US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday defended new moves to engage anti-US leaders in Latin America as a way to check what she called “disturbing” Iranian and Chinese inroads in the region.
Clinton said US President Barack Obama has had to take a new tack after efforts by former US president George W. Bush to isolate such leaders had only made them “more negative” toward Washington and more receptive to rival powers.
“I don’t think in today’s world ... that it is in our interest to turn our back on countries in our own hemisphere,” Clinton told diplomats and other State Department staff.
She described the new world as “a multipolar world where we are competing for attention and relationships with at least the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians,” adding that such countries could soon fill the void.
“If you look at the gains, particularly in Latin America, that Iran is making, that China is making, it’s quite disturbing,” the chief US diplomat said.
“They’re building very strong economic and political connections with a lot of these leaders. I don’t think that it’s in our interests,” Clinton said.
She did not explicitly refer to inroads by Russia, which said last month it could seek the short-term use of bases in Cuba and Venezuela.
Her answer was prompted by concerns aired by a retired US State Department official about the Obama administration’s overtures toward Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an elected leftist-populist anti-US firebrand.
Clinton said Washington — which has also made overtures to communist Cuba — was still exploring how to deal with Chavez, Nicaraguan President Daniel Noriega, Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa and Bolivian President Evo Morales.
Last month, the US welcomed Venezuela’s move to restore full diplomatic ties between the two countries — broken in September — by returning its ambassador to Washington.
Obama and Chavez met at the opening of a 34-nation summit of the Americas and photos of the encounter showed the US leader smiling as he shook the Venezuelan’s hand and patted him on the shoulder.
It was Obama’s first encounter with the Venezuelan leader, which critics back home assailed as naive and “irresponsible.”
Obama hit back, saying: “It’s unlikely that as a consequence of me shaking hands or having a polite conversation with Mr Chavez that we are endangering the strategic interest of the United States.”
But he said he still had concerns about Venezuela and Chavez’s often heated rhetoric.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS