Messages In This Digest (11 Messages)

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1.: NATO Troops Kill Dozens Of Afghan Protesters, Wound 20

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Aug 26, 2010 8:55 am (PDT)

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/140120.html

Press TV
August 26, 2010

US-led troops 'kill Afghan protesters'

US-led troops have reportedly opened fire at demonstrators in northern Afghanistan, killing dozens of people and wounding more than 20 other civilians.

Thousands of people protested near a NATO base in Badghis province after NATO forces killed an Afghan police trainee, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The Afghan trainee had fired on foreign troops, killing two Spanish soldiers and their interpreter.

Afghan media said that the Afghan soldier shot and killed the Spaniards when they tried to remove an Afghan woman's veil by force.

The protesters also called on the Afghan government to help send Spanish troops [back] to their country.

More than 800 Spanish soldiers have stationed in Afghanistan within the framework of NATO forces.

Some 140,000 US-led troops are currently stationed in Afghanistan. A further 10,000 are expected to be deployed to the war-ravaged country in the coming weeks.
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2.: Afghans Protest Against Spanish Troops After Police Slaying

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Aug 26, 2010 8:56 am (PDT)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-08/25/c_13462219.htm

Xinhua News Agency
August 26, 2010

NATO confirms shooting incident leaves 4 dead in Afghanistan

KABUL: The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has confirmed that an exchange of fire between service members of the alliance and police in the Badghis province of Afghanistan left four persons including two service members dead on Wednesday.

"An Afghan National Police member, two International Security Assistance Force service members and one civilian were killed during a shooting incident in the Badghis province western Afghanistan today," a statement released by the alliance said.

The cause of the shooting incident is still unclear, the statement said, adding more details will be released as they become available.

Earlier in the morning, Mohammad Nasir Nazari, the head of Provincial Council of Badghis province, in talks with Xinhua confirmed the incident, saying the violent event happened at 08:00 a.m. local time when an Afghan policeman was killed by Spanish forces due to unknown reasons.

He also added that the incident triggered a protest demonstration during which four Spanish soldiers were injured.

More than 800 Spanish soldiers have stationed in Afghanistan within the framework of NATO-led ISAF forces to help stabilize peace in the post-Taliban country.
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3.: 1,500 Canadian, U.S., Danish Troops In Arctic Military Drill

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Aug 26, 2010 8:56 am (PDT)

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20100825/harper-arctic-trip-100825/

CTV
August 25, 2010

Arctic military drill 'more valuable than ever:' PM

-Harper arrived in Resolute hours after two CF-18 fighter jets shadowed Russian military planes that had approached to within 30 nautical miles of Canada's northern border - something the Russian military does frequently.
The Prime Minister's Office used the incident to promote Ottawa's plan to buy 65 stealth fighter jets for $16 billion.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has arrived in the Far North community of Resolute, Nunavut, where he lauded the annual military exercise taking place in the Canadian Arctic.

"As the strategic importance of Canada's Arctic grows, the work undertaken by Operation Nanook is more valuable now than ever before," Harper said in a statement.

"With other countries becoming more interested in the Arctic and its rich resource potential, and with new trade routes opening up, we must continue to exercise our sovereignty while strengthening the safety and security of Canadians living in our High Arctic."

Harper began his yearly tour of the North on Monday. He touched down in Resolute after being grounded for a day in Churchill, Man., due to poor weather.

Operation Nanook has been underway since Aug. 6. About 900 Canadian troops are patrolling parts of the Eastern and Northern Arctic by air, land and sea....

Another 600 military personnel from the Danish Royal Navy, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard are also taking part in the operation.
....
Harper arrived in Resolute hours after two CF-18 fighter jets shadowed Russian military planes that had approached to within 30 nautical miles of Canada's northern border -- something the Russian military does frequently.

The Prime Minister's Office used the incident to promote Ottawa's plan to buy 65 stealth fighter jets for $16 billion.

Harper's northern tour comes amid growing international disputes regarding the northern archipelago, and the issue of Arctic sovereignty was expected to dominate Harper's tour.

Washington and Ottawa disagree over which country should control the Beaufort Sea. And both Canada and Demark lay claim to tiny Hans Island, which lies between Ellesmere Island and Greenland.
....
Ottawa's plans for military expansion in the North include deploying six new patrol ships, a stronger Canadian Ranger force and a heavy icebreaker.

