Armoredd.com

Relations had been frozen since Georgia conflict last August

Associated Press
updated 10:11 a.m. PT, Sat., June 27, 2009

CORFU, Greece - NATO and Russia agreed to resume military ties Saturday in their first high-level meeting since Russia’s war with Georgia disrupted their relations 10 months ago.

NATO’s outgoing Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer announced that the so-called NATO-Russia Council, a panel set up in 2002 to improve ties between the former Cold War rivals, was operational again.

“It was my ambition to leave to my successor an NRC that is up and running,” said de Hoop Scheffer, whose term as secretary-general ends Aug. 1.

“After the meeting, which just ended, I have achieved that aim. Because there was clearly a sense in that meeting that the NRC, which had been in neutral … is now back in gear,” he said. “We also agreed to restart the military to military contacts.”

Relations between the alliance and the Russian military were frozen after the five-day Georgian war last August. Although political ties have thawed considerably over the past five months, there had been no formal military contacts since then.

The resumption of talks means NATO and Russia can cooperate on range of security issues, including Afghanistan and efforts to fight piracy, terrorism and the spread of nuclear weapons.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met his counterparts from NATO’s 28 member nations on the western Greek island of Corfu ahead of a broader informal meeting of ministers from the 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

De Hoop Scheffer described the talks as “open and constructive, which means we did not try to paper over our differences on Georgia, for example. But we agreed not to allow those agreements to bring the NRC to a halt.”

He said the renewed military contacts would involve meetings of the chiefs of staff of Russia and NATO countries.

The meeting in Corfu, which came as President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev prepare to hold a summit next week, reflected the trend toward improved relations with Russia.

De Hoop Scheffer said Lavrov and the other ministers raised the issue of Georgia extensively, and he said there continued to be “fundamental differences on the territorial integrity of Georgia.”

“But despite the fact I do not expect the twain to meet, there are a lot of things in NRC we can discuss and we can agree upon,” De Hoop Scheffer said.

Lavrov said that “overall I view this meeting as very useful.”

“We had a very frank discussion, at the center stage of which was the need on how to work together in the future,” Lavrov said.

“We spoke extensively on confidence building measures, but it is important to put those words into practice.”

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and Greek counterpart Costas Karamanlis were the only heads of government to attend the conference.

“We want to forget (the past) and resume total cooperation on all the issues on which we have decided to collaborate,” Berlusconi told journalists on his arrival at the meeting.

Despite last year’s disruption of ties with NATO, Russia has continued cooperating with individual NATO nations such as the U.S., France or Germany by allowing them to use Russia’s rail network and aerial corridors to resupply international forces in Afghanistan, and its navy has worked with NATO warships on their joint anti-piracy patrols.

NATO commanders have been particularly interested in Russia’s cooperation on the transshipments of military supplies to the rapidly expanding U.S.-led force in Afghanistan.

The normal supply route to landlocked Afghanistan via Pakistan has come under repeated Taliban attack, and the generals are keen to have an alternate overland supply route available through Russia and the Central Asian countries.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: MSNBC

<---End of Quote--->

Related Article:
Russia and NATO restore military ties

Source: Russia Today

By ERIC TALMADGE – 1 day ago

CAMP MAKOMANAI, Japan (AP) — Col. Kenji Sawai, commander of Japan’s 18th Infantry Regiment, stands in his headquarters dressed from head to foot in white camouflage. Skis clutter the hallways of his outpost in the snow-covered mountains of northern Japan, along with stacks of white ponchos, gloves and boots.

For decades, the mission for Japanese officers such as Sawai has been fairly straightforward: Defend the homeland. Narrowly defined, for Sawai and his infantrymen, that means protecting the island of Hokkaido, where the regiment is based, from invasion.

Now that definition is changing.

The political leadership and military planners — with the blessing of Washington, their closest ally — are cautiously moving the military away from its longtime role as a stay-at-home force. The new stance, while still centered on national defense, allows troops to be sent all over the world for a broad range of operations.

Lawmakers are mulling calls from the United States for Tokyo to send “boots on the ground” to bolster President Barack Obama’s stepped-up efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan. The U.S. has said that it would welcome a dispatch of soldiers.

While such a move would set off controversy among the public and is unlikely anytime soon, the government has taken a number of steps that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. It sent 600 troops to Iraq, albeit in a noncombat role; it has a refueling mission in the Indian Ocean that supports U.S. forces in Afghanistan; and it has sent two naval ships to the waters off Somalia to help battle pirates.

The tentative transition is reshaping the balance of power in northeast Asia — one of the world’s most volatile and heavily armed regions — and could be a key to Japan’s security as China’s military rises and North Korea continues to be a nuclear-capable wild card.

Sawai’s remote command, a series of drab beige barracks surrounded by sprawling marching fields, is already seeing the trickle-down effect.

At this year’s “North Wind” exercises, annual maneuvers held with the United States, U.S. commanders said training involved more joint attacks, more collaboration, closer command and control — just the kind of thing that would be needed if the Japanese were to be fighting alongside the U.S. in Iraq or Afghanistan.

“We have never actually been to war, and there are many things that we want to learn from the U.S. soldiers,” Sawai said after addressing his troops and several hundred U.S. National Guard soldiers who came to his base from Kentucky for the 11-day maneuvers.

It was a striking contrast: Many of the American guardsmen have been sent to war zones two or three times, while no Japanese soldier has fired a bullet in combat since Tokyo’s 1945 surrender ended World War II — thanks largely to a pacifist constitution written by U.S. occupiers to keep Japan from rearming.

Sawai stressed that the exercises were not directly intended to ready the Japanese for deployment overseas.

“Defense is our mission,” Sawai said. “That has not changed.”

Still, the new, more aggressive, role of Japan’s military is hard to ignore.

Japan has about 240,000 uniformed troops, with about 130,000 of them in the army, which is formally known as the Ground Self-Defense Forces. Because of sensitivities left over from the last century, the military itself is known as the Self-Defense Force.

Constitutional restrictions have barred the military from acquiring an aircraft carrier or some air-to-air refueling capabilities needed for long-range strikes, which are crucial for the projection of force but are considered too aggressive to meet the constitutional defense-only rules. Unlike China’s double-digit defense spending growth, Japan’s has remained flat for years. China has for years outspent Japan — $70 billion to $49 billion in 2009.

Even so, Japan has one of the best-funded and highly regarded militaries in the world. Its navy, in particular, is regarded as the best operating in the region, after only the U.S. Navy.

Earlier this month, after much haggling in parliament, two Japanese naval destroyers were dispatched to the sea off Somalia to join the multinational fight against piracy. Two more destroyers were sent to the Sea of Japan to monitor North Korean missile activity. And late last year, Japanese troops ended a four-year humanitarian and airlift mission in Iraq, the military’s biggest overseas operation since World War II.

On the home front, Japan has worked closely with the United States to erect a multi-billion dollar ballistic missile shield to protect the country — and the 50,000 U.S. troops stationed here — from a potential attack by its unpredictable and often belligerent neighbor, North Korea.

Elements of that shield could soon be tested if North Korea, as expected, test launches its first long-range ballistic missile since a failed attempt in 2006. North Korea claims the launch is intended to put a satellite into orbit, but Japanese officials have said they are prepared to respond if the missile’s trajectory poses a threat to Japan’s territory.

Sending troops to Afghanistan or elsewhere would likely stir up opposition from many Japanese who recall the disaster of the previous century’s militarist misadventures and strongly resist any action that might lead Japan again into war.

“I would anticipate the SDF (Japanese Self-Defense Force) taking a significantly larger role on the international stage in the years to come. There are any number of international and domestic factors that all point in the same direction on this point,” said Eric Heginbotham, a political scientist with the U.S.-based RAND Corporation.

But raising the question of Japan sending troops to Afghanistan, he added: “I would say it is unlikely, unless the situation there stabilizes or the SDF can identify a safe corner of the country in which to operate. Japan is still extremely casualty sensitive.”

Japan’s neighbors are also wary of such moves.

But political opposition at home is eroding. Japan’s two biggest parties both advocate the country taking a higher-profile role on the world stage, largely for nationalistic reasons. And the new mood dovetails with pressure from the United States, which would welcomes a stronger Japan that could assist thinly spread U.S. forces and serve as a counterbalance to the growing military strength of China.

“Gradually, Japan is moving toward that direction,” said Tsuneo Watanabe, a senior fellow at the Tokyo Foundation.

“There is vague consensus among the policy circle. However, there is no consensus among ordinary citizens and politicians,” he said. “The bridging role should be played by politicians, the policy research community and media.”

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Sat Mar 7, 12:04 pm ET
Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States is working to rush assistance to Mexico as it fights violent drug cartels, including equipment to help authorities track the narcotics mafia, the top US military officer said.

“We’re all working very hard to move the capabilities that are desirable to Mexico as quickly as we can,” Admiral Mike Mullen told reporters late Friday from his aircraft after holding talks in Mexico.

