====

Pentagon To Unleash Special Operations Troops Worldwide

No To NATO: Ukrainians Protest Arrival Of U.S. Warship

Post-NATO War: Libya Teeters On Edge Of Civil War

Mongolia: Strategic U.S. Ally Between China And Russia

U.S. Regaining Military Foothold In The Philippines

NATO Chief: Missile Shield Fundamentals In Place By Chicago Summit

Russia To U.S. – Drop Missile Shield Or Face Response

No Unilateral Concessions On NATO Missile Shield: Russia

U.S. Able To Intercept Russian Missiles If Strategic Forces Not Upgraded

Win On Any Battlefield: U.S. Army Expands Global Partnerships

Pentagon’s Asia Shift Favors Submarines, Tankers

NATO International School Of Azerbaijan Session Begins

Increase In Energy Reserves Enhances Azerbaijan’s Strategic Role

Davos: Caspian-Black-Baltic Seas Pipelines Discussed

====

Pentagon To Unleash Special Operations Troops Worldwide

http://www.stripes.com/news/bin-laden-raid-commander-seeks-global-expansion-of-special-ops-1.166880

Stars and Stripes
January 26, 2012

Bin Laden raid commander seeks global expansion of special ops

U.S. officials say the Pentagon is moving to unleash special operations troops worldwide as traditional military operations are cut back.

According to The Associated Press, defense officials have embraced a proposal by U.S. Special Operations Command chief Adm. Bill McRaven to push troops as they withdraw from war zones to reinforcement of units in areas somewhat neglected during the decade-long focus on al-Qaida. Positioning commandos closer to new crisis zones would make it easier to launch raids such as the ones that resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden and the recent rescue of hostages from Somali pirates.

====

No To NATO: Ukrainians Protest Arrival Of U.S. Warship

http://en.ria.ru/mlitary_news/20120126/170963407.html

Russian Information Agency Novosti
January 26, 2012

US Warship Calls at Ukrainian Port Amid Protests

SEVASTOPOL: A U.S. guided missile cruiser stopped at the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Sevastopol on Thursday with a group of some 50 protesters chanting “Yankee, go home!” and “No to NATO!”

The USS Vella Gulf (CG 72), a Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser, is on a mission in the Black Sea and is to visit the ports of Constanta, Sevastopol and Odessa.

It carries 26 Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of up to 3,000 kilometers and has elements of a missile defense system on board.

The protesters also burned a U.S. flag featuring the Nazi swastika instead of stars.

Yevhen Dubovik, a protest organizer, said the visit was illegal because it had not been authorized by Ukraine’s parliament.

“Nevertheless, a warship has called here that has offensive weapons on board and it is not ruled out that if it receives orders it will deliver a strike on Iran in close proximity to our coast,” he said.

“Thus Ukraine, a state not affiliated with any military blocs, may automatically become involved in an international conflict.”

The USS Vella Gulf is to remain in Sevastopol until January 31. A number of joint tactical exercises with Ukrainian naval units have been planned.

====

Post-NATO War: Libya Teeters On Edge Of Civil War

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012/01/26/64661112.html

Voice of Russia
January 26, 2012

Libya teeters on edge of civil war
Konstantin Garibov

-”There have been clashes between Arabs and Berbers and between other tribes on ethnic grounds. It’s also important that the so-called fighters for freedom and democracy came to power in Libya with the help of NATO, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Britain and France which supplied planes or special task forces. For Libyans, the National Transitional Council is not legitimate.”
-”There has been no revolution in Libya. The western media have made it all up. From the very outset, it was clear that whoever would come to power after Gaddafi would be unable to rule the country or maintain its territorial integrity. Many Arabic scholars foresaw a split and it came sooner than expected. The reality is that Libya has entered a civil war.”

       
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay and the UN Libya envoy Ian Martin have expressed concern over the situation in Libya where they say the new authorities have failed to assert full authority and instill order.

The recent clashes between pro-Gaddafi supporters and NTC forces were provoked by both parties, Ian Martin said. Until recently, the interim authorities managed to handle these kinds of incidents fairly well but they might happen again in the future, the UN human rights commissioner said.

On Monday armed units of pro-Gaddafi supporters seized Bani Walid where the elders had passed a no-confidence motion against the central government. Sweeping violence also gripped Benghazi and Tripoli. Bani Walid returned under the control of the Libyan government by Wednesday.

The attacks by pro-Gaddafi forces are taking place amid the acute crisis that has hit the NTC and Libya as a whole. Alexei Podtserob of the Institute of Oriental Studies, comments.

“There have been clashes between Arabs and Berbers and between other tribes on ethnic grounds. It’s also important that the so-called fighters for freedom and democracy came to power in Libya with the help of NATO, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Britain and France which supplied planes or special task forces. For Libyans, the National Transitional Council is not legitimate.”

The revolutionaries are disgruntled at the absence of transparency in the government’s work, its failure to pay compensations promised and the presence of former Gaddafi functionaries in the current leadership. For this reason, many experts believe that the NTC is incapable of taking the situation under control. Andrei Volodin of the Center for Oriental Research at the Russian Foreign Ministry, has this to say.

“There has been no revolution in Libya. The western media have made it all up. From the very outset, it was clear that whoever would come to power after Gaddafi would be unable to rule the country or maintain its territorial integrity. Many Arabic scholars foresaw a split and it came sooner than expected. The reality is that Libya has entered a civil war.”

The so-called Arab Spring revolutions naturally spill into full-scale civil wars, Yevgeny Satanovsky of the Institute of the Middle East says. Given this, the new regimes are unlikely to see stability in the near future. According to Satanovsky, the current turmoil in Libya has the potential to wreak havoc across North Africa, and the unrest in Yemen may plunge the whole of the Arabian Peninsula into chaos.

====

Mongolia: Strategic U.S. Ally Between China And Russia

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-01/26/c_131377913.htm

Xinhua News Agency
January 26, 2012

Mongolia holds seminar to mark anniversary of ties with U.S.

Mongolia: Pentagon Trojan Horse Wedged Between China And Russia

ULAN BATOR: The Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade held a seminar Thursday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Mongolia and the United States.

Addressing an audience of some 100 government officials, scholars and U.S. diplomats, U.S. ambassador to Mongolia Jonathan Addleton said the two countries have expanded cooperation in a wide range of areas over the past years and more and more big U.S. companies have been engaged in Mongolia’s economic development.

The ambassador also mentioned Mongolia’s “active role in international peacekeeping missions.”

Mongolia-U.S. relations have developed rapidly over the past years as the two countries have agreed to build a “comprehensive partnership based on common strategic interests.”

====

U.S. Regaining Military Foothold In The Philippines

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012/01/26/64690091.html

Voice of Russia
January 26, 2012

U.S. regaining military foothold in the Philippines
Vladimir Gladkov

       
The contest for domination over the South China Sea between the US and China reaches a new level as the Philippines enters negotiations with the White House about expanding the American military presence in the country. This move will be a frustrating surprise for China. A decision to start the talks came two decades after the eviction of US forces from their biggest base in the Pacific. The development of the situation will certainly raise tensions between the US and China, considering the aggressive efforts of America aimed at expanding its military presence in the region and China’s growing thirst for oil.

The energy-rich South China Sea became a contested territory in the middle of the last century, when the Chinese Communist Party claimed its “indisputable sovereignty” over almost the entire basin. Now when China’s demand for energy has dramatically risen, Beijing will hardly accept any compromises in the battle for the Sea. According to the International Energy Agency in Paris, China will double its demand for oil in the next quarter century. Considering the fact that China imports more than half its oil while its own onshore oil resources are expecting a decline in oil-production, the expansion of American presence in the oil-rich South China Sea will infuriate Beijing.

However, the While House will hardly miss a chance to confront its main opponent, especially now when many other Southeast Asian countries seem to be on the side of the US…

“I don’t see in the near future an American base in Vietnam, but we have seen much more increased military cooperation,” said James Webb, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific affairs and a Vietnam War veteran.

…The US already has about 600 special operations troops on the territory of the Philippines…but if the agreement is reached, the Philippines islands will start hosting American Navy warships and surveillance aircraft.  The deal would follow other recent agreements to base thousands of US Marines in northern Australia and to station warships in Singapore…

…

====

NATO Chief: Missile Shield Fundamentals In Place By Chicago Summit

http://www.rttnews.com/1806656/nato-chief-basic-components-of-european-missile-defense-to-be-ready-by-may.aspx?type=gn&Node=B1

RTT News
January 27, 2012

NATO Chief: Basic Components Of European Missile Defense To Be Ready By May

-The year 2011 also saw significant changes in NATO’s partnerships. Consultation and cooperation went beyond traditional formats. The Libya operation included direct partner involvement in decision-making for NATO-led military operations and saw consultation and cooperation with the United Nations and the League of Arab States, as well as with Libya and other countries in the region.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said that the initial components of the European missile defense system are expected to be in place by the time of the Chicago Summit in May.

He said this on Thursday, while launching NATO’s first ever ‘Annual Report,’ which gives a brief overview of the Alliance’s principal achievements and challenges in 2011.

The missile defense system…is “smart defense” at its best and it embodies transatlantic solidarity, the NATO chief said in his foreword to the annual report.

He said the Alliance had already made considerable progress, as along with a prominent and phased U.S. contribution, a number of Allies have made significant announcements, including Turkey, Poland, Romania, Spain, the Netherlands and France. These different national contributions will be gradually brought together under a common NATO command and control system. Key elements of it have already been tested successfully, Rasmussen added.

The Chicago Summit will be “an opportunity to renew our commitment to the vital transatlantic bond between us and to redouble our efforts to share the burden of security more effectively,” according to him. He said important decisions will be taken at the summit “to keep NATO committed, capable and connected.”

The assessment of Alliance activities in the annual report 2011 focuses on NATO operations, emerging security challenges, modernization of NATO – its structures and capabilities – as well as NATO’s growing partnerships. These areas are examined against the backdrop of the financial crisis.

In 2011, NATO operations continued across three continents. In Afghanistan, greater stability and the beginning of transition characterized 2011. Although Afghanistan constitutes the Alliance’s most significant operational commitment to date, 2011 was marked by the Alliance’s Operation Unified Protector in Libya, which mobilized NATO forces for seven months…Progress in Kosovo was marred by peaks of violence in the north, whereas counter-piracy efforts off the Horn of Africa and in the Gulf of Aden helped to reduce the pirate attack success rate in 2011. And NATO’s training mission in Iraq was terminated on December 31 after eight years of operation.

The report highlights the key measures taken by NATO to tackle cyber attacks, to respond to the growing number of countries acquiring ballistic missiles and to counter terrorism…

…

The year 2011 also saw significant changes in NATO’s partnerships. Consultation and cooperation went beyond traditional formats. The Libya operation included direct partner involvement in decision-making for NATO-led military operations and saw consultation and cooperation with the United Nations and the League of Arab States, as well as with Libya and other countries in the region.

====

Russia To U.S. – Drop Missile Shield Or Face Response

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012/01/27/64767504.html

Itar-Tass
January 27, 2012

Russia to US: drop ABM plans of face response

       
Russia  has warned the US to drop its missile defence plans or face a Russian response, of the kind that has been outlined by President Dmitry Medvedev.

Speaking in Moscow Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin also renewed Russia’s proposal to the US and NATO to develop a joint air and missile defence system for Europe.