On Tuesday, Harper also announced that Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, would become the new home of a long-awaited High Arctic Research Station.

Still, John England, the Northern Research Chair at the University of Alberta, said Ottawa is too focused on militarizing the North instead of investing in scientific research.

"There is 50 years of Arctic research already conducted," England said. "We should be promoting scientists as being the creative stewards of this region."

With files from The Canadian Press
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4.: NATO, Pentagon Reorganize Military Training In Georgia

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Aug 26, 2010 8:57 am (PDT)

http://www.mod.gov.ge/index.php?page=77&lang=1&type=&Id=680

Ministry of Defence of Georgia
August 16, 2010

Visit of NATO Expertsâ€™ Team

Prospects in the military education sphere were discussed at the Ministry of Defence of Georgia today.

A NATO Expert Team shared approaches to professional military education with colleagues from the Georgian Armed Forces and the Georgian National Defence Academy.

The meeting was held in the framework of the NATO-Georgia Military Education and Training Programme.

The NATO Subject Expert Team was hosted by Deputy Defence Minister Nodar Kharshiladze. Representatives of the National Defence Academy also participated in the meeting.

The sides elaborated on the development of a Georgian Command and General Staff Course and communication and personnel management captain career courses.

At the end of the meeting, Deputy Defence Minister Nodar Kharshiladze stated that this on-going partnership complements GAF [Georgian Armed Forces] initiatives of transformation and improvement of its professional military education.

The delegation of the NATO Expert Team, which includes representatives of the NATO HQ, US National Defence University, US Joint Forces Staff College, and Romanian Defence University, will leave Georgia today.
----------------------------------------------------------
http://en.trend.az/news/politics/foreign/1740966.html

Trend News Agency
August 26, 2010

NATO experts help Georgia to reorganize vocational military training system
N. Kirtskhalia

Tbilisi: NATO experts discussed prospects for military training in Georgia during a meeting in the Georgian Defence Ministry. The Defense Ministry told Trend that a group of NATO experts, which includes representatives from the headquarters of the Alliance, the National Defence College (NDC) and the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as members of the Romanian Defence University, arrived in Tbilisi.

The experts met within the program of military training and NATO-Georgian exercises with the Georgian Deputy Defence Minister Nodar Kharshiladze. The meeting was also attended by representatives of the National Defence Academy of Georgia.

NATO experts proposed to introduce new approaches to the system of vocational military training in Georgia.

Kharshiladze said such cooperation between Georgia and NATO in military training and exercises will allow the country to reorganize vocational military training system in accordance with international standards.
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5.: Russian Missile Defenses in South Ossetia, Georgia Claims

Posted by: "arn specter" arnpeace@yahoo.com arnpeace

Thu Aug 26, 2010 8:57 am (PDT)

Aug. 26, 2010: The article below, Russian Missile Defenses in South Ossetia,
Georgia Claims is obviously a reaction to all the United States Missile Defense
deployments in Poland, the Czech Republic, and other neighbors, on land and sea,
which threaten Russia and have provoked her into a more defensive position, and
further military defense on the lands of her allies.
There is now, then, a current arms race for missile defense, missiles and radar,
which is very dangerous. We need to be mindful that these missiles can be used
for offense as well as defense and they can carry - more than likely- nuclear
warheads.

Instead of cooling down tensions in that Eastern European region the United
States has heated things up with Russia following suit, to save face, and
possibly actually defend herself against US and/or NATO aggression.

There seems to be a much more concerted effort for missile defense now than in
the past. As the US continues to militarize the world without restrictions
tensions mount in the face of possible aggression.

