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Exacerbating international tensions, Russia has withdrawn some forces but left others deep inside Georgian territory, serving in what Moscow describes as a peacekeeping mission.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.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the