then defense minister to step down.
Around 50 people, some of them relatives of the dead and some who were wounded in the raid, gathered outside the human rights commission in the provincial capital of northern Kunduz, demanding compensation and that those who carried out the raid be put on trial. The incident happened north of Kunduz city.
"We want German troops to compensate us. I have no job and the lives of my children and my family must be considered," said Noor Jan, who lost one of his hands in the raid.
Another man, Gulab Jan, who lost family members during the air strike, said many children from his village had lost their parents.
"The village is full of orphaned children... No one cares about them, no one is worried about them," he said.
Some held banners demanding justice for their dead relatives.
"We want justice and want those who killed innocent people to be put on trial," read one banner.
An Afghan-German born lawyer, Karim Popal, who has taken on the case of 165 Afghans in Kunduz who say they lost relatives in the air strike, said in December he had refused an offer from the German government for 3 million euros ($4.36 million) in compensation, saying the victims needed long-term help.
....
The German provincial reconstruction team run by German troops in Kunduz could not be reached immediately for comment.
....
More than 2,400 civilians were killed in 2009, making it the deadliest year of a war now more than eight years old.
....
(Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Jerry Norton)
===========================
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- 4.
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NATO Demand: Bosnian Troops Headed To Afghanistan
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Apr 14, 2010 7:13 pm (PDT)
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3876180,00.html
Reuters
April 14, 2010
Bosnia approves sending troops to Afghanistan
Bosnia's collective presidency agreed on Wednesday to send an infantry unit to join the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan as part of the Danish contingent, an official statement said.
Sending troops to Afghanistan was one of the conditions NATO placed on Bosnia's application to join the alliance's Membership Action Plan (MAP), on which Sarajevo is hoping for approval when NATO foreign ministers meet in Tallinn on April 22.
The deployment decision had been delayed by disagreement among Serb, Muslim and Croat presidency members about which national contingent of the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) Bosnia should join.
The Balkan country seconded 10 army officers to the Danish and German contingents in Afghanistan in 2009. The presidency's statement has not specified the number of the troops to be deployed or the date of their departure.
Defence Minister Selmo Cikotic told Reuters in December that a unit slated for Afghanistan would have up to 100 soldiers.
NATO declined Bosnia's application for MAP that month, saying the country needed more democratic reforms and a more effective military.
===========================
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- 5.
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Afghanistan: German DM Visits HQ Of 4,500-Strong Contingent
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Apr 14, 2010 7:14 pm (PDT)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gybZ8uldyyMfkh-QmYjLyXHjeZSg
Agence France-Presse
April 14, 2010
German defence minister in Afghanistan: Berlin
-Chancellor Angela Merkel took part in a memorial service for the three dead soldiers last Friday, the first time a German leader has attended such an event since World War II.
BERLIN: German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg arrived in Afghanistan on Wednesday for a visit, almost two weeks after insurgents killed three of the country's soldiers, officials said.
Guttenberg visited the headquarters of Germany's 4,500-strong contingent at Mazar-i-Scharif in northern Afghanistan before heading to the city of Kunduz, a defence ministry spokesman in Berlin told AFP.
The deaths on April 2 brought to 39 the number of German military personnel to have died there since 2002.
Eight others were wounded, four seriously, in a battle that raged for 10 hours following a Taliban ambush, the German military said.
The same day, German troops mistakenly shot dead six Afghan soldiers who were in a civilian vehicle whose driver ignored warnings to halt, the military said.
Chancellor Angela Merkel took part in a memorial service for the three dead soldiers last Friday, the first time a German leader has attended such an event since World War II.
Germany has the third largest contingent in Afghanistan after the United States and Britain. Parliament approved another 850 soldiers in February, following US President Barack Obama's decision to send 30,000 more.
The mission is highly unpopular among German voters, with a poll from Stern magazine published on Wednesday showing 62 percent wanting the country's troops to come home.
Bruno Kasdorf, a German general in Kabul, said last month that the NATO-run International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was planning a major offensive this year against the Taliban in the north where Germany's troops are based.
According to press reports, US General Stanley McChrystal, the head of NATO and US troops in Afghanistan, is due to make a three-day visit to Germany from Monday.
===========================
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- 6.
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Kyrgyzstan Upheaval Could Be Blow To Afghan War
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Apr 14, 2010 7:46 pm (PDT)
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100415/FOREIGN/704149928/1002
The National (United Arab Emirates)
April 14, 2010
Kyrgyzstan upheaval may be blow to pursuit of Afghan war
Chris Sands
KaBUL: Political upheaval in the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan has only added to the sense of uncertainty and fear that clouds the future of nearby Afghanistan.
Although the two countries do not share a border, their fates are connected in a region that has long been the scene of intrigue and competition between major powers.
The US military has suspended troop flights from Kyrgyzstan because of a coup there last week.
Alexander Neill, the head of the Asia Security Programme at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute, warned that any permanent cancellation could be damaging.
"One of the core concerns for the United States and Nato forces is to maintain supply routes into Afghanistan and the northern route has traditionally been viewed as one which is more secure," he said.
"This uprising in Kyrgyzstan could cause a real headache for that particular air corridor. There are options for the United States to use other bases in the Middle East or elsewhere but Central Asian neighbours are the preferred choice."
The US deal to use the Manas airbase expires in July and, although Kyrgyzstan's interim government has indicated the lease will be renewed, transport flights for soldiers are currently suspended.
Should the temporary halt become more entrenched, it would be a blow to the war effort. About 50,000 troops moved through there in March and the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, has acknowledged that none of the alternatives routes are ideal. At present, aircraft are being diverted to Kuwait and then coming into Afghanistan.
"If after this upheaval in Kyrgyzstan, the opposition takes a dim view of the US presence on Kyrgyz soil, then that will clearly mean having a major rethink for Nato, but it will also increase costs once again," Mr Neill said.
....
Most notably, there is the spill-over of tensions between India and Pakistan. Islamabad once supported the Taliban for the strategic depth Afghanistan would provide during a potential war with India, and there is a widespread belief that those old links now extend to the insurgency against US and Nato forces.
Indian interests in Afghanistan have been attacked numerous times in recent years, but Pakistan denies involvement. Both claim the other is trying to gain a stronghold here.
And to the west lies Iran. An opponent of the former Taliban government, it has since been accused by Washington of arming the rebels in their fight against occupation.
Afghanistan also shares a border with China, which is generally regarded as a long-term challenger to global US hegemony.
"Iran, Pakistan, China and the Central Asian states don't view the endgame in the same way as being promulgated by Nato," Mr Neill said. "I am sure that most of these big powers have thought out scenarios of an Afghanistan without Nato or a US presence."
Historically, Afghanistan was at the centre of the Great Game, the long and bloody struggle that pitted the British and Russian empires against each other for dominance in the region. Later came the Cold War rivalry that eventually resulted in the US backing of the mujaheddin after the Soviet invasion of 1979.
....
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- 7.
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Pentagon's No 2: "Remarkable Year For Military Space"
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Apr 14, 2010 7:56 pm (PDT)
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=58751
U.S. Department of Defense
American Forces Press Service
April 14, 2010
Lynn Discusses Budget Priorities for Space
By Jim Garamone
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Military space operators and their private-sector partners are going to have to find ways to grow capabilities while operating in a fiscally-constrained environment, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III said here today.
Speaking at the National Space Symposium, Lynn said President Barack Obama's decision to allow some growth in national security agencies was the right move. The president froze spending for domestic agencies.
....
Even with a constrained environment, next year looks to be a remarkable one for military space, Lynn said. "We plan to launch the next block of GPS satellites, the first new protected [satellite communications] satellite, and the first space-based surveillance satellite," he said.
....
===========================
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- 8.
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NATO And Sweden Launch Battle Laboratories Cooperation
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Apr 15, 2010 6:47 am (PDT)
http://www.defpro.com/news/details/14540/
Defence Professionals (Germany)
April 15, 2010
Sweden and NATO launch Battle Labs cooperation
Brussels and The Hague: On 26th March the NATO C3 Agency (NC3A) received a task order from the Swedish Agency for Defense Material (FMV) under the NATO-Sweden C4I Memorandum of Understanding to better integrate of FMV's Battle Laboratory into the Alliance's federated Battle Laboratories framework.