We are witnessing this military buildup but are not seeing a corresponding
disarmament and peacemaking effort on the part of the United Nations, NATO or
other international body. We need the State Departments of Russia and the
United States to begin to make overtures for disarmament and mutual peace in
that region of the world...
Arn Specter, The Nuclear Review, Phila.
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Russian Missile Defenses in South Ossetia, Georgia ClaimsThursday, Aug. 26, 2010

Georgia claimed yesterday that Russia had fielded its advanced S-300 antimissile
system in the breakaway territory South Ossetia, Agence France-Presse reported
(see GSN, Aug. 12).
Moscow dismissed Tbilisi's accusation. "There are no S-300 systems in South
Ossetia," an unidentified Russian Defense Ministry source told Interfax.
Russia has already deployed the advanced surface-to-air technology in another
Georgian separatist region, Abkhazia. A senior military official said this month
the move was intended to defend Abkhazia's airspace and to provide protection to
the republic, though the Kremlin subsequently said the systems were actually
installed two years ago.
Georgia and Russia fought a brief war in summer 2008 after Tbilisi tried to
re-exert control over South Ossetia. Since then, Moscow has recognized the
independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and constructed military facilities
in the two areas.
"Although Russia is not saying this, be sure that S-300s have already been
deployed in" South Ossetia, Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze said to
the Imedi news channel.
The minister asserted that between the missile defense systems in South Ossetia
and Abkhazia and a military installation in nearby Armenia, "Russia has set up a
triangle in the South Caucasus and regions adjacent to it which it will need for
a confrontation with NATO or Turkey."
The S-300 has the ability to track and eliminate at distances of 62-124 miles
cruise and ballistic missiles and aircraft flying at low altitudes, according to
AFP (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Aug. 25).
South Ossetian Defense Minister Valery Yakhnovets dismissed Georgia's claim as
well, RIA Novosti reported. There is no need for the missile defense system "at
the present time," he said (RIA Novosti, Aug. 25).
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6.: Panama: U.S. Leads 18-Nation Drills Against "Liberation Brigade"

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Aug 26, 2010 8:57 am (PDT)

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-08-25/story/18-nations-tackle-training-crisis-mayport

Florida Times-Union
August 25, 2010

18 nations tackle training 'crisis' at Mayport
By Timothy J. Gibbons

For a ragtag sort of group, the Brigada de los Martis de la Liberacion seemed to have a decent amount of assets at its disposal.

Over the past few days, sailors at Mayport Naval Station have been working to contain the BML, which has been utilizing small boats, rocket launchers, bales of cocaine and satchels of money.

One saving grace: The group is fictitious.

The BML is the simulated enemy in Panamax 2010, one of the world's largest multinational training exercises in which 18 countries come together to defend the Panama Canal.

More than 2,000 personnel are involved in the exercise, including about 100 sailors from South American and Caribbean countries who are controlling operations from Mayport.

Much of the scenario is playing out in virtual reality, although about 1,400 miles away from Mayport a flotilla of U.S. and foreign vessels and riverine forces are undertaking real-life exercises.

The focus is on the cooperative relationship being forged among the various nations as they spend about a fortnight handling various scenarios.
....
"If they're confident ships can transit the canal, that's good," said Rear Adm. Vic Guillory, commanding officer of the Mayport-based 4th Fleet, which is heading up the maritime response to the situation. "Operations cannot be interrupted by the threat."
....
Cmdr. Brian Falke...is overseeing the search for mines in the waters around the canal, utilizing five U.S. and two Canadian ships. (The BML has dropped several suspicious items in the water, including huge metal drums and, oddly, a gas grill, but so far no mines.)
....
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7.: NATO Demands: Estonia's Largest Ever Armored Vehicle Deal

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Aug 26, 2010 8:59 am (PDT)

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4757567&c=EUR&s=LAN

Agence France-Presse
August 26, 2010

Estonia Buys APCs in Largest-Ever Deal

-Estonia joined NATO in 2004 and has been upgrading its defense equipment to meet the standards of the 28-nation trans-Atlantic alliance....In March, in its largest-ever defense deal, Estonia took delivery of a short-range surface-to-air missile system from European defense giant MBDA and Sweden's Saab costing one billion kroons.

TALLINN: Estonia on Aug. 26 announced its largest-ever military vehicle deal, buying more than 80 armored personnel carriers from fellow NATO member the Netherlands.

"The Estonian defense forces will buy over 80 Sisu XA-188 armored personnel carriers from the Netherlands," defense ministry spokesman Peeter Kuimet told AFP.

"The deal doubles the number of armored vehicles in the Estonian defense forces and is the biggest armored vehicle deal ever made (by Estonia)," he added.

Some of the vehicles will be sent to Afghanistan, where 155 Estonian troops are deployed in NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

The Finnish-made carriers are a decade old. Estonia also bought 60 used models directly from neutral neighbor Finland in 2004.

