US President Barack Obama said yesterday Washington wanted a strong, prosperous but also democratic Russia, as he set out his vision of the US relationship with its former Cold-War era foe.
In the most eagerly awaited address of his two-day visit to Moscow, Obama reached out to Russia by emphasizing its place as a “great power,” but also did not shy away from the differences between the two countries.
The speech to students graduating from the progressive New Economic School came as Obama sought to revive ties with Russia bruised by a string of crises over the last decade.
“America wants a strong, peaceful and prosperous Russia,” Obama told the audience of more than 1,000 in Moscow. “We recognize the future benefit that will come from a strong and vibrant Russia.”
He acknowledged the difficulties in forming a lasting partnership between the two but said Russia and the US now shared “common interests” on the main issues of the 21st century.
The challenges facing the modern world “demand global partnership, and that partnership will be stronger if Russia occupies its rightful place as a great power,” he said.
FREEDOMS
Russia has repeatedly been criticized by the West for a lack of full democratic freedoms under former president and now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the new Kremlin chief, Dmitry Medvedev.
“The arc of history shows us that governments which serve their own people survive and thrive,” Obama said. “Governments which serve only their own power do not.”
He also took aim at corruption, widely seen as one of the scourges of Russian society.
“People everywhere should have the right to do business or get an education without paying a bribe,” Obama said.
Obama quoted from Russia’s greatest poet Alexander Pushkin and paid tribute to the country’s sacrifices in defeating fascism in World War II.
He lauded Russian culture, saying its writers had “helped us understand the complexity of the human experience.”
He also said Russia had to respect the sovereignty of its pro-Western ex-Soviet neighbors Georgia and Ukraine and acknowledged Russia’s opposition to the US plan for a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe.
FIRST MEETING
Earlier yesterday, Obama had his first meeting with Putin, who told the US president Moscow was counting on him to improve bilateral ties.
Obama praised Putin for his “extraordinary work.”
Putin told Obama: “We associate your name with the hopes of developing our relations.”
Obama also met former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and was later due to have brief talks with opposition leaders.
Medvedev and Obama on Monday announced a breakthrough deal for US military transit for Afghanistan across Russia and issued a declaration on replacing a key disarmament treaty.
The declaration called for a reduction in the number of nuclear warheads in Russian and US strategic arsenals to between 1,500 and 1,675 within seven years, and the number of ballistic missile carriers to between 500 and 1,100.
The subsidiary of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in Kumamoto, Japan, turned a profit in the first quarter of this year, marking the first time the first fab of the unit has become profitable since mass production started at the end of 2024. According to the contract chipmaker’s financial statement released on Friday, Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Inc (JASM), a joint venture running the fab in Kumamoto, posted NT$951 million (US$30.19 million) in profit in the January-to-March period, compared with a loss of NT$1.39 billion in the previous quarter, and a loss of NT$3.25 billion in the first quarter of
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
RESOLUTE BACKING: Two Republican senators are planning to introduce legislation that would impose immediate sanctions on China if it attempts to invade Taiwan US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday reaffirmed US congressional support for Taiwan, saying the US and “all freedom-loving people” have a stake in preventing China from seizing Taiwan by force. Johnson made the remarks in an interview with Fox News Sunday on US President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) last week. In an interview that aired on Friday on Fox News, just as Trump wrapped up a high-stakes visit to China, he said he has yet to green-light a new US$14 billion arms package to Taiwan and that it “depends on China.” “It’s a very good
US President Donald Trump yesterday said he would speak to President William Lai (賴清德) as his administration considers whether to move ahead with a US$14 billion weapons sale to Taiwan — a potential arms deal that has drawn criticism from China. “Well, I’ll speak to him. I speak to everybody,” Trump told reporters yesterday when asked if he had any plans to call his counterpart, although he did not offer a time frame for when such a conversation could take place. Trump previously said he would speak to the person “that’s running Taiwan,” without specifying who he meant. “We have that situation very
RSS