US Vice President Dick Cheney was to depart yesterday on a four-nation tour to support US allies Georgia and Ukraine amid a chill in relations with Russia over its military conflict with Georgia.
Talks on energy and how to offset Russian oil dominance are also high on the agenda for the visit, which comes on the heels of a decision on Monday by EU leaders to freeze strategic partnership talks with Moscow until Russian troops withdraw from Georgia.
Cheney will be the highest ranking US official to visit Tbilisi since Russian tanks rolled in last month and fought a five-day war over the Moscow-backed rebel region of South Ossetia.
The White House led global condemnation of Russia’s subsequent decision to recognize the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, calling it “irresponsible,” but laid out no concrete retaliatory plans.
US President George W. Bush said last month that Moscow’s diplomatic gesture violated a French-brokered Aug. 12 ceasefire deal, and is reportedly mulling scrapping a US-Russia civilian nuclear cooperation pact.
Exacerbating international tensions, Russia has withdrawn some forces but left others deep inside Georgian territory, serving in what Moscow describes as a peacekeeping mission. Tbilisi has labeled them an occupying force.
Cheney will provide a “strong message of reassurance to our friends in the region,” his national security advisor John Hannah told reporters ahead of the trip, which includes stops in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Italy.
“The overriding priority, especially in Baku, Tbilisi and Kiev, will be the same: a clear and simple message that the United States has a deep and abiding interest in the well-being and security of this part of the world,” he said.
Cheney was scheduled to arrive in Baku today for talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and energy representatives. Azerbaijan saw some oil exports headed for the West via Georgia suspended last month because of the Russia-Georgia conflict.
The US vice president will then head to Tbilisi tomorrow for talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who came to power in 2004 and has led his country’s drive to join the EU and the NATO military alliance.
Proclaiming Georgia as a democratic ally, the US has sent air force planes and naval ships to bring humanitarian aid over the last three weeks, while it denies Moscow’s charges that aid shipments could be used to mask a naval buildup in the Black Sea. Bush has offered the country US$5.75 million in aid.
Cheney will then move on to Ukraine, which also harbors aspirations for EU and NATO membership, for talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on Thursday and Friday.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
RSS