Estonia regained independence from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991 and built its military from scratch.

The nation of 1.3 million has a 3,800-member regular military - including 1,500 conscripts - plus 8,000 reservists.

Estonia joined NATO in 2004 and has been upgrading its defense equipment to meet the standards of the 28-nation trans-Atlantic alliance.

Kuimet said the vehicles cost over 300 million kroons (24.3 million dollars), with the total to be paid by 2015.

In March, in its largest-ever defense deal, Estonia took delivery of a short-range surface-to-air missile system from European defense giant MBDA and Sweden's Saab costing one billion kroons.
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8.: NATO In Iraq: Italian Carabinieri Train 8,000 Federal Police

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Aug 26, 2010 12:47 pm (PDT)

http://www.aco.nato.int/page272203329.aspx

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Operations
August 26, 2010

Italian Carabinieri have trained 9000 Iraqi Federal Police

Baghdad: Since their mission began in 2007, the Italian Carabinieri have trained 8,296 Iraqi Federal Police, plus another 530 Iraqi policemen who are currently taking part in the 14th Leadership Training Course in Baghdad.

Major General Claudio Angelelli, Deputy Commander of NATO Training Mission in Iraq, stressed that these significant results add to the achievement of the 133 instructors trained by the Carabinieri. This achievement seems numerically less important but proves the important purpose of the self sustainability planned for the end of 2011. These trainers, classified in T3 (Train the Trainers "Basic instructorsâ€ ) and T5 (Train the Trainers, Trained by the Iraqi "the best of the T3 instructors) represent the multiplier effect of the training activity.

All these training initiatives were created in a framework of flexibility and adherence, at the request of the Iraqi Federal Police, as stressed by Gendarmerie Division Head of NTM-I, Colonel of the Carabinieri Mauro Isidori, and Chief Gendarmerie Training Unit, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Jervolino.

This important contribution of training offered by the NTM-I is only a part of the wider NATO training program for the Iraqi Security Forces.
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9.: Shadows Of Kosovo And OSCE Hang Over Kyrgyzstan

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Aug 26, 2010 12:47 pm (PDT)

http://en.fondsk.ru/article.php?id=3226

Strategic Culture Foundation
August 25, 2010

Shadows of Kosovo and OSCE Over Kyrgyzstan
Pyotr Iskenderov

-The Fergana Valley â€" a region with a history of ferocious conflicts â€" happens to be a potential site where a scenario similar to the Kosovo case can easily materialize. It is no coincidence that the recent events in Kyrgyzstan can to an extent be traced back to the drug mafia â€" the fact likely reflects attempts to build the Central Asian republic into a trans-Eurasian drug trafficking route in which the pseudo-independent Kosovo plays the role of a key link.

The first group of experts from the international commission investigating the June, 2010 clashes in the southern part of Kyrgyzstan plans to be in Osh by early September.

Commission chief Kimmo Kiljunen said on August 23 that Kyrgyz president Roza Otunbaeva reaffirmed Bishkek's support for the initiative of Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark to launch an independent international investigation into the hostilities.

Kiljunen said the investigation would last throughout September-November and the report would be ready in December [1]. He added that the report would not be released before the parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan.

The OSCE also seems keenly interested in the elections and even plans to dispatch to Kyrgyzstan its own police mission with an unclear mandate but with a clear objective to intervene in the republic's internal conflict on the side of its current administration.

Osh mayor Melis Myrzakmatov reacted negatively to the plan. He told Russia's Kommersant daily that â€œthe deployment of the OSCE police forces in South Kyrgyzstan would be tantamount to replaying the Kosovo scenario in the Fergana Valleyâ€ , obviously meaning that in the Kosovo case a piece of the sovereign country had been torn out of it by force.

Myrzakmatov said the majority of the population in Osh did not welcome foreign presence in the region and the city council rejected the idea. â€œWe believe they are guilty of the Kosovo tragedy. We will not allow to do in the Fergana Valey what had been done in Kosovo and [will] regard them as strangersâ€ , said Myrzakmatov [2].

It is natural that political leaders outside of the Balkan region increasingly invoke the Kosovo case. The unilateral proclamation of independence by the province in 2008, its snap recognition by the West, and the unconvincing advisory opinion on the case issued by the International Court of Justice altogether created an atmosphere of total arbitrariness and double standards.