Testing friendly force tracking, ISR
During the first phase of the cooperation the Agency's Battle Laboratory Services Team (BLST) will familiarize FMV with the Distributed Networked Battle Labs framework and develop options for Friendly Force Tracking and ISR testing in cooperation with NC3A's experts in Interoperability, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance.
The Distributed Networked Battle Laboratory framework was jointly developed by NATO's Allied Command Transformation, NC3A and NATO Industry in 2009. The framework provides the legal umbrella, the organizational concept and the administrative and technical processes to arrange and offer services for testing and experimentation.
"Our stated aim is to deliver capabilities that are 'born interoperable', allowing troop contributing Nations to plug and play in key areas such as friendly force tracking or intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance," said NC3A General Manager Georges D'hollander.
The options elaborated in the current 'familiarization' phase will be implemented later this year.
The NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A) is a customer funded agency and, as a part of the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Organization (NC3O), reports to the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Board (NC3B).
The agency comprises around 700 staff, of which around 500 are located in The Hague and 200 in Brussels. In 2008, the procurement of NC3A for NATO amounted to some 300 million Euros.
....
The agency is the lead NATO body for the acquisition and development of Consultation, Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) capabilities in support of NATO missions and operations.
===========================
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- 9.
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Russia Returns To Latin America
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Apr 15, 2010 7:01 am (PDT)
http://top.rbc.ru/english/index.shtml?/news/english/2010/04/15/15133622_bod.shtml
RosBusinessConsulting
April 15, 2010
Russia's comeback to Latin America
-"No one can monopolize the truth. With that in mind, I hope no one will be upset by this. And even if somebody is, we don't care," Medvedev announced.
Russia is intent on establishing the closest possible cooperation with Latin America, as Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev stated after his meeting with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in Buenos Aires.
When asked whether or not Washington might, in his opinion, take a negative view of the strengthening of ties between Russia and Latin American countries, Medvedev said: "I have the impression that the White House is run by reasonable people, and they certainly should not be wary of our friendly visits to nations with which we have good and possibly strategic relations."
According to the president, Russia has changed its stance with regard to Latin America, and the region's nations are now seen in Russia as friends. As he explained, the current situation is conducive to developing close cooperation.
"No one can monopolize the truth. With that in mind, I hope no one will be upset by this. And even if somebody is, we don't care," Medvedev announced.
As the visit – notably the first official presidential visit in the history of bilateral relations – was drawing to a close, over 10 documents had been signed, including a memorandum of understanding on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Rosatom, Russia's state corporation, offered itself as a partner to design and build nuclear power units in Argentina and supply fuel to the country.
President Medvedev welcomed the opportunity for a joint nuclear project and estimated the tentative investment in Argentina's nuclear industry for this project alone at several billions of dollars. He went on to inform Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner that Rosatom hoped to invest in nuclear units and the relevant infrastructure, which would undoubtedly help develop the industry. Better yet, it would also create jobs and provide an extra boost to the country's business environment, since Russia would be looking to Argentine companies to take up a considerable portion of all the work involved.
Apart from that, the defense ministries signed a contract to deliver two Mi-171E helicopters to Argentina. The nations also reached a memorandum of understanding on GLONASS development.
From Argentina, Medvedev will make his way to Brazil for a two-day official visit to take part in the BRIC summit and hold a number of bilateral meetings.
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15026244&PageNum=0
Itar-Tass
April 15, 2010
Russia's return to Latin America must not cause concern
-"The world has changed, it has become global and multifaceted, and the Latin American region has changed," she added. "We live in one world and nobody, not even the strongest country, has the right to impose its position on other states," the Argentinean president emphasized.
BUENOS AIRES: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev does not believe that Russia's return to Latin America must cause other countries' concern.
"If this disturbs somebody, we could not care less," the president said in reply to an Itar-Tass query here. "I have got an impression that there are reasonable people in the White House in Washington, and if it is so they will not fear (Russia's return to Latin America)," the Russian leader said.
"Russia has returned to Latin America and we are now very actively promoting our interests," Medvedev stressed. "Our friends live here, and we would like to develop cooperation with them," he added. "The world is global, and nobody has monopoly on truth," he stressed.
Argentinean President Christina Fernandez de Kirchner, for her part, said that in the present-day global world Latin American countries are fully independent and no country has the right to impose its position on them. "We are not a third country and we are not in the background," she stressed.
"The world has changed, it has become global and multifaceted, and the Latin American region has changed," she added. "We live in one world and nobody, not even the strongest country, has the right to impose its position on other states," the Argentinean president emphasized.
"New leaders have appeared nowadays, who have their own perspective," the president said. "We come out in favor of cooperation with all countries of the world," Christina Fernandez de Kirchner said.
----------------------------------------------------------
http://en.rian.ru/world/20100415/158587036.html
Russian Information Agency Novosti
April 15, 2010
Russia back to Latin America — Medvedev
BUENOS AIRES: Russia is set to develop close cooperation with Latin American countries, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said during his visit to Argentina, the first top-level official visit in the history of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
"Russia has come back to South America. We did it quite vigorously as early as last year, and now we are very actively developing our relations with [our] Latin American partners," Medvedev said during a news conference in Buenos Aires, which followed talks between the Russian president and his Argentinean counterpart Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
Russia would like to develop the "closest cooperation" with Latin America, Medvedev said, adding "the current situation allows doing this."
Medvedev is the second top Russian official to visit Latin America in two weeks. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited Venezuela on April 2. During his stay in Caracas, Putin held talks with Venezuelan and Bolivian Presidents, Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, which resulted in a number of economic, energy and military-technical deals.
Kirchner said during the news conference in Buenos Aires that the world had changed and that it should be understood by everybody.
"We are not a back yard of any states anymore. We want to develop independent, serious relations [with other states]," she said.
Russia and Argentina signed more than 10 agreements concerning various spheres of bilateral relations, including cooperation in the sphere of peaceful use of nuclear energy, during Medvedev's stay in Buenos Aires.
Medvedev said an agreement, signed by Russia's state-run nuclear power corporation Rosatom and Argentina's Ministry of Federal Planning, stipulated a several-billion-dollar investment in Argentina's nuclear energy sector. The funds are intended to be spent on the construction of nuclear reactors, as well as on the development of nuclear infrastructure.
The president said the agreement was only one of the deals that stipulated big investment by Russia in the Latin American state.
Medvedev will fly to Brazil later on Thursday to take part in the BRIC summit. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao will also attend the top-level talks.
A delegation of top-ranking Bolivian officials are expected in Moscow on April 26 for talks on energy, military and industrial cooperation.
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20100415154955.shtml
RosBusinessConsulting
April 15, 2010
Russia seeks close cooperation with Latin America
Buenos Aires: Russia would like to develop close ties with Latin America, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced during a press conference in Buenos Aires. The Russian leader is currently paying the first official presidential visit to Argentina in the history of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Today, he met with his counterpart Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
"I have the impression that the White House has recently been occupied by reasonable people. And if they are in fact reasonable, they should not be wary of friendly visits to countries with which we have well-established strategic partnerships," Medvedev stated.
The Russian leader also indicated that Moscow's attitude towards Latin America had changed. "We feel that our friends live here, and we would like to develop very close cooperation with them."
----------------------------------------------------------
http://en.rian.ru/world/20100415/158586719.html
Russian Information Agency Novosti
April 15, 2010
Medvedev's visit to Argentina: more than 10 agreements signed
Buenos Aires: Russia and Argentina signed more than 10 agreements concerning various spheres of bilateral relations during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to the Latin American state.
Medvedev held talks with his Argentinean counterpart Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner during his visit, the first top-level official visit in the history of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Documents signed in Buenos Aires focused among others on cooperation in the spheres of nuclear energy, transportation, forestry, culture, education and sports.
Russia's state-run nuclear power corporation Rosatom and Argentina's Ministry of Federal Planning signed a protocol on cooperation in the sphere of peaceful use of nuclear energy.
Medvedev said during a joint news conference with Kirchner that the agreement stipulated a several-billion-dollar investment in Argentina's nuclear energy sector.
"If we are talking about, for example, the atomic energy sphere, the arrival of the Russian company Rosatom in the Argentinean market... will lead to a several-billion-dollar investment intended to be spent on the creation of... nuclear reactors, as well as on the development of infrastructure," the Russian president said.
