US Vice President Joe Biden heads to Brussels today for fresh consultations with top NATO allies as a moment of decision looms on a new US strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Biden, who is scheduled to hold a day of talks in Brussels tomorrow, will be on his second trip to Europe in a month, and officials said his high-profile journey was a sign of how seriously they took the war policy review.
US President Barack Obama’s deputy will be tracing the steps of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who met NATO foreign ministers in Brussels last week.
“It’s just an indication of the seriousness of the situation in Afghanistan, but I think it’s also a recognition of the seriousness with which we take this,” a senior Obama administration official said on condition of anonymity.
“This is not just lip service — the idea of consultation. We mean it, and in return we want concrete ideas and concrete assistance,” the official said.
Biden will consult with the North Atlantic Council, the political and decision-making body of the alliance’s 26 member states, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Belgian officials.
Obama initiated a new policy review on the war in Afghanistan and the struggle against extremism and instability in Pakistan shortly after taking office in January.
Former CIA official Bruce Riedel is due to deliver the results of his study to the president and national security adviser James Jones before Obama heads to the NATO summit along the France-Germany border on April 3 and April 4.
White House sources said the president would have the review in hand when he heads off to Europe, on a trip which also includes the G20 economic summit and an EU-US summit in Prague.
Obama made an early mark in Afghan policy by ordering the deployment of 17,000 extra troops to the war zone, saying they were needed to stabilize a deteriorating security situation.
Some NATO partners have made clear that they are not in a position to send more soldiers to Afghanistan, so top US officials have been stressing the need to boost political and development components of the Afghan mission.
“The United States recognizes that not all of our allies can contribute troops, but we appreciate other forms of assistance equally,” the senior official said.
The official said Biden would deliver a frank message to US allies that the administration wanted their input as it frames the new Afghanistan and Pakistan policy.
“If you don’t like US policies — and obviously that’s been an issue in the past — we will want your concrete ideas about what we should be doing in Afghanistan, and not just criticism,” the official said.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
RSS