The Americans are sending missile defence ships to the Baltic, the Barents and the Norwegian Seas and planning to deploy interceptor rockets in Poland in 2018.

====

No Unilateral Concessions On NATO Missile Shield: Russia

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012/01/27/64715239.html

Ekho Moskvy/Russian Information Agency Novosti
January 27, 2012

No unilateral missile defense concessions from Russia – Ryabkov

       
Moscow does not intend to propose any initiatives on missile defense which the U.S. could interpret as concessions. This was stated by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, speaking on Ekho Moskvy radio station.

According to him, negotiations on this subject proceed with difficulty, but they are not at an impasse. “A political decision is feasible, if there is a will to seek compromise,” said the official.

“We cannot simply adopt the American position. This would amount to action in detriment of one’s own interests,” added Ryabkov.

Moscow believes that deployment of American missile defense system elements in close proximity to Russian borders is directed against this country’s strategic nuclear forces. Negotiations have stalled due to U.S. refusal to provide legal guarantees the deployed system does not target Russia’s deterrent force.

====

U.S. Able To Intercept Russian Missiles If Strategic Forces Not Upgraded

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/327363.html

Itar-Tass
January 26, 2012

US might be able to intercept RF missiles if Russia does not upgrade its forces – diplomat

MOSCOW: If Russia takes no effort to modernize its strategic forces, the United States might be able to intercept our missiles by 2020, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Ekho Moskvy radio station on Thursday.

When asked what is a threat a U.S. missile defence system might pose to Russia, he said, “The threat is that within the span of several years, if the U.S. plans are implemented, we will have by the year 2020 a system that will be able to intercept Russian strategic forces unless we upgrade them so that they would be able to get through this system.”

Russia sees no point in putting forth new initiatives in talks with the United States on problems of missile defence, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister said.

“There was a moment when we were close, so to say, to an intermediate common understanding of the core of the problem and of what issues are to be settled first,” he told the Ekho Moskvy radio station. “But later, regrettably, the U.S. side decided not to pass a relevant document.”

“As a result, the position of our partners has grown stiff,” he noted. “In these conditions we see no point in making any steps that might be taken as Russia’s unilateral concessions.”

====

Win On Any Battlefield: U.S. Army Expands Global Partnerships

http://www.army.mil/article/72498/Odierno__Army_seeks_increased_partnerships_in_Asia/

U.S. Army
January 25, 2012

Odierno: Army seeks increased partnerships in Asia
By C. Todd Lopez

-Odierno expects development of a trilateral relationship between South Korea, Japan and the United States for security cooperation, something he said “is an important step as we continue to expand our relationships in Northeast Asia.”
-”We will strengthen our presence in the region,” [Odierno] said. “We have five of our seven mutual defense treaties in this region and we continue to conduct longstanding exercises with Korea, Japan, Thailand and the Philippines. The Army will actively seek new opportunities for expanding and existing training and engaging with new partners.”
In Europe, Africa and South America, Odierno expects similar partnerships. Even with a reduced footprint in Europe, for instance, the Army maintains its commitment there to NATO allies, Odierno said, and will have increased training opportunities with its European partners.

WASHINGTON: The Army is looking for increased opportunities to partner with allies in Asia, including both Korea and Japan.

Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno recently returned from a trip to the Pacific region, including Korea and Japan, as well as other parts of Pacific Command to include Hawaii and Alaska.

Odierno spoke Jan. 25 at a breakfast hosted by the Association of the United States Army’s Institute of Land Warfare in Arlington, Va.

In Japan, the general met with the Japanese minister of defense and the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force commander.

“Both expressed their optimism and were excited about increased opportunities to work together with the Army, which they see as critical to the future of the Asian region,” Odierno said.

While in Korea, he met with the country’s minister of defense and army chief of staff.

“Both leaders were extremely appreciative of our Army’s continued commitment and dedication to security in Northeast Asia,” Odierno said.

Odierno expects development of a trilateral relationship between South Korea, Japan and the United States for security cooperation, something he said “is an important step as we continue to expand our relationships in Northeast Asia.”

The general said the trip to Asia was productive, adding that it’s “clear that our partners and allies in Asia/Pacific desire increased engagement with our great Army – especially as we continue to maneuver our way through these complex and uncertain times we have,” Odierno explained.

…He also said the Army must not lose the ability to conduct missions across any operational environment, including regular and irregular warfare, civilian operations, counter insurgency and humanitarian assistance.

The Army can also shape the international environment “with strong military relationships with allies and by building partner capacity,” he added.

Such relationships, Odierno said, are already strong in Asia, and will continue to grow.

“We will strengthen our presence in the region,” he said. “We have five of our seven mutual defense treaties in this region and we continue to conduct longstanding exercises with Korea, Japan, Thailand and the Philippines. The Army will actively seek new opportunities for expanding and existing training and engaging with new partners.”

In Europe, Africa and South America, Odierno expects similar partnerships. Even with a reduced footprint in Europe, for instance, the Army maintains its commitment there to NATO allies, Odierno said, and will have increased training opportunities with its European partners.

The Army must also be “ready to win,” dominantly and decisively. “The cost of indecision and cost of entering the fight without a dominant capability, enabled by superior technology and unmatched leadership, is the unnecessary loss of American lives,” Odierno said. “We must and will retain an Army with the capacity and capability to win decisively on any battlefield, should the terms fail.”

…

====

Pentagon’s Asia Shift Favors Submarines, Tankers

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-26/pentagon-s-focus-on-asia-favors-submarines-bombers-tankers-panetta-says.html

Bloomberg News
January 26, 2012

Pentagon’s Asia Shift Favors Subs, Tankers
By Tony Capaccio

-The plan calls for increasing the size of the Navy’s current Virginia-class attack submarines to carry more Tomahawk cruise missiles and to develop an undersea, non-nuclear “strike option” similar to an intercontinental ballistic missile.
-The Littoral Combat vessels, made for operating close to shore by Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Maryland, and Austal of Henderson, Australia, get an expanded role in the plan. Panetta said the Navy intends to base some of them in Singapore and other patrol craft in Bahrain.

The Pentagon’s shift to forces focused on Asia and the Middle East in a budget outlined today may protect from deep cuts U.S. makers of aircraft carriers, submarines, surface-combat vessels, electronic-warfare sensors, drones, long-range bombers and tankers.

While the plan would slow the pace of shipbuilding, its emphasis on naval forces in an era of budget-cutting may help vessel-makers Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., General Dynamics Corp. (GD), Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) and Austal Ltd. It also may provide opportunities for aircraft companies Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) and Boeing Co. (BA) and missile maker Raytheon Co. (RTN)

“This budget protects, and in some cases increases, investments that are critical to our ability to project power in Asia and the Middle East,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said at a news conference at the Pentagon today disclosing elements of a $613 billion defense proposal for fiscal 2013. That includes $88.4 billion for continuing combat, led by the war in Afghanistan.

…

‘Far More Lethal’

The biggest initiative other than military hardware is a reduction of the Army – “gradually,” according to Panetta – to 490,000 personnel from about 565,000 today. The Army numbered about 480,000 in February 2002, one year before the Iraq invasion. The budget also calls for reducing the Marines to 182,000 from about 202,000 today.

“They will be fundamentally shaped by a decade of war, far more lethal, battle-hardened and ready,” Panetta said of U.S. forces. The Army was increased by as much as 95,000 and the Marines by 30,000, largely because of the Iraq war.

…

The Pentagon’s Asia and Middle East emphasis reinforces the need for a long-range, stealthy bomber, and sustaining the Navy’s 11-carrier force with 10 air wings and big-deck amphibious vessels, Panetta said.

Huntington Ingalls of Newport News, Virginia, is building the three-ship, $40 billion Gerald R. Ford class of carriers to be equipped with a new electromagnetic catapult system built by closely held General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.

‘‘Modernizing our submarine fleet will be critical to our efforts to maintain maritime access in these vital regions,” Panetta said.

‘Strike Option’

The plan calls for increasing the size of the Navy’s current Virginia-class attack submarines to carry more Tomahawk cruise missiles and to develop an undersea, non-nuclear “strike option” similar to an intercontinental ballistic missile. Raytheon of Waltham, Massachusetts makes the Tomahawk. Huntington Ingalls and General Dynamics make the submarine.

The “strike option” concept was first proposed by the Bush administration and resurrected in fiscal 2011 under Obama.

The Littoral Combat vessels, made for operating close to shore by Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Maryland, and Austal of Henderson, Australia, get an expanded role in the plan. Panetta said the Navy intends to base some of them in Singapore and other patrol craft in Bahrain…

…

The fiscal 2013 budget proposal is 1 percent less, unadjusted for inflation, than this year’s $531 billion plan. The numbers include spending on military construction.

The defense number, not including combat, grows to $534 billion in fiscal 2014, $546 billion in fiscal 2015, $556 billion in fiscal 2016 and $567 billion in 2017.

Adjusted for inflation, the Pentagon projects a 1.6 percent reduction in real spending power between 2013 and 2017.

====

NATO International School Of Azerbaijan Session Begins

http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=164573

Azeri Press Agency
January 27, 2012

Winter session of NATO International School of Azerbaijan (NISA) starts

Baku: The next winter session of NATO International School of Azerbaijan (NISA) starts.

Press service of Ministry of Foreign Affairs told APA that the opening ceremony will be held on January 30.

====

Increase In Energy Reserves Enhances Azerbaijan’s Strategic Role

http://en.trend.az/capital/energy/1985196.html

Trend News Agency
January 27, 2012

Turkish minister: Increase in energy reserves enhances Azerbaijan’s role
A. Taghiyeva

Baku: The increase in energy reserves enhances Azerbaijan’s role for Turkey, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz said in an interview with T24 on Friday.

“The discovery of new gas fields in Azerbaijan is also our achievement,” Minister said.

Yildiz said that the implementation of the Trans Anadolu (TANAP) project contributes to the supply of Azerbaijani gas to Europe.

Earlier, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a consortium. It will build a pipeline to supply gas from the Shah Deniz field to Europe through Turkish territory.

The construction of the TANAP gas pipeline is required to export most of 50 billion cubic meters of gas that Azerbaijan intends to produce by 2025.

The participants of the project plan to resolve all issues on this gas pipeline in 2012 and begin construction for the project to be implemented by late 2017, when the implementation of the second stage of Shah Deniz field development is launched. The gas pipeline will be the basis of the Southern Gas Corridor.

====

Davos: Caspian-Black-Baltic Seas Pipelines Discussed

http://en.trend.az/capital/energy/1984862.html

Trend News Agency
January 27, 2012

Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Turkey to implement joint energy projects

-The two countries have an agreement on transportation of Azerbaijani oil via system of main oil pipelines of Ukraine: in the direction of the Kremenchuk oil refinery from the port of Odesa; transit in the direction of the Mozyr oil refinery (Belarus); transit in the direction of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic), as well as in the direction of Poland’s oil refinery with the use of the Belarusian and Polish sections of the oil pipeline Druzhba (for the period prior to completion of the Brody-Plock pipeline construction).

Baku: Ukraine is holding an active dialogue with Azerbaijan on implementation of joint projects in the energy sector, president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich told Ukrainian mass media outlets in Davos on Thursday following a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the presidential press service reported.

“We held another round of negotiations. Two protocols are being prepared for signing. There are technical issues that need to be considered by specialists. Undoubtedly, Ukraine will continue to work on transportation of the Caspian gas as a gas consumer and as a country that can take part in the construction of gas-transport systems involving our resources. It is very interesting for us,” President Yanukovych said.