For the first time in post-World War II Europe a large faction of the international community greenlighted the cessation of a province of a UN-member country without its consent.

At the time of the proclamation of independence, Kosovo in fact had no federative status and was run by a special mission instituted by the UN, while UN resolutions explicitly banned such unilateral steps.

As a result, nationalist, separatist, or basically any other groups in any of the world's conflict zones currently can cite the Kosovo case as an argument in favor of their agendas.

The Fergana Valley â€" a region with a history of ferocious conflicts â€" happens to be a potential site where a scenario similar to the Kosovo case can easily materialize. It is no coincidence that the recent events in Kyrgyzstan can to an extent be traced back to the drug mafia â€" the fact likely reflects attempts to build the Central Asian republic into a trans-Eurasian drug trafficking route in which the pseudo-independent Kosovo plays the role of a key link.

The developments in Kyrgyzstan highlighted an important aspect of the activity of the OSCE and other international organizations in crisis zones: the explanation behind the inefficiency of the organizations is not their ineptness but their intention to deliberately provoke and escalate conflicts.

In 1998, the OSCE deployed a verification mission of 1,400 international representatives and 1,500 locals in Kosovo. In part, the mission succeeded in separating the warring sides and stabilizing the situation in the province, and for a period of time there was an impression that a political deal between Belgrade and Pristina loomed on the horizon.

Obviously, this was not what mission chief, US diplomat William Walker, and the forces backing him wanted. The forces had surfaced during covert operations in Latin America in the 1980s, and William Walker happens to be a familiar figure in Bolivia, Brazil, El Salvador (where he served as the US ambassador in 1988-1992) Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Panama, and Argentine.

He made full use of his expertise in subversion in Kosovo â€" it was William Walker who floated the myth about the RaÄ ak massacre in January, 1999. The actual circumstances of the drama remain obscure and the likeliest conclusion stemming from available evidence is that Albanian separatists and their Western curators dressed the corpses of killed Albanian guerrillas in civilian clothes to present them as victims of ethnic cleansing.

Walker had serious reasons to force all independent experts and journalists to leave RaÄ ak â€" after that he confidently charged Belgrade with war crimes.

The rest of the story â€" strikes on Yugoslavia and the separation of Kosovo by force â€" is well-known. Labour Party Member of the Parliament Alice Mahon amassed a bulk of documents exposing Walker's involvement in the scandal sparked by the supply of arms to the Contras in Nicaragua and in the organization of the propaganda campaign which accompanied the NATO intervention in Kosovo.

Interestingly, in November, 2008 Albanian president Bamir Topi granted to William Walker the title of an honorary citizen of Albania, and on January 15, 2009 â€" on the second anniversary of the RaÄ ak incident â€" Walker was awarded the freedom medal by the president and the premier of self-proclaimed Kosovo. The Albanian regalia do seem to weigh on the reputation of an official of an organization touting its neutrality and unbiased approach.

No doubt, quite a few people in the OSCE feel bad about the above forms of â€œcrisis responseâ€ and settlement of interetnic conflicts, but the organization's Balkan tenure, markedly pro-Georgian position in the Caucasus, and the practice of interference in the domestic affairs of sovereign countries under the pretext of monitoring elections make the OSCE interest in the situation in Kyrgyzstan look suspicious.

There is a high probability that new William Walkers are going to land in the Central Asian republic as members of the police mission and the international investigative commission.

[1] http://www.24.kg/community/81103-kimmo-kilyunen-mezhdunarodnoe-rassledovanie.html

[2] Kommersant, 19.08.2010.

[3] http://www.president.al/shqip/foto.asp?id=6331
____________________

Petr Iskenderov is a senior research fellow at the Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Science and an international commentator at Vremya Novstey and the Voice of Russia.

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10.: Four Continents: South Africa Wants To Join BRIC

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Aug 26, 2010 3:37 pm (PDT)

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/08/26/17414493.html

Voice of Russia
August 26, 2010

South Africa wants to join BRIC
Boris Volkhonsky

-[I]f and when South Africa joins BRIC (and there is no reason to believe the prospect is unreal), the new grouping (whether it will be called BRICSA or SABRIC) will acquire a really global character representing all major continents.