"I stress that only this project is estimated at several billion dollars. But there are other projects as well," he said.
The Latin American state has two operational nuclear power plants, the Atucha I NPP near Buenos Aires and the Embalse NPP in the central Cordoba province. The third facility, Atucha II, is under construction.
Kirchner said there were plans to build another NPP, the Atucha III.
Russian space agency Roscosmos and Argentina's National Commission on Space Activities signed a memorandum on mutual understanding concerning Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS).
Glonass is the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Global Positioning System, or GPS, and is designed for both military and civilian use. Both systems allow users to determine their positions to within a few meters.
The goal of Glonass project was to have global coverage by 1991. With the collapse of the Russian economy in the 1990s, work on the project was suspended. Beginning in 2001, Russia committed to restoring the Glonass system. The number of satellites increased from six to 23 over the last nine years, with only 21 of them operational.
Russia and Argentina have also signed a deal on the purchase of two Russia-produced Mi-171E helicopters intended for the Latin American state's Defense Ministry.
Medvedev will fly to Brazil later on Thursday to take part in the BRIC summit. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao will also attend the top-level talks.
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20100415104109.shtml
RosBusinessConsulting
April 15, 2010
Russia, Argentina see extensive possibilities for cooperation
Moscow: Russian and Argentine businesses have a very promising future in the sphere of cooperation, including in high-tech sectors, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced at a meeting with representatives of the two countries' business circles. "There is no future for our economies without high technologies," the Russian leader stated.
According to reports from the Mayak radio station today, Medvedev gave special attention to representatives of the pharmaceutical business. He reiterated that the creation of new medicines was one of the Russian economy's top priorities. The Russian president also sees extensive opportunities for cooperation in the energy sphere, the creation of transportation infrastructure, and in agriculture.
This marks the first official visit of the Russian president to Argentina in the history of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Medvedev is also scheduled to hold negotiations with his counterpart Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to discuss cooperation within G20, as well as in the energy and space sectors. The two presidents are also expected to sign a number of agreements and an intergovernmental program on cooperation in the sphere of culture and education.
----------------------------------------------------------
http://en.rian.ru/world/20100415/158586339.html
Russian Information Agency Novosti
April 15, 2010
Russia to invest 'several billion dollars' in Argentina's nuclear energy sector
Buenos Aires: Russia intends to invest several billion dollars in Argentina's nuclear energy sector, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said after talks with his Argentinean counterpart Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in Buenos Aires.
More than 10 documents concerning various spheres of bilateral relations were signed during the talks.
"If we are talking about, for example, the atomic energy sphere, the arrival of the Russian company Rosatom (Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency) in the Argentinean market... will lead to a several-billion-dollar investment intended to be spent on the creation of... nuclear reactors, as well as on the development of infrastructure," the Russian president said during a joint news conference with Kirchner.
Medvedev's visit to the Latin American state is the first top-level official visit in the history of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
"I stress that only this project is estimated at several billion dollars. But there are other projects as well," Medvedev said.
Kirchner said in her turn that Argentina, which had abandoned its nuclear program in 1990s, has now returned to it.
The Latin American state has two operational nuclear power plants, the Atucha I NPP near Buenos Aires and the Embalse NPP in the central Cordoba province. The third facility, Atucha II, is under construction.
Kirchner said there were plans to build another NPP, the Atucha III.
===========================
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- 10.
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Kosovo: U.S. Trains Swedish Troops For NATO Battle Group
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Apr 15, 2010 7:10 am (PDT)
http://www.eucom.mil/english/fullstory.asp?article=Kosovo-Force-tactical-reserves-cross-train-Kosovo
United States European Command
April 15, 2010
Kosovo Force tactical reserves cross train for Kosovo-wide effectiveness
Army Sgt. Jesica Geffre
116th Public Affairs Detachment
-For many of the Swedes, this was their first time flying in a Blackhawk.
"It was awesome," said Swedish army Spc. Anton Ceron, Stockholm, Sweden. "This is very interesting for us to work with different nations and get to experience different methods of training."
CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo: Swedish service members from Multinational Battle Group Center (MNBG C) participated in training and familiarization exercises with soldiers from Multinational Battle Group East (MNBG E) April 12-13.