He said now trilateral negotiations are underway between Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Turkey on cooperation in energy sector projects.

“We see the perspective,” President Yanukovych said, adding that the negotiation parties practically confirmed their interest in these projects.

Two documents will be signed between the two countries on gas supplies to a LNG terminal and establishment of a Ukrainian-Azerbaijan company to develop the project to build the facility.

It is expected that the developer of a feasibility study for a Ukrainian LNG-terminal, the Spanish company Socoin, will complete the work soon. The cost of construction of the terminal was decreased from $1.5 billion to $1 billion.

The Ukrainian national project LNG terminal includes construction of a marine terminal for liquefied natural gas. Ukraine will be able to diversify gas supplies in the volume of 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year after implementation of the project.

The two countries have an agreement on transportation of Azerbaijani oil via system of main oil pipelines of Ukraine: in the direction of the Kremenchuk oil refinery from the port of Odesa; transit in the direction of the Mozyr oil refinery (Belarus); transit in the direction of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic), as well as in the direction of Poland’s oil refinery with the use of the Belarusian and Polish sections of the oil pipeline Druzhba (for the period prior to completion of the Brody-Plock pipeline construction).

====

The U.S. prepares for unmanned warfare
Boris Volkhonsky*
Edited by RR

====

First of all, a network of special operation bases and the use of drones signify that the U.S. would be able to attack any adversary anywhere, not bothering too much about whether they are attacking a sovereign state or not.

Sources say that the U.S. plans to use such bases in Australia and in the Philippines, which reflects a new emphasis Washington is laying on confronting China along its eastern borders. With drones and special bases being deployed all over the globe and especially in the vicinity of such a sensitive area as the South China Sea, it gives the U.S. new opportunities to further alienate an unlimited number of nations.

====

As the U.S. Defense Secretary has been getting ready to present a new Pentagon budget for 2012, some details of his plans became known to the media.

One of the striking new features in the plan is that while the Pentagon is preparing to cut its conventional forces, it lays more emphasis on unmanned drones and special operation bases. According to some sources, the plan is to increase the fleet of unmanned aircraft by 30 percent in the coming years. Also, new, small so-called “lily-pad” bases will be deployed in various points of the globe for launching special operations and engaging allies.

Definitely, such plans reflect a growing weariness felt by the American public after the two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq which have claimed thousands of American lives. The number of civilian casualties among Iraqis and Afghans exceeds it by scores, but who cares?

Definitely, the majority of American taxpayers are no longer ready to pay for the deaths of their children. Unmanned aircraft seem a much more preferable tool for conducting warcraft. Again, it should be said that the use of drones does not significantly diminish the number of civilian casualties in the countries they are deployed in, but that again hardly bothers the U.S. public as well as authorities.

Therefore, from the elections point of view, the new plan might serve President Obama’s interests. But what could be its long-term implications?

First of all, a network of special operation bases and the use of drones signify that the U.S. would be able to attack any adversary anywhere, not bothering too much about whether they are attacking a sovereign state or not.

This has been done repeatedly in recent years. Drones were used over Somalia and Pakistan, with which the U.S. is not engaged in any war. The most notorious special operation launched by the U.S. last year on the territory of a sovereign state was the elimination of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan without even giving prior notice to Pakistani authorities.

It also sheds some light on the future of Afghanistan. Most probably, Obama (or whoever will be the White House host in 2014) will fulfill the promise to withdraw combat troops from there. But it will in no way mean that the operation is over. Instead of the stationary presence of regular troops, there will be small mobile units launching secret raids and hunt-and-kill missions.

With the expansion of the drone fleet and special operation bases, one should expect that the number of drone strikes and special forces raids will only increase. Formally, it would allow U.S. authorities to state that a) they are not launching any war against anybody, and b) they are sparing the lives of American soldiers. But in fact it would only be a continuation of the old belligerent policy.

But what would such practice result in? If we look back at Pakistan where the use of drones was most widespread, we can see that it not only inflicted enormous damage in terms of human lives and infrastructure, but also extremely alienated the Pakistani people from the U.S. and brought bilateral relations to the verge of total collapse. In fact, the Chinese were the only ones who were happy about the outcome, since it enabled them to tie Pakistan much closer to their strategic interests.

Sources say that the U.S. plans to use such bases in Australia and in the Philippines, which reflects a new emphasis Washington is laying on confronting China along its eastern borders. With drones and special bases being deployed all over the globe and especially in the vicinity of such a sensitive area as the South China Sea, it gives the U.S. new opportunities to further alienate an unlimited number of nations. So, the dilemma the present administration is facing is the following: is it worth risking further international isolation (which favors the U.S.’ global opponents and primarily China) for the sake of securing re-election for a second term?

*Boris Volkhonsky, senior research fellow, Russian Institute for Strategic Studies

ASEAN and SCO: Same traditions and missions
Vitaly Vorobyev*
Edited by RR

====

Non-bloc approaches, equality, transparency, collective principles, non-confrontation and supremacy of universal rules of international law are the pillars of such an architecture. Creating global indivisible security based on mutual understanding, respect and cooperation is largely a reflection of fundamental ideas of philosophy initially inherent to ASEAN and SCO. If the two organizations with observer status in the UN General Assembly come closer, it would not only strengthen their positive international image but also make their shared ideas even more relevant globally.

Why not, for example, consider ASEAN becoming an observer at the SCO and the SCO receiving ASEAN Dialogue Partner status? What prevents the SCO and ASEAN from thinking about the SCO’s joining the Bali Treaty? Apparently, there are no fundamental or procedural obstacles to that. Not only ASEAN and the SCO, but also the whole cause of designing and creating a security and stability architecture in the Asia-Pacific will benefit from this.

====

Moscow: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, widely known as ASEAN, will celebrate its 45th anniversary in August 2012.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) marked its 10th anniversary in 2011. Both organizations lie in the vast Euro-Asian terrain. The 10 ASEAN member states constitute a southern part of this territory, while the six SCO member states (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) cover its heartland — the northern and eastern parts.

The most crucial world shipping lanes between the Pacific and the Indian Oceans pass through the ASEAN area to the Atlantic Ocean and Europe. At the same time the SCO area may be called as a land transport corridor connecting the Pacific Basin with Europe and the Atlantic coast.

Despite an “age difference,” both unions have already established a chain of dialogue partners and observers among which are the largest and the most powerful states of the modern world.

It is not only the location that naturally brings the SCO and ASEAN closer to each other. Generally, they have much in common, including a common spirit and similar basic principles.

Neither of the organizations is a military and political bloc with instruments of compulsion.

Regardless of size and power, all members of both ASEAN and the SCO are equal and follow the same consensus principle while adopting the most important decisions. Both multifaceted organizations, being socially oriented, work hard with a view to adequately match the priorities of domestic development with the necessity to respond continuously to the volatile flow of external challenges and threats.

Financial and economic globalization has embraced almost the entire world. Local crises resonate in all directions and it has become impossible to mitigate them on a national level only. International terrorism fuelled by drug trafficking and separatism, organized crime and illegal migration, kidnapping and human trafficking have achieved a global dimension. Efforts by individual states are obviously insufficient to oppose them.

Both megatrends can only be efficiently reversed through a wide international consensus for risk evaluation and decision-making. The course of events brings new possibilities for international players to unite their efforts if they view problems more or less in the same way and/or have similar interests, though not in each and every respect.

In this context, it is urgently needed to intensify the implementation of the framework agreements on SCO-ASEAN cooperation achieved a few years ago. There is not even a visible obstacle for that. It is time to establish working contacts between them not on an occasional but on a regular and institutional basis. Progress in this direction will add substance to the creation of regional architecture on security and multilateral cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (AP) region.

Non-bloc approaches, equality, transparency, collective principles, non-confrontation and supremacy of universal rules of international law are the pillars of such an architecture. Creating global indivisible security based on mutual understanding, respect and cooperation is largely a reflection of fundamental ideas of philosophy initially inherent to ASEAN and the SCO. If the two organizations with observer status in the UN General Assembly come closer, it would not only strengthen their positive international image but also make their shared ideas even more relevant globally.

Cooperation between the SCO and ASEAN can develop actively in many, if not all, domains of their work. To this end, it is important to organize information exchanges between the Secretariats in Beijing and Jakarta.

The establishment of contacts between two major working bodies — the Council of National Coordinators of the SCO and the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting — appears quite promising.

Both organizations have either specific programs or specialized structures aimed at combating terrorism, illicit drug trafficking and trans-border crime. For example, the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure headquartered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, a permanent body in the SCO framework. The SCO has gathered useful practices in countering cyber crime.

Large-scale tasks to create by 2015 involve three communities — namely, political-security, economic and socio-cultural — which are being tackled by ASEAN would undoubtedly be of interest to the SCO, as would be the ASEAN Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity approved in 2010 and aimed at developing the transport, information and communication infrastructure of the association. ASEAN could take an interest in some practical projects that are being implemented by the SCO, including those in cooperation with ESCAP.

The fact that ASEAN and the SCO carry out their activities without infringing on the diversity of cultures, religions and values of the peoples living in their member states serves as the common ground for joint efforts. Mutual exchange of relevant experience would help make SCO and ASEAN even more attractive.

The agendas of the SCO and the ASEAN Regional Forums have much in common. Both structures can only benefit if dialogue is established and the SCO joins the Forum’s activities as soon as possible.

Over the years, ASEAN has gone through a number of difficult transformation periods, including the enlargement of its original membership. Today, keenly and timely adapting to world changes, ASEAN is leading the integration processes in the Asia-Pacific. Many characteristics and qualities of ASEAN can serve as a worthy and useful example for the SCO, which as it enters a phase of intensified development in the new decade.

Both organizations can complement each other without prejudice to their independence, self-sufficiency, and specificity. Formally, it can be done on a networking basis. Why not, for example, consider ASEAN becoming an observer at the SCO and the SCO receiving ASEAN Dialogue Partner status? What prevents the SCO and ASEAN from thinking about the SCO’s joining the Bali Treaty? Apparently, there are no fundamental or procedural obstacles to that. Not only ASEAN and the SCO, but also the whole cause of designing and creating a security and stability architecture in the Asia-Pacific will benefit from this.

*The writer was ambassador of the special envoy of the president of Russia for the SCO Affairs during 2000-2006.

U.S. To Deploy Third Carrier Strike Group To Persian Gulf

Russia: U.S. Uses Global Missile Shield To Boost Leadership Status

Georgia’s Saakashvili In U.S. On Obama’s Invitation

Georgian Defense Chief Hails NATO Role In Military Buildup

Afghan War: Georgia To Almost Double NATO Contingent

Thousands Of NATO Trucks In Pakistan Backlog

Land, Sea, Air: Rasmussen Says NATO “Delivers” In Africa, Asia, Europe, Arabian Sea

EU Commissioner: Final Decision On Trans-Caspian Pipeline By June

Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Pipeline Proceeds Apace

Turkey-Greece-Italy: Caspian, Middle East Pipelines To Europe

Davos: Azerbaijan’s President Discusses Trans-Eurasian Energy Projects

Turkish Military Chief To Visit Azerbaijan

====

U.S. To Deploy Third Carrier Strike Group To Persian Gulf

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012/01/26/64665940.html

Interfax
January 26, 2012

U.S. to deploy more warships to Gulf in March

The U.S. plans to deploy a third convoy of warships led by USS Enterprise to the Gulf in March.