On Tuesday South African President Jacob Zuma, while on a state visit to China, expressed the desire and willingness of his country to join the informal club of four developing nations, namely Brazil, Russia, India and China, known as BRIC.

This statement made by the South African leader clearly demonstrates the growing global interest towards this informal grouping which until very recently was basically disregarded both by world policy makers and political scientists.

The very term BRIC was coined by Goldman Sachsâ€™ economist Jim Oâ€™Neill as early as 2001 and ever since has been used to define the four rapidly rising economies of the world which by 2050 would surpass the total economic potential of G7 countries and become the most dominant economies in the world. Some economists even predict that this could happen even much earlier that the initially outlined date.

Although the theses of Goldman Sachsâ€™ experts concerning the purely economic aspects of the four nationsâ€™ development have never been seriously questioned, another question for quite a long time remained much vaguer: is there anything, apart from similarities in the course of economic development, which can bring the four together?

From a political point of view the answer seemed to be â€œnoâ€ .

First, geographically speaking, Brazil is too distant from the other three to have much common interest with them.

But even if we look upon the three regionally close powers, we must state that there are too many contradictions that hardly help them form a strategic alliance. The idea of a strategic triangle â€˜Moscow â€" New Delhi â€" Beijingâ€™ was first put forward by the then Russian Prime Minister Evgeny Primakov in December, 1998. But this idea was never realized, and one of the reasons that it was actually still-born was the old rivalry between China and India for regional supremacy, as well as some old unresolved border issues between the two countries.

So, even little more than a year ago, for many observers the concept of bringing together the four major developing nations seemed unrealizable. A famous Russian public intellectual and member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Glazychev wrote in February 2009, â€˜BRIC is an intellectual phantom.â€™ And this view was shared by many observers.

But time has shown that skeptics were far from being right. Despite all difficulties, BRIC has turned into an effectively working body, even if it has not been institutionalized. BRIC summits have become annual. All four countries belong to the G20 group which, in many aspects, have started to play even a greater role that the G7 in formulating the global principles of coping with the challenges the world is facing.

Yes, all four countries, like the rest of the world, were hit hard by the global economic crisis of 2008-2009 and the rate of economic growth slowed down. But, as many economist point out, the negative impact on the developing economies was much lesser than the one suffered by developed nations of Western Europe and North America.

The South African Presidentâ€™s statement made in Beijing shows that BRICâ€™s role is not limited to the economy, and the phenomenon may well surpass the G7 group not only in purely economic terms, but in politics as well. Before coming to China Jacob Zuma within a short period of time had made visits to the other three BRIC countries, and therefore his optimism concerning South Africaâ€™s future membership in the group is well founded.

â€œWe think that the BRIC expresses a very important grouping in a changing world todayâ€ , said Jacob Zuma, and also mentioned that there is currently no African member in BRIC. South Africa's "participation in BRIC would mean that an entire continent that has a population of over 1 billion people is represented," he said.

So, if and when South Africa joins BRIC (and there is no reason to believe the prospect is unreal), the new grouping (whether it will be called BRICSA or SABRIC) will acquire a really global character representing all major continents.
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11.: U.S. Plans To Revive/Expand GUAM To Isolate Russia

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Aug 26, 2010 3:38 pm (PDT)

http://en.fondsk.ru/article.php?id=3229

Strategic Culture Foundation
August 25, 2010

GUAM Back to Life?
Bogdan Tsirdya (Moldova)

-[G]eopolitical shifts echoed with deep concern in the West which saw its plans to fragment the CIS and to gain control over Eurasian energy supply routes jeopardized. Meeting with Washington's resistance, the South Stream project was still outpacing the US-patronized Nabucco. Under the circumstances, Washington had to focus on the scenarios of â€œgentleâ€ containment of Russia. In the context, a key role was given to Moldova, the republic where the April 6-7, 2009 color revolution swept away the administration Moscow could regard as more or less cooperative. The Alliance for European Integration put together in great rush started â€" gradually but steadily - to steer Moldova away from Russia towards NATO and Romania and to strengthen the dormant GUAM. Romania's president and the region's number one US loyalist Traian BÄƒsescu became the de facto curator of the Alliance.
-Washington has already done part of the work. BÄƒsescu announced on February 4, 2010 that Romania would host US missile defense infrastructures, and Belarus reneged on the pledge to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Contrary to expectations, the US did not have to close the Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan. Serbia is carved up and Georgia is in the process of active rearmament. Moldova took part in NATO exercises and signed an agreement on security forces cooperation with Romania.
[Western plans include]
-To coordinate efforts aimed at getting Russian peacekeepers out of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Moldova and bringing in NATO forces instead.
-To create common political, economic, and military infrastructures for the integration of the countries located in the Western part of the CIS into NATO.