Approximately 75 service members from MNBG C learned about the MNBG E mission and area of operations, taking part in familiarization patrols in and around Gjilan, also known as Gnjilane and Shtrpce also known as Strpce. They also went through different stations to become familiar with MNBG E weapons using the Small Arms Virtual Trainer (SAV-T), K9 (dog handler) tactics and helicopter aircraft loading at Camp Bondsteel.
U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Travis Hackey, of Fargo, N.D., platoon leader 2nd Platoon, Bravo Company, led one of the Swedish platoons through the stations during the exercise.
"The whole focus of the exercise is familiarization with the different sectors so that that a battle group can go to any area of operation in Kosovo and respond effectively," Hackey said.
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Gehrtz, Fargo, N.D., squad leader 2nd platoon, Bravo Company, helped oversee weapons familiarization in the SAV-T. The SAV-T system creates a simulated battlefield environment with scenarios that play out on a screen. Soldiers operate weapons that fire virtual rounds at the target.
....
Swedish army Pvt. Max Ravan, of Gothenburg, Sweden, really enjoyed the SAV-T portion of the exercise.
....
Another segment of the training was airlift training. This helped the MNBG C troops become familiar with loading and unloading an Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopterd. This also included learning about safety precautions to avoid entering areas that are unsafe due to the moving blades and familiarization with the seatbelt operations.
The last aspect of the training was a flight in the Blackhawks to sectors patrolled by MNBG E so that they could familiarize the MNBG C service members with the area.
For many of the Swedes, this was their first time flying in a Blackhawk.
"It was awesome," said Swedish army Spc. Anton Ceron, Stockholm, Sweden. "This is very interesting for us to work with different nations and get to experience different methods of training."
===========================
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- 11.
-
Netherlands: NATO Holds Multinational Aerial War Games
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Apr 15, 2010 7:12 am (PDT)
http://www.eucom.mil/english/fullstory.asp?article=493rd-Fighter-Squadron-pilots-train-Netherlands
United States European Command
April 14, 2010
493rd Fighter Squadron pilots train in the Netherlands
Capt. Alysia Harvey
48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England:- More than 100 U.S. Air Force Liberty Wing pilots, maintainers and support personnel traveled to Leeuwarden Air Base in the Netherlands, April 12 to participate in FRISIAN FLAG 2010.
The multi-nation exercise will last until April 22 and is meant to train pilots on offensive and defensive roles through realistic scenarios with an emphasis on tactical decision making.
In addition to the Royal Air Force Lakenheath personnel and U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagle fighter jets, other nations and aircraft participating in this exercise include Dutch F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets, Swedish JAS-39 Griffin jets, Finnish F-18 Hornet fighter jets, Norwegian F-16 fighting falcon jets, German F-4s and Polish F-16 fighting falcon fighter jets.
The first exercise of this kind - which is comparable to RED FLAG at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. - was staged at Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, in 1992. At that time, it was called Diana Tactical Integrated Training (DIATIT). In 1993, the exercise was renamed DIAWACS in order to emphasize the participation of E-3 Airborne Early Warning and Control System(AWACS) aircraft. DIAWACS reverted to its original name of DIATIT following the cancellation of E-3 AWACS participation in 1997. The growing international participation caused another name change to FRISIAN FLAG, and the first "FRISIAN FLAG" exercise was held in 1999.
===========================
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- 12.
-
Georgian Speaker Inspects Troops In Afghan War Zone
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Apr 15, 2010 7:19 am (PDT)
http://en.trend.az/news/politics/foreign/1669930.html
Trend News Agency
April 15, 2010
Georgian parliamentary speaker visits Afghanistan
N. Kirtskhalia
Georgia, Tbilisi: A delegation led by Georgian Parliamentary Speaker David Bakradze unexpectedly left for Afghanistan tonight. The delegation will visit Georgian troops, Bakradze told journalists at the Tbilisi airport.
"We intend to get acquainted with our military contingent's stay in Afghanistan, the location of our bases, living conditions and services. We are interested being able to represent well Georgia in the fight against international terrorism," he said.
Bakradze said Georgia is "seriously" represented in Afghanistan and its military contingent contributes to global security.
About 920 Georgian soldiers are in Afghanistan. Some 170 serve in the French zone and 750 in the U.S. zone.