The country`s second aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and its battle group entered the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz last Sunday, accompanied by UK and French warships.

====

Russia: U.S. Uses Global Missile Shield To Boost Leadership Status

http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20120125165804.shtml

RosBusinessConsulting
January 25, 2012

Putin: U.S. uses anti-missile shield to strengthen leadership status

Moscow: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said today that plans to deploy the anti-missile defense system in Europe are related to the U.S. aspirations to strengthen its status as global leader. “Sometimes I think they need vassals, not allies,” he told students in the city of Tomsk today.

The anti-missile issue is one of the challenges in Russia-U.S relations. President Dmitry Medvedev threatened to pull out of the Strategic Nuclear Arms Treaty (START) unless the U.S. abandons its anti-missile plans.

====

Georgia’s Saakashvili In U.S. On Obama’s Invitation

http://en.trend.az/news/politics/1984288.html

Trend News Agency
January 25, 2012

The President of Georgia leaves for U.S.
N. Kirtzkhalia

Tbilisi: The President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili leaves for the USA on U.S. President Barack Obama’s invitation on Wednesday, the official website of the President of Georgia reported.

An official meeting of the two presidents in the Oval Office of the White House will be held on January 30.

Mikheil Saakashvili will participate in the Basecamp Summit, to where he received a special invitation, the website of the President reported.

Major investors from around the world and business leaders will participate at the conference, which will be held in California on January 27-30.

The President of Georgia will address at the conference. The topic of his speech is “The destruction of tyranny and democracy-building: Lessons from the Rose Revolution in Georgia.”

====

Georgian Defense Chief Hails NATO Role In Military Buildup

http://rustavi2.com/news/news_text.php?id_news=44460&pg=1&im=main&ct=0&wth=

Rustavi 2
January 25, 2012

Georgian Defense Minister meets with foreign diplomats

Foreign diplomats visited the Ministry of Defense of Georgia today where they discussed military education, trainings, Georgia`s relations with NATO and the ongoing ISAF operation with the Georgian minister.

Ambassadors, military attaches and representatives of various organizations attended the meeting held in the ministry.

Georgian Minister Bacho Akhalaia summed up results of the past year at the meeting and discussed the plans of 2012.

“We have achieved more-or-less serious progress in terms of the transformation of armed forces. Obviously the assistance and consultations we are receiving from our friends from NATO have made a serious contribution to this. We can say that now we are unanimous that we are on the right way and I think this year will be much more successful than the previous ones”, the minister said.

“It was a very productive briefing today on the priorities of the ministry for the coming year and in fact a couple of more years ahead in terms of both simultaneously strengthening Georgia`s defense capabilities but also creating a more modern transparent defense establishment that is thinking ahead, planning appropriately for the threats, potential and actual that Georgia faces”, U.S. Ambassador to Georgia John Bass said.

====

Afghan War: Georgia To Almost Double NATO Contingent

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20120125/170948606.html

Russian Information Agency Novosti
January 25, 2012

Georgia to Almost Double its Troops in Afghanistan in 2012

STRASBOURG: Georgia plans to strengthen its almost 1,000-strong peacekeeping contingent in Afghanistan by 700 more troops in 2012, Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze said on Wednesday.

While other nations participating in peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan are pulling their troops out of the war-torn country, President Mikheil Saakashvili proposed last year to increase the number of Georgian peacekeepers and the country’s lawmakers approved his move in December.

Addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg, Vashadze said Georgia “has solid intentions to continue participating in the NATO-led operation in Afghanistan.”

Georgia, which is actively seeking NATO membership, joined the international U.S.-led coalition fighting the Afghan insurgency in August of 2009.

The Georgian minister added that it is “impossible to grow further without taking security issues into account… and we [Georgia] are constantly working on the issue of joining NATO.”

Georgia currently has around 750 troops in the Helmand Province and 175 in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul.

At least ten Georgian soldiers have been killed since joining the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operations in Afghanistan.

…

====

Thousands Of NATO Trucks In Pakistan Backlog

http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/26/thousands-of-nato-trucks-in-pakistan-backlog.html

Dawn/Agence France-Presse
January 26, 2012

Thousands of Nato trucks in Pakistan backlog

KARACHI: Two months into Pakistan’s blockade on Nato supplies crossing into Afghanistan, thousands of trucks are crowding the port in Karachi where drivers, fed up with waiting, are starting to desert.

For a month, directors of transport companies, drivers and their helpers hung around patiently, buoyed by rumours of an imminent reopening of the border, shut after US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26.

But the botched raids snowballed into the biggest disaster in Pakistani-US relations since the 2001 American invasion began after the 9/11 attacks.

Two months on, Pakistan is still reviewing the relationship and no one knows when the border will reopen, through which passes 25 per cent of the supplies needed by the 130,000 foreign troops under US command in landlocked Afghanistan.

Fed up, running out of money and missing their families, many of the drivers have since abandoned their trucks and returned to their homes, often in Pakistan’s troubled northwestern areas near the Afghan border.

“They had no more money in the end so they left one helper with their vehicle for security and care, and went back to their families,” said Mohammad Saleh Afridi, vice chairman of the All Pakistan Oil Tankers Association.

He says more than a thousand trucks are stranded in Karachi. In addition, there are containers and military vehicles — about 5,000 according to a count provided by the authorities in early January.

Since then, more have arrived by boat. Hundreds of oil tankers are filling huge car parks by the sea.

“Most of the tankers are loaded with fuel, so helpers have to look after them to avoid looting,” said Afridi.

…

Working for Nato is also a serious handicap in a society fed up with the US alliance that many blame for violence sweeping the country.

“Nobody wants to see us any more,” said Khan. “(Roadside) hotels and restaurants are afraid of attacks and don’t allow us to stop by anymore. Police are taking lots of bribes — it wasn’t like that before, three years ago for example —and tell us to stop working for Nato.”And the trouble doesn’t stop at the border.

“In Afghanistan, we’re attacked very often and Afghan police insult us, they shout: ‘Shame on you, you’re working for American infidels!’”

…

A driver for Nato earn 30,000 rupees ($330) a month, then an additional 30,000 rupees per trip to Afghanistan, which they can do once or twice a month, far more than the average salary of 7,000 rupees in Pakistan.

When the war began in late 2001, the job was easy, but not anymore.

“You could make loads of money, so we borrowed money to buy trucks. But now everything is expensive and difficult,” said Khan, who is paying back at 15 per cent a 2.5 million rupee ($27,700) debt.

In 10 years, 10 of his drivers have been killed and 12 of his trucks destroyed. He hopes one day to get out of the spiral of debt and get a new job.

“Every Pakistani who’s not involved in the business is against it,” he said.

====

Land, Sea, Air: Rasmussen Says NATO “Delivers” In Africa, Asia, Europe, Arabian Sea

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/SID-FAE37D1C-C32395E3/natolive/news_83780.htm

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
January 26, 2012

NATO Secretary General: NATO Delivers

At his first press conference of 2012, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, presented a look back at the Alliance’s principal achievements over the past year.

“In 2011, our Alliance faced many tough tests, perhaps more than ever before”, the Secretary General said. “And the good news is that we got very good results. If I had to sum it up in two words, I would say ‘NATO delivers’”, he added.

Citing examples, Mr Rasmussen pointed to Afghanistan…

Over Libya, NATO conducted a successful operation…

In Kosovo, Mr Rasmussen underlined that NATO troops had dealt effectively with the unexpected flare-up of tensions…

The Secretary General also stressed successes in the fight against piracy off Somalia where NATO forces helped to half the number of vessels captured by pirates.

“These are real achievements, and we can be very proud. On land, sea and in the air, NATO forces worked to keep us all secure”, Mr Rasmussen said.

Looking ahead to the Chicago summit, he stressed that NATO will have to shape an Alliance which is capable of overcoming the economic crisis while continuing to guarantee security. “We must stay capable of dealing with current threats and future crisis. And we must become more connected with partners around the world”, he said. “Ultimately, we must renew our commitment to the vital transatlantic bond. That bond is the best security investment we have ever made. It has stood the test of time for six decades. And thanks to it, NATO continues to deliver real returns for all Allies, year after year. And we must continue to invest commitment and capabilities to keep it strong”.

Fogh Rasmussen also launched the first “Annual Report” which gives an overview of NATO’s principal achievements and challenges in 2011.

====

EU Commissioner: Final Decision On Trans-Caspian Pipeline By June

http://en.trend.az/capital/energy/1984448.html

Trend News Agency
January 26, 2012

European Commissioner: Trans-Caspian pipeline decision may be made by June
A. Badalova

Baku: A final decision on whether to go ahead with the Trans-Caspian Pipeline project may be made in June, the EU commissioner for energy Günther Oettinger told Interfax.

Oettinger said that the negotiations between the Commission and the officials from the Turkmen and Azerbaijani governments were “intensive” yet “constructive”.

He added that the next meeting on the project will take place in a few days in Frankfurt.

The design capacity of the 300-kilometer-Trans-Caspian pipeline through the Caspian seabed between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan is linked to Europe’s demand for Turkmen gas and defining Caspian Sea status between the two countries.

Trans-Caspian project can become part of the “Southern Gas Corridor”, designed to diversify gas supplies to Europe.

There is no direct agreement on the implementation of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline yet. However, in September 2011 the European Union issued a mandate to start negotiations on an agreement between the EU, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on the Trans-Caspian project. Negotiations are underway.

Despite the fact that construction of an underwater gas pipeline is associated with unresolved status of the Caspian Sea, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan believe that implementation of this project is the two states’ sovereign right.

====

Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Pipeline Proceeds Apace

http://en.trend.az/capital/energy/1984401.html

Trend News Agency
January 26, 2012

Turkmen, Afghan presidents focus on TAPI gas pipeline project
H. Hasanov

Turkmenistan, Ashgabat: Negotiations were held between the presidents of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhammadov and Hamid Karzai, in Turkmenbashi, the Turkmen government said on Thursday.

During the meeting special attention was paid to cooperation in the fuel and energy sectors and specifically the implementation of the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, the report said.

Both sides stressed that “implementation of this large-scale energy project is important for all parties involved…”

The TAPI project was launched in December 2010 in Ashgabat when important agreements were concluded following the high level summit.

The length of the TAPI may reach over 17,000 km. The design capacity is about 33 billion cubic metres of gas per year, while the cost is estimated at $7-8 billion.

The source of raw materials in addition to the Dovletabad field will come from the Galkynysh field, which is one of the world super giants.

…

In February 2011 it was decided to take measures to build the corresponding infrastructure that will eventually enable the grid to reach a fivefold increase in the export of Turkmen electricity to Afghanistan.

Turkmenistan has initiated a project of laying the Atamyrat-Ymamnazar-Akina-Andkhoy railway which will become an important link in international transit traffic in the long term.

…

====

Turkey-Greece-Italy: Caspian, Middle East Pipelines To Europe

http://en.trend.az/capital/energy/1984422.html

Trend News Agency
January 26, 2012

ITGI – only Southern Corridor project capable of securing final investment decision by 2013
A. Badalova

-ITGI is one of the proposed projects within the Southern gas Corridor, which involves gas supplies from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU countries. The project includes a modernised Turkish pipeline infrastructure, as well as an Interconnector Turkey-Greece (ITG projects) and an Italy-Greece interconnector (IGI). The project shareholders are the Greek company DEPA and Italy’s Edison. The total estimated project cost is 1.5 to 2 billion euros.