No doubt, 2010 has been a watershed year in Eurasian geopolitics.

Favorable economic conditions helped Russia achieve serious political gains, though, in fact, the basis for some of the ongoing geopolitical transformations emerged in 2008 when Georgia lost the Five Day War.

Georgia's defeat and the advent of pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovich in Kyiv meant the end of NATO expansion eastward and the reestablishment of Russian gas transit across Ukraine.

As for the anti-Russian GUAM bloc, it suffered a lethal blow. Moscow's positions in the Black Sea region became stronger when Russia and Ukraine signed a contract extending the lease of the Sevastopol naval base till 2042. It is widely held in the expert community that - not only in the nuclear arms sphere - the signing of the new START Treaty with the US restored Russia's superpower status. Russia and the US jointly took a firm moral leadership role worldwide and at the moment define global development trends.

A regrouping of forces in the settlement in Transdnistria also took place after May, 2010. The joint declaration on the issue signed by the presidents of Russia and Ukraine on May 18 showed clearly that in the future the two countries would be implementing a concerted approach towards Moldova.

The document reaffirmed the stabilizing impact of the peacekeeping operation which is underway in the region. As a result, the hope of the Moldovan right and the West to expel Russia from the region and to invite European mediators supporting Moldova's current administration to take Moscow's place evaporated.

The signing of the June, 2010 Russian-German memorandum on the establishment of the Russia-EU committee on foreign policy and security at ministerial level led watchers to conclude that Moscow and Berlin were about to reach consensus on the settlement in Transdnistria.

A breakthrough was also made in the sphere of CIS integration projects. The code of the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan was enacted on July 6, 2010 as stated at the EurAsEC summit in Astana. The presidents of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan indicated that the two countries would likely join the Customs Union which considers erasing national borders by 2012 or even forming a common currency space in a more distant future.

The above geopolitical shifts echoed with deep concern in the West which saw its plans to fragment the CIS and to gain control over Eurasian energy supply routes jeopardized. Meeting with Washington's resistance, the South Stream project was still outpacing the US-patronized Nabucco. Under the circumstances, Washington had to focus on the scenarios of â€œgentleâ€ containment of Russia. In the context, a key role was given to Moldova, the republic where the April 6-7, 2009 color revolution swept away the administration Moscow could regard as more or less cooperative. The Alliance for European Integration put together in great rush started â€" gradually but steadily - to steer Moldova away from Russia towards NATO and Romania and to strengthen the dormant GUAM. Romania's president and the region's number one US loyalist Traian BÄƒsescu became the de facto curator of the Alliance.

Shortly after Dmitry Medvedev and Viktor Yanukovych signed the joint declaration, Moldova's interim president Mihai Ghimpu signed the divisive decree setting June 28, 1940 as the date of Soviet occupation and calling for an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Transdnistria.

Ghimpu's decree saw the light of day immediately after the Romanian president rather unexpectedly unveiled his discovery that Russian peacekeepers in Transdnistria somehow posed a threat to Romania's security. Interestingly, almost at the same time the Lithuanian parliament added to the country's criminal code an article making the denial of â€œSoviet occupationâ€ a punishable offense. In a clear effort to champion the cause, the Georgian administration highlighted not one but two dates in the national calendar, establishing February 25 as the â€œoccupation dayâ€ and August 23 â€" as â€œthe victims of totalitarian regimes memorial dateâ€ . All of the above is unlikely to be a coincidence.

The media reported on August 6-17 that presidents Mihai Ghimpu and Mikheil Saakashvili met in Georgia to declare their commitment to reanimating GUAM believed to be stillborn since 2007.

At the moment Belarus â€" a republic going through a period of chill in the relations with Russia - is being lured into GUAM to fill in the vacuum left by Ukraine which no longer takes any interest in the bloc.

Russia seemed explainably unperturbed by the plan to revive GUAM â€" from the strategic point of view, the bloc was too big a failure to ever be taken seriously. The attempts made by certain forces in the West to support the color revolution which started brewing in Andijan in 2005 alienated Uzbekistan, Central Asia's key player in the gas market which was supposed to be GUAM's heavyweight.

Moreover, for practically all of the GUAM countries the membership came with serious costs. Moldova had to shoulder the gas price of $230 per 1,000 cu m instead of the previous $80 and barely retained a quarter of its former share of Russia's wine market.

The losses eventually forced the Moldovan president to state that the involvement of the country with GUAM would from now on be limited to economic projects. Georgia had to say Goodbye to 1/5 of its Soviet-era territory and, by the way, was debarred from Russia's wine market completely. For Ukraine, membership in GUAM earned problems with Moscow and, of course, the European-level gas prices. Even the Odessa-Brody oil transit project - invented as an alternative to Russia's Druzhba pipeline â€" collapsed as the pipeline construction was frozen before reaching Europe.

Without Ukraine and the oil-rich Azerbaijan, these days GUAM stands no chance as an alternative to Russia in the sphere of energy supplies. Azerbaijan's energy sector is cooperating tightly with Russia, and Ukraine under Yanukovych shares a series of significant projects with Russia in the aerospace and metallurgy sectors that sooner or later are sure to boost Ukraine's GDP, so that its participation in anti-Russian projects seems out of question.

Belarus can only be admitted to GUAM with observer status. Considering that the country is a member of the Customs Union and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, it is improbable that President Lukashenko will dare to outrage Moscow over GUAM.

Nevertheless, the Ghimpu-Saakashvili mini-summit was not an escapade staged by two madmen. Ghimpu is in the full sense of the word a subordinate of BÄƒsescu who is a staunch ally of the US.

Obviously, the West is launching a broad offensive against the CIS aimed at preventing the Customs Union from expanding and achieving greater cohesion. Tensions between the pool of Georgia, Moldova, and Belarus, on the one side, and Russia, on the other, must be an element of the plan.

Washington has already done part of the work. BÄƒsescu announced on February 4, 2010 that Romania would host US missile defense infrastructures, and Belarus reneged on the pledge to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Contrary to expectations, the US did not have to close the Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan. Serbia is carved up and Georgia is in the process of active rearmament. Moldova took part in NATO exercises and signed an agreement on security forces cooperation with Romania.

Notably, the list of countries invited to the would-be â€œGUBAMâ€œ is â€" with the exception of Armenia - identical to that of the Eastern Partnership. Consequently, both blocs might be components of the same project. These days GUAM no longer dispenses markedly unrealistic promises to create pipeline networks alternative to those owned by Russia or to rid the West of the dependency on Russian energy supplies (though the Nabucco project and the plan to extend the Odessa-Brody pipeline to Poland's PÅ‚ock are still alive). The current agenda seems to be:

- To prevent the enlargement of the Customs Union and the Collective Security Treaty Organization and to divert Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, and others from joining the blocs by building â€œalternativeâ€ alliances. In the case of Minsk the plan is to convince Belarus to sacrifice its membership in the above organizations.

- To form a cordon around Russia which would be locked once the administration in Ukraine is replaced.

- To coordinate anti-Russian activities, to smear Moscow in the UN, the Council of Europe, the PACE, and the OSCE; to jointly stake financial claims against Russia over â€œoccupationâ€ , â€œrepressionsâ€ , â€œholodomorâ€ , the 1992 and 2008 â€œaggressionsâ€ , etc., thus making it possible for the US and the EU to arbitrate and mediate as in fact they routinely do.

- To downscale the Russian space by limiting the use of the Russian language, jointly commemorating â€œoccupationsâ€ and â€œrepression victimsâ€ , etc.

- To provoke gas wars against Russia (Belarus being the candidate for an active role in the process).

- To coordinate efforts aimed at getting Russian peacekeepers out of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Moldova and bringing in NATO forces instead.

- To create common political, economic, and military infrastructures for the integration of the countries located in the Western part of the CIS into NATO.
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Bogdan Tsidrya is the Political Programs Director of the Priznanie Russian Humanitarian Foundation
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