===========================
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- 13.
-
Four More German Soldiers Killed In Northern Afghanistan
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Apr 15, 2010 7:24 am (PDT)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-04/15/c_13253341.htm
Xinhua News Agency
April 15, 2010
4 NATO soldiers killed in N. Afghanistan
KABUL: Four soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed in Afghanistan on Thursday, a statement of the alliance said. "Four ISAF service members died following an insurgent attack in northern Afghanistan today," the statement added.
However, it did not say the exact place of the incident nor identify the nationality of the victims.
"It is ISAF policy to defer identification procedures for casualties to the relevant national authorities," the statement added.
Meanwhile, the German Defense Ministry said in Berlin on Thursday that four German soldiers were killed in Afghanistan when they came under fire near the northern city of Baghlan.
A Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in talks with media via telephone from undisclosed location claimed responsibility and said eight foreign soldiers were killed in northern Baghlan province.
He did not identify the nationality of the victims but added the troops came from Kunduz province to support Afghan security forces in Baghlan-e-Markazi district.
On the other hand, deputy to provincial police chief in Baghlan Syed Zamanudin in talks with Xinhua confirmed the clash, saying it lasted for five hours during which six militants were killed and four others sustained injuries.
More than 4,000 German troops with majority of them deployed in Kunduz to help stabilize the militancy-hit country.
===========================
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- 14.
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Armenia Won't Allow Kyrgyz-Style "Color" Coup: Police Chief
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Apr 15, 2010 7:30 am (PDT)
http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/politics/news/47067/Chief_of_RA_Police_events_in_Kirgizia_unacceptable_to_Armenia
PanArmenian.net
April 14, 2010
Chief of RA Police: events in Kirgizia [Kyrgyzstan] unacceptable to Armenia
Events in Kirgizia are unacceptable to us; the elected president can't be overthrown by any forces in Armenia, Chief of RA [the Republic of Armenia] Police Alik Sargsyan stated.
As he told a news conference in Yerevan, the April events in Kirgizia are a color revolution and Big Politics in action. "Unless the situation improves, the country will appear at a standstill."
"Armenia will never witness similar events. In contrast to Kirgiz police, the police of Armenia hold control over the situation in the country. We'll nip in the bud any thought of power change through a coup d'état, should anyone believe it conceivable," the Chief of the Armenian police emphasized.
As he noted, a grave violation of public order is what usually precedes so-called color revolutions. "We won't allow color revolutions in Armenia, the former being a manifestation of anarchy rather than democracy. Our police are there to guard people and not the authorities. And I'm glad to note that the Armenian opposition of today pursues civilized methods of struggle," Alik Sargsyan stressed.
Protests against Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and his government began on April 6 in the country's northwest and grew violent, spreading to other regions of the country, including the capital of Bishkek. More than 80 people were killed and some 1,500 were injured. The opposition has formed an interim government and named Roza Otunbayeva prime minister. Bakiyev fled Bishkek and is in the country's south - his traditional stronghold.
....
===========================
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- 15.
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Yemen: Thousands Protest Against Political, Economic Policies
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Apr 15, 2010 7:32 am (PDT)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-04/15/c_13253278.htm
Xinhua News Agency
April 15, 2010
Thousands rally in Yemen against political, economic policies
SANAA: Thousands of Yemeni demonstrators took to streets on Thursday in several major cities to protest against what they said "government's policies of starvation and political restriction," said officials and eyewitnesses.
The largest opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMPs) organized protest demonstrations in Sanaa, the capital, and in the provinces of Taiz and al-Jouf, as well as a number of cities in the south, said an official of the Interior Ministry who demanded not to be identified.
According to eyewitnesses, rallies also demanded the government release all southern political prisoners who were detained during demonstrations in the southern provinces.
In the rallies, protestors shouted against the government's economic policies and raised banners in which they denounced "the government's policies of hunger and intimidation against political activists," said witnesses who attended the demonstrations.
Meanwhile, in the southern provinces of al-Dhalee, Lahj and Abyan, weekly demonstrations were organized each Thursday to press the government to free political activists from jails.
According to local media, there were at least two people wounded in clashes with security forces in al-Dhalee province on Thursday.
===========================
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