Baku: ITGI (Turkey-Greece-Italy gas pipeline) is the only Southern Gas Corridor project capable of securing a final investment decision by 2013, CEO of IGI Poseidon and head of international gas infrastructures in Italian energy company Edison Elio Ruggeri said at the European Gas Conference 2012 in Vienna.

According to the ITGI project’s statement, Ruggeri noted that in order to secure production from the second phase of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas field development to start in 2017, it is essential that the selected project can take a final investment decision by 2013.

“As acknowledged by many energy experts ITGI, having completed the most relevant permitting and regulatory procedures, is the only Southern Corridor project capable of securing a final investment decision in accordance with the Shah Deniz II schedule,” Ruggeri said.

He said that ITGI project’s maturity is an asset for both Europe, as it secures quick availability of Azeri gas, and for the Shah Deniz consortium, as it reduces the possible risk of delays in the start-up of production.

ITGI is one of the proposed projects within the Southern gas Corridor, which involves gas supplies from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU countries. The project includes a modernised Turkish pipeline infrastructure, as well as an Interconnector Turkey-Greece (ITG projects) and an Italy-Greece interconnector (IGI). The project shareholders are the Greek company DEPA and Italy’s Edison. The total estimated project cost is 1.5 to 2 billion euros.

The initial planned capacity of the ITGI pipeline will hit 10 billion cubic metres per year. One billion cubic metres will be transported to Bulgaria, one billion cubic metres to Greece, while the remaining eight billion cubic metres will go to Italy.

The Edison and Depa companies established IGI Poseidon SA to develop and construct the Greece-Italy pipeline known as Poseidon.

Gas, which will be produced within the second phase of Shah-Deniz field development is regarded as the main source for the project.

ITGI along the other pipeline projects within the Southern Gas Corridor have submitted final proposals to the Azerbaijani side, which will make its decision on preferable transportation route in the first quarter of 2012.

====

Davos: Azerbaijan’s President Discusses Trans-Eurasian Energy Projects

http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=164464

Azeri Press Agency
January 26, 2012

Azerbaijani President meets UBS Global’s Chairman of Board of Directors

Baku: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met Chairman of the Board of Directors of UBS Global Kaspar Villiger in Davos. APA reports quoting the AzerTAc news agency that they discussed the issues of building and developing cooperation between Azerbaijan and the UBS, one of the largest banks in Switzerland. They also exchanged view on the prospects of building financial cooperation with Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company and State Oil Fund.

Kaspar Villiger recalled his visits to Azerbaijan and meetings with national leader Heydar Aliyev…

====

Turkish Military Chief To Visit Azerbaijan

http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=164447

Azeri Press Agency
January 26, 2012

Chief of General Staff of Turkish Armed Forces Necdet Ozer to visit Azerbaijan on February 7
Rashad Suleymanov

Baku: Chief of General Staff of Turkish Armed Forces Necdet Ozer will visit Azerbaijan, military sources told APA.

The visit will be paid on February 7-9. It is Ozer’s first visit to Azerbaijan as Chief of General Staff of Turkish Armed Forces.

During the visit the delegations will hold meetings in Azerbaijan’s military organizations as well as with state and governmental representatives to assess the current state of the bilateral military relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey and the perspectives of the relations will be discussed at the meetings.

Ozer visited Azerbaijan last year as General Commander of Turkish Gendarmerie Forces.

====

NATO’s lost cause in Afghanistan
Osama Al Sharif

The specter of defeat, another Vietnam-like scenario, is looming large
Edited by RR

NATO’s war in Afghanistan will go down in history as a big flop — one that the politicians had failed to end and the generals were unable to win. On the other hand, commentators and historians will ponder the fact that this backward tribal country was able to repulse the Soviets and an international coalition of no less than 50 Western countries led by the United States within a period of 30 years or so.

The US and its allies want to quit Afghanistan in 2014, but the specter of defeat, another Vietnam-like scenario, is looming large. More than 10 years after the US bombed and later occupied this mountainous country in South Asia in retaliation for al-Qaeda attacks on Washington and New York, the purpose of the war and the path to an honorable exit appear to have been lost.

An Afghanistan expert, journalist Michael Hastings, says in his new book, “The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan,” that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who was in charge of military operations between 2009 and 2010, rarely mentioned al-Qaeda in his briefings to US congressmen. Even Gen. David Petraeus, who took over from McChrystal, would never talk about al-Qaeda in his meetings with his top aides. Hastings points to the number that former National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones put out, which is that there were less than 100 al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan.

After destroying Osama bin Laden’s lair in the mountains of Afghanistan and forcing most of the Taleban leadership to flee in the early days of the invasion, the US focused its attention on solidifying the rule of its ally President Hamid Karzai and on counterinsurgency. But both tasks have proved untenable.

The Taleban insurgency remains a big challenge to NATO forces. In military terms, modern warfare has failed to crush guerrilla warfare. The people, the terrain and culture were all against the invaders. The regime of Karzai was corrupt and unpopular. The tribal nature of Afghanistan and its culture frustrated efforts to win the hearts and minds of the Afghans. American drones and friendly fire have killed more civilians than combatants. The Taleban used the rugged terrain of the south and southwest intelligently. They infiltrated the enemy ranks and were able to carry out stunning attacks inside Kabul.

Last week an Afghan soldier fired his machine gun, killing four French troops in their base camp. He was avenging the dead Taleban whose bodies were desecrated by US Marines less than two weeks ago. There are 3,600 French soldiers in Afghanistan, part of a total of 130,000 foreign troops in that country.

It was not the first incident of this kind nor will it be the last. France has suspended the training of Afghan soldiers and is considering pulling out its troops before the 2014 deadline. In an election year, both in France and the United States, the image of coffins arriving home from the war front in Afghanistan will not please the public. Until the end of last year, the death toll for coalition soldiers stood at 2,765. Having failed to defeat the Taleban, who rely on support from their brethren in Pakistan’s border region, the US is now listening to Karzai’s advice to negotiate with the insurgents. Last week it was revealed that US negotiators have been secretly meeting with a representative of Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, head of the outlawed Hizb-i-Islami group, which has been battling US forces mostly in the east and north of the country.

It was a step in the direction of widening talks so that they include the Taleban as well. All previous attempts to bypass the Taleban were met by failure. Officially the US refuses to talk to Mullah Omar, the fugitive Taleban leader believed to be hiding in Pakistan. But talks with his lieutenants and senior Pashtun tribal heads are underway — at least through the Karzai government.

But what could these talks lead to? The Taleban want NATO forces out, while Washington would like to see an arrangement that will involve the Taleban in a future government. The gap is wide. Washington has lost the cooperation of a major ally, which is Pakistan. Trust between the US and Pakistan has reached record lows since the Americans carried out a covert operation to kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistani territory without informing their allies in Islamabad.

Two months ago US aircraft bombed two Pakistani border points, killing more than 20 soldiers. Washington later apologized but not before Pakistan suspended all cooperation with the US.

According to Hastings, trust is also lacking between Karzai and President Obama. Gen. McChrystal used to mock the Afghan president, calling him the man with the funny hat. And Hastings reported that he had heard US officials say that Karzai was a manic depressive and that he was a drug addict.

At one point Washington wanted to rebuild Afghanistan and guide it toward democracy. But the rebuilding efforts have been marred by setbacks and corruption. At one point the US was forced to deal with opium-growing warlords in an attempt to win favors and isolate the Taleban.

The Taleban are waging a war of attrition while sending signals that they are willing to talk peace with Karzai and the Americans. All they have to do is to wait, since time is on their side. 2014 is a long way ahead for the Americans and their allies. In the end they will leave the country to its fate, just as they did in Iraq. For the people of Afghanistan the day when NATO soldiers leave will not spell the end of war but only a change in its course.

Osama Al Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman.

Putin accuses US of attempts to dominate world

TOMSK: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the United States of attempts to dominate the world and challenging internal political procedures in other countries as a tool for achieving that goal.

He spoke about foreign policy at the end of his meeting with Tomsk students that lasted about 3.5 hours on Wednesday, January 25. One of them asked Putin what could be the reasons for the negative Western reaction to the parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan.

“The reason is the U.S. foreign policy doctrine. They want to control everything…sometimes I have the impression that the United States does not need allies, that it needs vassals,” the prime minister said.

“They are not prepared to cooperate on real terms either with Europe or us. Cooperation on equal terms means determining threats together and working out a system of response to them together. They reject that flatly,” he said, referring to the missile defence system the U.S. is building in Europe.

According to Putin, one of the American ways to influence other countries is to “doubt everything and say that you do not meet certain standards” but “they work out these standards themselves”.

The Russian authorities are ready to cooperate with public organisations in the country but will not allow them to turn into a tool for external influence, Putin said.

“An attempt to use our non-governmental organisations by foreign states in their own interests for securing their own foreign policy goals with regard to our country must entail rejection. This must not be allowed to happen,” he said.

“The authorities must respond and listen, no matter what they say and how abuse their language may be. It’s indecent, but all the same [we] must listen to them,” Putin said. “The only thing we must not allow is allowing anyone to use anything inside the country for achieving their own foreign policy goals with regard to our country.”

Speaking of the elections in Kazakhstan, he recalled that the number of parties represented in the national parliament has increased from one to three. “That’s a step forward. That’s good,” he said.

Audio: Download

Interview with Rick Rozoff, the manager of the Stop NATO website and mailing list, a contributing writer to GlobalResearch.ca, and a regular contributor to the Voice of Russia.

Joseph Joubert
From The Notebooks
Translated by Paul Auster

What comes through war is given back through war. All spoils will be retaken, all plunder will be dispersed. All victors will be defeated and every city filled with prey will be sacked in return.
(1796)

…

I imitate the dove and often throw a blade of grass to the drowning ant. (1785)

…

An age in which we have children who can scarcely remember having seen their fathers. (1796)

U.S.-NATO ABM Response: Russian Missiles In Kaliningrad This Year

Fifth Generation Warplanes And U.S. Global “Domain Dominance”

Ex-President: Saakashvili May Draw Georgia Into War With Iran

Afghan War And Beyond: U.S.-Georgia Defense Cooperation Deepens

U.S.-Japan Military Exercises Underscore New Strategy Guidance Focus

Pakistan: Opposition Parties Stage Walk-Out In Senate Over U.S. Drone Strikes

U.S., Czech Defense Chiefs Discuss “Unequivocal” NATO Ties

Defense Minister Wants Czech Troops In Afghanistan For Two More Years

====

U.S.-NATO ABM Response: Russian Missiles In Kaliningrad This Year

http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?pg=4&id=304116

Interfax
January 25, 2012

Russia to deploy Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad region in 2nd half of 2012 – source

KALININGRAD: Russia plans to deploy Iskander tactical missiles in the Kaliningrad region in the second half of 2012, a Baltic Fleet source told Interfax-AVN on Wednesday.

“The higher command in Moscow endorsed the roster of a naval unit being set up to be armed with Iskander missile systems yesterday. The staffing of this unit with officers, sergeants and draft servicemen under this organizational order should begin in the near future,” the source said.

“The first battery armed with Iskander missiles will appear in the Kaliningrad region in the second half of 2012,” he said.

President Dmitry Medvedev mentioned plans to deploy Iskander missile systems in the Kaliningrad region in his special statement on November 23, 2011, as one of the measures Russia would take in response to the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system in Europe.

—————————————————————————-

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hHbnvI-AiYhzY__uEMiYIhybZeLQ?docId=CNG.3248d6bb9b1f306d64ddfceb443a1871.441

Agence France-Presse
January 25, 2012

Russia ‘to deploy missiles on EU border this year’

MOSCOW: Russia plans to deploy Iskander missiles on the European Union’s border later this year, a source in its western Baltic Fleet told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday.

A source told the news agency that senior naval staff had confirmed plans to assign personnel for a naval unit set to service the missile complexes in the Kaliningrad exclave that borders EU members Poland and Lithuania.

“Recently in Moscow the senior command confirmed the staffing of a naval unit that is being created to put the Iskander missile complexes into service,” the source said.

In November President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia was prepared to deploy Iskander missiles, which officials said have a range of up to 500 kilometres (310 miles), to strike against a planned US defence system in eastern Europe.

The first unit equipped with Iskander missiles is set to appear in the Kaliningrad region in the second half of the year, the source said, adding that S-400 missile systems would be deployed there in spring.

====

Fifth Generation Warplanes And U.S. Global “Domain Dominance”

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=66911

U.S. Department of Defense
American Forces Press Service
January 24, 2012

Air Force Leaders Say Strategy Calls for F-22, F-35 Capabilities
By Jim Garamone

-“These capabilities give our leaders the ability to hold any target at risk, anywhere in the globe, at any time. I think it is important for any adversary to understand we possess those capabilities and intend to continue the development.”
-Americans have become used to having domain dominance, Miller said, expecting U.S. service members to be able to operate on land, at sea, in the air with a fair degree of autonomy as they pursue national objectives.

WASHINGTON: Fifth-generation fighter aircraft are key to America maintaining domain dominance in the years ahead, Air Force officials said here today.

Lt. Gen. Christopher D. Miller, deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and programs, and Maj. Gen. Noel T. “Tom” Jones, the service’s director for operation capability requirements, said the technology – exemplified in the F-22 and F-35 – assumes greater importance in combating growing anti-access, area-denial capabilities.

The generals spoke during a media roundtable in the Pentagon.

Fifth-generation aircraft are particularly valuable as part of the new defense strategy guidance that President Barack Obama unveiled here earlier this month, they said. That strategy explicitly affirms that the United States military must be able to defeat ant-access, area-denial threats.

…

There is a continuing competition between nations developing anti-access capabilities and others devising ways to defeat that, the general said.

“Fifth-generation aircraft are a key ability that the Air Force is bringing to the nation’s ability to operate in those environments,” he added.

The Air Force has flown against anti-access environments since it was founded. American fighters countered this capability in the skies over Korea and Vietnam. Airmen faced off against surface-to-air missiles ringing Hanoi. In the Persian Gulf War, airmen defeated the ground-to-air threat over Iraq, and most recently, they knocked out the anti-access capabilities around Tripoli.

…

F-22s and F-35s bring maneuverability, survivability, advanced avionics and stealth technology to the fight. Both planes are multi-role capable, able to fight air-to-air and air-to-ground.

“These capabilities give our leaders the ability to hold any target at risk, anywhere in the globe, at any time,” Jones said. “I think it is important for any adversary to understand we possess those capabilities and intend to continue the development.”

Another aspect of the strategy includes the ability to operate against adversaries across the spectrum of conflict. F-22s and F-35s are particularly relevant at the top of the spectrum, “where we can’t always set the conditions for our operations as easily as we have in the last couple of decades of military conflict,” Miller said.

This is an extremely valuable capability that must be nurtured, the generals said.

Americans have become used to having domain dominance, Miller said, expecting U.S. service members to be able to operate on land, at sea, in the air with a fair degree of autonomy as they pursue national objectives.

“This is not a birthright,” Miller said. “That is something we have had to work very hard in the past to gain, … and we can’t take for granted that we are going to be able to support the joint team in future environments unless we maintain a high-end capability to target an adversary’s air forces, their surface-to-air forces and basically be able to seize control of parts of the air space and other domains the joint commander needs.

“It’s an Air Force capability,” he added, “but it’s a key Air Force contribution to the joint warfighting capability of the nation.”

====

Ex-President: Saakashvili May Draw Georgia Into War With Iran

http://rt.com/politics/shevardnadze-iran-war-saakashvili-557/

RT
January 24, 2012

Georgian President Saakashvili ‘eyeing Iran war to hold power’

To keep his post, Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili may draw the country into a war against Iran, former Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze believes.

“I don’t rule out that to retain the [presidential] chair Saakashvili may join a military campaign against Iran, which would become a catastrophe for our country,” Shevardnadze said, as cited by ‘Georgia on-line’ news portal.

The issue may be discussed at the upcoming meeting between Saakashvili and US President Barack Obama in the White House on January 30, Shevardnadze noted.

“Any anti-Iranian campaign on Georgian territory shouldn’t be accepted,” the former Georgian president stressed.

Georgian expert on the Caucasus Mamuka Areshidze says that if a military operation against the Islamic Republic begins, Georgia would face extreme difficulties, Regnum agency reports.

“According to some estimates, in this conflict Georgia would be responsible for providing combat service support with the use of its aerodromes and hospitals,” he said. The expert added that such a scenario would lead to certain threats for Georgia. “There would only be negative consequences. But all that is secondary compared to the measures that Russia might take,” Areshidze stated.

For many analysts the beginning of a war against Iran is just a question of time, rather than a hypothetical possibility.

Elizbar Javelidze from the Georgian opposition movement Public Assembly says Washington is gearing up for attack. In Georgia, the US is sponsoring the construction of hospitals and other facilities that could be used, if war is launched.

“A big war between the US and Iran is beginning in the Persian Gulf. $5 billion was allocated for the construction of these 20-bed military hospitals,” Javelidze said.

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Afghan War And Beyond: U.S.-Georgia Defense Cooperation Deepens

http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=24378

Civil Georgia
January 25, 2012

NSC Chief: U.S.-Georgia Defense Cooperation Deepens

Tbilisi: U.S. Republican Sen. John McCain, who strongly backed a Georgia-related provision in the U.S. Defense Authorization Act, said on December 15 that U.S. defense cooperation with Georgia “has been stalled ever since Russia invaded” Georgia in 2008. “While there has been some slow and minor progress to enable Georgia’s armed forces to deploy to Afghanistan, precious little has been done to strengthen Georgia’s ability to defend its government, people, and territory,” McCain said.

Assumptions that defense cooperation between Washington and Tbilisi has been downscaled in recent years are “almost completely made up” and “erroneous”, Giga Bokeria, secretary of Georgia’s National Security Council, said.

He said in an interview with the Georgian weekly magazine, Tabula, that President Obama’s reservation over a section of the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act, which calls for “normalization” of military cooperation with Georgia, including the sale of defensive arms, was mainly a legal issue about the constitutional authorities of the legislative and executive branches and it should not be interpreted as if the Obama administration was against deepening defense cooperation with Georgia.

In his signing statement on December 31, President Obama listed the provision of the defense authorization act dealing with Georgia among those sections of the Act which he would treat as “non-binding” should any application of the provision conflict with his constitutional authority. President Obama cited two reasons behind his decision; the statement said that these provisions of the Act could interfere with the President’s constitutional foreign affairs powers and also said that these provisions “could be read to require the disclosure of sensitive diplomatic communications and national security secrets.”

U.S. Senior Diplomat on Defense Cooperation with Georgia

“We are very grateful to all of our supporters including those in the U.S. Senate who have supported this kind of provision [in the defense authorization act] on deepening military cooperation with Georgia; they are our long-time friends,” Bokeria said.

“At the same time, I want to say that speculation as if a reservation made by President Obama’s administration was particularly about Georgia is simply a result of not knowing this issue by those who made such comments. It was not about any particular country; this is about jurisdiction – that is whether the Congress has right…to indicate to the executive, in this case to the President, what kind of policy should be carried out on the issue [defense cooperation]…So it was not that they do not support the deepening of defense cooperation with Georgia,” he said.

“The narrative as if there has been kind of a downgrade in [U.S.-Georgia] military cooperation in recent years is almost completely made up,” he continued. “On the contrary, there is a trend of deepening cooperation [in the defense sphere]. We may want further deepening of this cooperation at a faster pace and that’s natural and we will discuss these issues [during the planned Obama-Saakashvili meeting at the White House on January 30].”

“This cooperation is deepening and it involves, among other matters, cooperation in the Afghan operation, which is important for global security and for our own security and also involves cooperation beyond the one in Afghanistan. Yes, training [of Georgian troops by the U.S.] has been a significant part of this cooperation, but that’s not the only sphere where cooperation has been and is ongoing and has even deepened recently; I do not want to speak about all the details, but portraying a picture as if there has been a stagnation or movement backwards [in defense cooperation] is erroneous.”

“We are grateful to everyone, including those within the U.S. political spectrum, who supports further deepening of this cooperation. At the same time we are grateful for the cooperation that we have with the [Obama] administration,” Bokeria said.

“The issue of jurisdiction between the legislative and executive branches in the United States is important and interesting, but it’s not up to us to comment on that,” Bokeria said, adding that as stated in the White House statement, defense cooperation would be one of the key issues discussed at the upcoming meeting between Obama and Saakashvili.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Philip H. Gordon, said at a news conference in Washington on January 9 that the U.S. approach on military cooperation with Georgia remains focused on education, training and preparing Georgian troops for Afghan deployment.

Asked if the administration was going to implement a Georgia-related provision in the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, Gordon responded: “I don’t think it changes our approach so far.”

“Where specific weapons sales are concerned, we treat it like we do with other countries. They’re taken on a case-by-case basis, taking a lot of factors into account. But we’ll continue that security relationship with Georgia in all of those ways,” Gordon said.

====

U.S.-Japan Military Exercises Underscore New Strategy Guidance Focus

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=66909

U.S. Department of Defense
American Forces Press Service
January 24, 2012

U.S.-Japan Exercises Underscore New Strategy Guidance Focus
By Donna Miles

WASHINGTON: Two bilateral command post exercises with Japan kicked off yesterday and today, reflecting the growing strategic importance of the Asia-Pacific region as outlined in the new defense strategy guidance President Barack Obama announced earlier this month.

Japanese and U.S. military forces launched Keen Edge 12 yesterday at Yokota, Japan. The biennial exercise continues through Jan. 27.

Today, Exercise Yama Sakura kicked off, with operations to run through Feb. 5.

Both exercises are designed to increase interoperability of U.S. and Japanese forces and their readiness to defend against external threats, officials said.

By providing realistic, combined and joint training that enhances both countries’ combat readiness posture, they in turn provide for regional stability and security, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Bill Clinton, a U.S. Pacific Command spokesman.

…

Keen Edge historically has been part of an annual exercise series that alternates between field training exercises, called Keen Sword, and command-and-control exercises.

About 500 U.S. personnel and about 1,380 Japanese forces are participating in this year’s CPX, during which headquarters staffs will use computer simulations to practice steps they would take in the event of a crisis or contingency.

Participants will practice responding to events ranging from non-combatant evacuations and force-protection scenarios to integrated air and missile defense to enhance bilateral coordination and cooperation, officials said.

Forces involved will use the computer-based Joint Theater Level Simulation System to direct and respond to exercise events. This system, officials reported, helps provide a realistic environment for commanders and staffs as they react and respond in real time to events generated by computer simulation.

U.S. participants in Keen Edge 2012 hail from U.S. Forces Japan headquarters; 13th Air Force, with headquarters at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, and in Japan through its Detachment 1; U.S. Naval Forces Japan; U.S. Army Japan; and Marine Forces Japan.

Meanwhile, nearly 800 U.S. military personnel and more than 3,500 Japanese forces are participating in Yama Sakura, the largest bilateral exercise between the U.S. Army Pacific and Japanese ground forces since the Great Tohoku Earthquake in March.

About 150 U.S. soldiers from the 8th Army headquarters element at Yongsan Garrison, South Korea, will serve as the higher command for participating U.S. forces, which include members of U.S. Army Japan.

The exercise, officials said, will focus on bilateral and joint planning, coordination and interoperability of ground-based elements of the U.S. and Japan security alliance.

…

During senior-level talks between U.S. and Japanese military leaders last month about future operations and engagement between the two countries, Air Force Lt. Gen. Ted Kresge, 13th Air Force commander, said interoperability strengthens the bilateral alliance.

…

Meanwhile, 8th Army officials said Exercise Yama Sakura helps to ensure its ability to operate with its other U.S. and Japanese counterparts to defend South Korea as well as maintain regional security.

“This exercise improves 8th Army’s ability to deter or defeat aggression on the Korean peninsula,” said Army Brig. Gen. David J. Conboy, 8th Army’s deputy commander. “It also helps strengthen the Republic of Korea-United States alliance by enabling critical staff coordination and collaboration at the multinational level.”

Clinton said engagements like these support the new defense strategy guidance that recognizes the challenges as well as opportunities in Asia and the Pacific.

That strategic guidance, announced earlier this month, provides a strategic vision intended to guide the military through 2020 with its heavy focus on the region.

“Through continuous evaluation of our force posture and engagement activities, we will work with our regional partners and allies to maintain the military strength to protect our interests, defend our allies and deter potential adversaries from acts of aggression and intimidation,” Clinton said.

U.S. relationships with Asian allies and key partners will remain critical to the region’s future stability and growth, Navy Adm. Robert F. Willard, U.S. Pacific Command’s commander, told the Annual Hawaii Military Partnership Conference on Jan. 6, the day after the guidance was announced.
In addition to strengthening existing alliances that have provided a vital foundation for regional security, Willard said, the United States also will strive to forge closer ties with emerging regional partners.

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Pakistan: Opposition Parties Stage Walk-Out In Senate Over U.S. Drone Strikes

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20121\25\story_25-1-2012_pg7_1

Daily Times
January 25, 2012

Opposition stages walk-out in Senate over drone strikes
By Tanveer Ahmed

ISLAMABAD: Senators from opposition parties on Tuesday staged a token walkout from the Senate against resumption of drone attacks in the country’s tribal areas.

Leader of the opposition Maulana, Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, said the government and army had made no announcement that they would defend Pakistani territory against drone strikes.

Responding to this, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the US government should care about the voice of the people of Pakistan. “This [drone strikes] is a direct hit by the US on the territory of Pakistan, which is not acceptable,” he added. He said the Senate should pass a resolution, which would be presented in the UN to stop US aggression in Pakistan.

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U.S., Czech Defense Chiefs Discuss “Unequivocal” NATO Ties

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=66912

U.S. Department of Defense
American Forces Press Service
January 24, 2012

Panetta, Czech Republic Counterpart Discuss Key Issues
By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.

WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta hosted the Czech Republic’s top defense official here today to discuss several key issues, Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. John Kirby said.

Among the topics Panetta discussed with Defense Minister Alexandr Vondra was “the unequivocal commitment of the United States to the NATO alliance,” Kirby said.

They also discussed the 2012 NATO summit, which will be held in Chicago in May, and the Czech Republic’s proposal for a multinational aviation training center, he added.

“Secretary Panetta thanked the minister for the Czechs’ critical contributions to operations in Afghanistan, and they both discussed plans for the transition,” Kirby said. “They also exchanged views on the budget challenges each country is facing and expressed satisfaction that the language for a Reciprocal Defense Procurement Agreement has been agreed.”

Panetta and Vondra agreed to maintain communication as they prepare for future meetings, the Pentagon spokesman added.

“The ministers agreed to continue a close dialogue in the coming months ahead as they prepare for the NATO defense ministerial in Brussels next month and for the Chicago summit,” he said.

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Defense Minister Wants Czech Troops In Afghanistan For Two More Years

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpravy/minister-wants-czech-soldiers-to-stay-in-afghanistan-until-2014/745144

Czech News Agency
January 24, 2012

Minister wants Czech soldiers to stay in Afghanistan until 2014

Washington: Czech Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra wants Czech soldiers to stay in Afghanistan until 2014, while their current mandate expires at the end of 2012, Vondra told CTK and Czech Radio at the beginning of his visit to Washington today.

He is to meet his U.S. counterpart Leon Panetta later today.

Vondra (senior government Civic Democrats, ODS) said he would like to propose to the government and parliament in the spring that Czech troops´ deployment in Afghanistan be extended by another 24 months.

Vondra did not specify how strong Czech troops should serve in Afghanistan in the following two years.

“I do not want to tell the numbers. I suppose that our helicopters may return there and that our special forces will terminate their mission this year. I think that we will definitely still focus on the training, this is the most important part,” Vondra said.

Afghanistan is one of the topics that Vondra and Panetta are to discuss today.

…

“We are in America and I always say together in, together out. We must do our utmost for Afghanistan to be able to govern and provide security by its own forces after 2014,” Vondra said.

Czechs are, for instance, training Afghan helicopter pilots. The Czech Republic would like to establish a NATO helicopter pilot training centre in Pardubice, east Bohemia.

This project, in which Croatia also participates, is another issue that Vondra will discuss with Panetta today. They will follow up the talks on the plan that Czech PM Petr Necas (ODS) led with Obama in Washington last autumn.

Vondra also wants to make an agreement with Panetta on “mutual obtaining of defence orders” that would make it easier for Czech firms to win defence and security contracts in the United States.

The fact that Vondra pushed through the purchases of equipment for the Czech military without intermediaries last year has opened the path to this agreement, he said.

The agreement is actually completed, both countries should sign it in the spring, he added.

After the talks with Panetta, Vondra is to meet three Senators, Richard Lugar, John McCain (both Republicans) and Carl Levin (Democrat), as well as Congressman Michael Turner (Republican).

Vondra will also talk to members of the National Security Council and deliver a speech to the Atlantic Council think-tank on NATO, its May summit in Chicago and the Central European approach to transatlantic relations.

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ThalesRaytheon Gets New NATO Interceptor Missile Contract

Finnish Foreign Minister Needs NATO Chief At Bloc’s Headquarters

Latvia: NATO Chief Discusses Afghan War, Cyber Warfare

Fresh U.S. Drone Strike Kills Six In Pakistan

U.S.-Philippines Drills Raise Questions About U.S. Asian Intentions

Kosovo Organ Trafficking Case Gains New Dimension

EU-NATO Eurocorps Deploys From U.S. Base In Germany

Britain: U.S. Air Force Commanders Hail NATO’s Libya, Future Wars

Iranian Official: U.S., NATO Presence In Region Causes Insecurity

Armenia: NATO’s Third Partner In The Caucasus

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ThalesRaytheon Gets New NATO Interceptor Missile Contract

http://www.afcea.org/signal/signalscape/index.php/2012/01/23/15383/

Signal Magazine
January 23, 2012

NATO Agency Signs Missile Defense Command and Control Contract
Posted by George I. Seffers

The NATO Air Command and Control System Management Agency (NACMA) on behalf of the NATO Active Layered Theatre Ballistic Missile Defence Programme Office and in coordination with the NATO Command, Control and Consultation Agency, has signed a contract with ThalesRaytheonSystems to deliver a Ballistic Missile Defence Interim Capability element at NATO’s Air Command in Ramstein, Germany.

The contract value is €3 million.

Implementation of the contract, which is expected within three months, will deliver a key component toward NATO’s objective of declaring an interim missile defence capability at its summit in Chicago in May.

It will give NATO the capability to conduct 24/7 territorial missile defence operations while simultaneously deploying a theatre missile defence command and control capability to any necessary theatre of operations.

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Finnish Foreign Minister Needs NATO Chief At Bloc’s Headquarters

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/SID-BA02A4DE-D1321293/natolive/news_83652.htm

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
January 23, 2012

Finnish Foreign Minister visits NATO HQ

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland, Mr. Erkki Tuomija, visited NATO Headquarters on Monday 23 January 2012. He met with the NATO Secretary General, Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

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Latvia: NATO Chief Discusses Afghan War, Cyber Warfare

http://www.defpro.com/news/details/31548/?SID=a856ca79d078e80845aa3c22ed416653

Defence Professionals
January 23, 2012

NATO Secretary General praises Latvia as a committed NATO Ally 

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen visited Riga on 20 January 2012 and met with President Andris Berzins, Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis, Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkevics and Minister of Defence Artis Pabriks.

During the visit, the Secretary General thanked Latvia for the commitment to defend the Alliance’s values [in] its contribution to the Alliance’s ISAF operation in Afghanistan…[T]he Secretary General said…”Your ports and railways are our lifeline to Afghanistan. And every day, Latvia helps shape our decisions on every aspect of NATO’s work”.

The Secretary General took part in the ceremony at the Freedom Monument and Places of Rememberance in Riga, and laid flowers in memory of the Latvians killed by Soviet security forces during the struggle for the restoration of independence on this day in 1991. “The people of Latvia know that freedom does not come for free. You have fought for your liberty many times over the years. Your nation is a symbol of courage and commitment to the cause of freedom ,” he said.

The Secretary General and Prime Minister Dombrovskis also signed a Memorandum of Understanding between Latvia and NATO concerning Cooperation on Cyber Defence.

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Fresh U.S. Drone Strike Kills Six In Pakistan

http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=136867

Pakistan Observer
January 24, 2012

6 killed in fresh drone attack
Tariq Saeed

Peshawar: A fresh drone attack carried out by the American CIA in North Waziristan Agency Monday morning killed six people.

There was a relative calm in the adventurism by the CIA-operated drones which had been on a killing spree in the Pakistani tribal belt, particularly South and North Waziristan for the last over three years as they had halted their attacks following the NATO attack on the Salala check posts in the Mohmand Agency November last.

Reports reaching here said a few Predator planes, in a third missile hit after the Mohmand tragedy, targeted a vehicle in the Degaan area some 30 kilometers west of Miran Shah, the headquarters of the North Waziristan agency, Monday early morning, destroying the vehicle completely.

“The American planes hovering in the skies for quite some time fired many missiles at a vehicle heading towards the Datta Khel area from Tehsil Degaan and the vehicle was seen in high flames where a nearby house was also damaged,” sources told the Observer, adding that as many as six people on board the vehicle were found dead.

…The people of the area said and added that three drones were hovering in the skies when the attack took place.

It was also said militants belonging to the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group of Taliban took away the dead bodies of Monday’s strikes to an unknown place.

American planes or infamous CIA-operated drones which have been launching missile attacks in the Pakistani tribal belt since August 2008, have killed more than two thousand people in 275 hits, mostly in the North and South Waziristan agencies. Out of those strikes, 33 were conducted in 2008 and 53 in 2009. However, the notorious drones struck 118 times in 2010 and seventeen attacks were launched in 2011. No doubt, a big majority of the drone’s victims remained innocent tribals.

However, the attack on the Salala military post in Mohmand had resulted in extremely staining the Pak-America relations. The Pakistani government while succumbing to public pressure also had to halt all NATO supplies to Afghanistan routed through the Torkham and Chaman borders besides getting the Shamsi airbase vacated by the Americans.

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U.S.-Philippines Drills Raise Questions About U.S. Asian Intentions

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2012-01/23/c_131374109.htm

Xinhua News Agency
January 23, 2012

Proposed U.S.-Philippines drills raise questions about U.S. intentions in Asia
By Liu Tian

BEIJING: As the United States and the Philippines plan to hold joint military drills near disputed waters in the South China Sea from March to April, one can’t help but raising questions about the real intentions behind Washington’s pivot to the Asia-Pacific region.

Since the United States announced its “return” to the Asia-Pacific region with much fanfare late last year and rolled out a new defense strategy on Jan. 5, countries in the region have been wondering what all this fuss would mean to them.

For many people, they hope the United States, the world’s sole superpower, will play a constructive role in promoting peace, prosperity and stability in the region.

But as the planned joint military drills show, the United States could become a destabilizing force in the region itself if it puts its power in the wrong places.

The United States and the Philippines have claimed that their proposed war games are not directed against other countries in the region, but the motive behind the planned joint drills is really dubious.

As to the issue of the South China Sea, the priority for all parties is to shelve disputes and refrain from taking radical measures to escalated the situation.

The United States, as an outside power, should work with all parties concerned to prevent tensions from getting out of control, rather than support one side or the other.

Instead of trying to arm the Philippines and stoking tensions, the United States should restrain the activist and provocative moves by its so-called ally.

After all, it is in the interests of all parties to maintain peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, which has been considered as a major engine driving the global economy.

So far, Washington’s performances have failed the good expectations of many people in the region. It should take concrete measures to back up its claim that its presence in Asia-Pacific is a positive contribution to regional peace.

For the Philippines, as signatory of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, it is obliged to honor its commitments and stop any provocative action.

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Kosovo Organ Trafficking Case Gains New Dimension

http://www.b92.net/eng/news/crimes-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=01&dd=23&nav_id=78431

Radio Television of Serbia/Tanjug News Agency
January 23, 2012

Kosovo organ trafficking case “gains new dimension”

BELGRADE: Deputy War Crimes Prosecutor Bruno Vekarić said Monday that the investigation into human organ trafficking in Kosovo was “gaining a new dimension”.

A resolution is in sight, he told state broadcaster RTS in Belgrade on Sunday, and commended Russia’s reported involvement in the probe.

He further noted that a cooperation agreement has been signed with Russia which involves exchange of information, and pointed out that the most important thing for the victims and their families was for the investigation, conducted in four countries, “to reveal the truth”.

The war crimes case investigated by the Serbian Prosecution concerns kidnappings, illegal imprisonment and removal of vital organs from Serb and other civilians in Kosovo and northern Albania in 1999 and 2000. The case was also investigated by Council of Europe Rapporteur Dick Marty, who in late 2010 submitted his report, naming ethnic Albanian KLA as perpetrators.

Serbia is demanding an investigation to be conducted under the auspices of the United Nations.

But allegations of illegal trafficking in human organs in Kosovo surfaced once again, this time related to the case dubbed “Medicus”, after a clinic in Priština. This time, donors consented to operations after they were offered to illegally sell their organs.

The suspects in the case are currently on trial in Priština. Media reports on Monday said that Canadian citizen Raul Fain, who claims that in 2008 in Priština he received a kidney extracted from a Russian woman at the price of EUR 87,000, would appear as a witness via video link in the trial in the case of illegal organ trafficking and transplants.

Canadian daily Toronto Star says that Fain would issue his testimony under oath before the Ontario Supreme Court in the trial that started on October 4, and quoted EU mission in Kosovo, EULEX Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime Jonathan Ratel who said that Fain is in no way a suspect, but a key witness in the process.

In an interview for Toronto Star, former Canadian prosecutor Ratel recalled that the 46-page long indictment charges seven individuals with one or more criminal acts of human trafficking and organized crime, as well as illegal performance of surgeries or abuse of office.

According to the daily, in his statement before the Canadian authorities, Ratel, who works as an investment consultant in Toronto, gave a detailed account of the kidney transplant he underwent at the Priština clinic.

Fain, who suffered from grave kidney problems, was notified in 2008 by his cousins from Israel that “a certain agreement can be reached as regards kidney transplants in Kosovo”.

He was introduced to Moshe Harel whom the authorities described in the indictment as the mediator of Turkish doctor Yusuf Sonmez.

Harel is also said to be one of the major financiers of the surgery and Interpol has issued a warrant for his arrest due to human trafficking in Kosovo.

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EU-NATO Eurocorps Deploys From U.S. Base In Germany

http://www.usafe.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123286665

U.S. Air Forces in Europe
January 19, 2012

Eurocorps deploys from Ramstein
by Airman 1st Class Trevor Rhynes
86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany: Troops from Eurocorps deployed from Ramstein Air Base, using the capability of the Joint Mobility Processing Center Tuesday.

Eurocorps is a multinational standing army corps available for the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance.

Headquartered in Strasbourg, France, the force was created in May 1992, activated in October 1993 and declared operational in 1995.

“Eurocorps was an idea that originated in 1952, when France and Germany tried to create a unified European Army,” said French Army Sergent-Chief Joseph Patray, a Public Affairs specialist assigned to Eurocorps.

“Forces from Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Spain made up the force that deployed to support International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, Afghanistan,” said 2nd Lieutenant Patrick Labbe, 86th Logistics Readiness Squadron.

The force deploys from Ramstein because of the services they offer to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and deploying service members.

“Ramstein is a focal point for all NATO missions going to Afghanistan,” said Labbe. “With Eurocorps being an extension of NATO, we have the processes available for this sort of a deployment. Ramstein also possesses all of the facilities necessary for a large movement like this.”

Because of facilities like the JMPC, Team Ramstein is able to strengthen alliances between NATO partners.

“Deploying from Ramstein helps by building partnerships across our two organizations and increases inter-operability within the U.S. and our NATO/Eurocorps partners,” said Labbe. “The JMPC is proud to support our joint effort for the mission in Afghanistan.”

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Britain: U.S. Air Force Commanders Hail NATO’s Libya, Future Wars

http://www.usafe.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123287036

U.S. Air Forces in Europe
January 23, 2012

USAFE leaders visit RAF Mildenhall
By Staff Sgt. Tabitha Lee
100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs

ROYAL AIR FORCE MILDENHALL, England: The U.S. Air Forces Europe commander and command chief visited Royal Air Force Mildenhall Airmen Jan. 19, to express their gratitude and discuss upcoming changes to the Air Force.

RAF Mildenhall’s contributions to Operations Odyssey Dawn and Unified Protector were highlighted during the visit.

“This last year, you guys have done phenomenal stuff. The biggest reason the Chief and I are coming through is just to say ‘thanks,’” said Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, USAFE commander…

The general also congratulated the 100th Air Refueling Wing for exceeding expectations in 2011.

“You guys flew almost 310 percent of your flying-hour program this last year. That’s pretty impressive,” said Welsh. “The 100th ARW flew about 2,000 sorties, and off-loaded more than 100 million pounds of gas. One-hundred million pounds of gas! You can’t get your arms around that one; it’s fantastic.”

The general and the chief addressed some changes that were unveiled in the defense strategy document, “Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense,” earlier this month.

The global strategy for the United States was recently re-worked in Washington D.C. and Welsh concentrated on what that means for USAFE.

The general said that the strategic partnership in Europe is complex and that America’s leaders have assured the country that, as always, America-European relations will continue to evolve and adapt.

The commander stressed that there are some things that will always require an Air Force presence in Europe, like mobility, contingency basing, and command and control of air activity.

…

To conclude his visit, Welsh re-emphasized that with all the changes, the U.S. Air Force will remain the world’s greatest air power.

“All this stuff that’s around us right now with the budget cuts and the discussions of downsizing is not going to change the fact that this will be the best Air Force in the world, in the future, just like it is today,” said Welsh.

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Iranian Official: U.S., NATO Presence In Region Causes Insecurity

http://times.am/?l=en&p=4046

Times.am
January 24, 2012

Iranian official: “US and NATO presence in region may cause insecurity”

According to Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, the military presence of US and NATO in the region has intensified insecurity.

He made the remarks in an interview with IRNA on the sidelines of his meeting with Sergei Shoigu Kuzhugetovich, Minister for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Disaster Management of the Federation of Russia.

“Insecurity and drug trafficking has severely increased as a result of the presence of NATO and the US in Afghanistan,” Najjar added.

He noted that Iran and Russia agreed to sign new MoUs in the field of security and emergencies.

Visiting Mohammad-Najjar also had a meeting with his Russian counterpart Rashid Nurgaliyev on Monday in which both officials underlined the need for the broadening of mutual cooperation.

Note that Russia does not agree with the sanctions against Iran which Western forces plan to put. The Russian and Chinese sides do not cut off relations with Iran despite all announcements by the USA and EU countries’ leaders.

The EU accepted the decision to reject Iranian oil till July 1 of this year. They aim by this way to force Iran to stop uranium enrichment. The Iranian side continues claiming that the enrichment is for only civilian needs.

Iranian officials announced yesterday that the embargo on Iranian oil may have negative and unpredictable consequences.

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Armenia: NATO’s Third Partner In The Caucasus

http://times.am/?l=en&p=4058

Times.am
January 24, 2012

NATO-Armenia military cooperation is developing

A delegation led by NATO international military department on cooperation and regional security, general-mayor Carlos Branko is in Armenia on January 23-24 to discuss new initiatives for military cooperation between NATO and counterpart states, the press service of Armenian Ministry of Defense informed about this.

The sides discussed military cooperation between Armenia and NATO and some documents which will assist the cooperation. 

The NATO delegation leader met the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of RA, Colonel General Yuri Khachaturov, and during the meeting the sides discussed Armenian peacekeepers’ participation in international peacekeeping actions. General-Mayor Carlos Branco expressed NATO’s gratitude towards Armenia for participating in the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. 

Armenian Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan also hosted the guests. During the meeting he spoke briefly about the reforms held in the Armenian defense sphere and also discussed the spheres where assistance from NATO is accepted.

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http://news.am/eng/news/90437.html

Armenian News
January 24, 2012

Armenia’s Defense Minister briefs NATO representative on country’s defense reforms

YEREVAN: A delegation led by NATO International Military Headquarters Cooperation and Regional Security Department Chief, Major General Carlos Branco, is at the Armenian MOD between Monday and Tuesday. The main objective of the delegation’s visit to Armenia is to discuss new initiatives toward developing military cooperation between NATO and its partnering countries.   

During the delegation’s meetings with MOD officials, the parties examined NATO-Armenia military cooperation, the MOD informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

At a meeting between Major General Carlos Branco and Colonel General Yury Khachaturov, the Armenian Armed Forces Chief of Staff, the interlocutors reflected on NATO-Armenia military cooperation and Armenian peacekeepers’ activities. [In Afghanistan and Kosovo]

And receiving the NATO delegation, Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan briefly presented Armenia’s defense reforms, its future activities, and anticipated assistance from NATO. The parties also exchanged views on regional security matters. 

Also, Major General Carlos Branco paid visits to the MOD Peacekeeping Brigade and Vazgen Sargsyan Military Institute.

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