“We all have a sense of urgency about this,” he said.

During his meetings with the country’s military leadership, Mullen said he discussed how Washington could help in the battle against the powerful cartels, citing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) as a crucial element.

“ISR, that kind of capability is certainly a big part of it,” Mullen said, using a term that can refer to unmanned drones.

He said the emphasis would be on sharing intelligence “but in recognition that there are additional assets that could be brought to bear across the full ISR spectrum.”

With last year’s death toll from drug-related violence at 5,300 as well-financed cartels orchestrate a campaign of intimidation and kidnappings, the crisis over the border has become a serious national security concern for the United States.

The visit by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff underlined US alarm over the escalating violence, which experts say is fed by easy access to guns and drug profits on the US side of the border.

Mullen said the US military was ready to share tactics learned in fighting insurgent networks in Iraq and Afghanistan that he said could prove useful in Mexico’s drug war.

The US military was “sharing a lot of lessons we’ve learned, how we’ve developed similar capabilities over the last three or four years in our counter-insurgency efforts as we have fought terrorist networks.

“There are an awful lot of similarities,” he said.

The admiral said there was no discussion of deploying US troops to the border but Mexican authorities were increasingly open to bolstering military cooperation with the United States, in a break with tradition.

“What I find is the military to military relationship is the best I’ve ever seen it,” Mullen said.

As part of the US Merida Initiative that gives Mexico 1.4 billion dollars over three years to fight the growing drug mafia, Mullen said the military and other government agencies were trying to expedite funding and assistance already approved under the 2008 federal budget.

The two countries started sharing intelligence after signing an agreement in November and under the Merida program the US plans to deliver helicopters, maritime surveillance aircraft and other equipment, according to the Pentagon.

During his visit to Mexico, Mullen met with the secretary of defense, General Guillermo Galvan, and secretary of the navy, Mariano Francisco Saynez, saying he had come to hear how the United States could help.

“I share their deep concern over organized crime and narco-trafficking and appreciate their vigorous efforts to improve security,” Mullen said in a statement earlier.

The two countries have traded accusations over failures in the drug war, with Mexican President Felipe Calderon taking offense at a US government report blaming corruption in his country.

Calerdon hit back in an interview with AFP this week, saying corruption in the United States was also fueling the crisis.

The Mexican president has cracked down on cartels since taking office in 2006, often with bloody repercussions as Mexico battles a surging drug trade and drug-linked violence.

His government announced last month it would deploy about 5,000 military troops and 1,000 police to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s murder capital just across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Before Mexico, Mullen travelled to Brazil, Chile, Peru and Colombia in a week-long tour of Latin America.

Pakistan Times Diplomatic Desk

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday expressed concern to key ally the United States over missile attacks against militants on its soil, ahead of an anticipated surge of US troops into neighbouring Afghanistan. President Asif Ali Zardari and army chief General Ashfaq Kayani outlined Pakistan’s position in talks with visiting David Petraeus, the US Commander for Southwest Asia, said a Pakistani official.

Incoming US President Barack Obama, has identified battling al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in neighbouring Afghanistan one of his administration’s priorities.

Pakistan sought to relay its concerns to the US about a domestic blacklash against the weak civilian government caused by the missile strikes, believed to be the work of unmanned drones from the Central Intelligence Agency.

“Pakistan expressed concern over the drone attacks and hoped that the new administration will take into consideration the negative impact domestically of such attacks for the democratic government,” said a government official.

“Of course Pakistan reiterated its firm commitment in fighting terrorism and the US side reaffirmed Washington’s support for Pakistan’s effort in counter-terrorism,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Petraeus, who is a key advocate of a major troop surge in Afghanistan, went subsequently into talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, said local officials.

US embassy spokesman Lou Fintor confirmed only that Petraeus was in Islamabad for “scheduled meetings with senior Pakistani civilian and military government officials on issues of joint concern”.

Petraeus earlier visited Pakistan in November amid heightened tension between nuclear powers Pakistan and India following extremist attacks in Mumbai, which New Delhi blamed on Islamists coming across the border.

A Pakistani security official had said that the latest Petraeus talks would focus on those tensions, an expected surge of US troops in Afghanistan this year and the situation in the tribal border areas.

The US military announced in December that reinforcements of 20,000 to 30,000 troops will be sent to Afghanistan, where about 70,000 international troops are fighting alongside Afghan security forces.

Last week, Obama’s incoming Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said the new US administration would try to deepen regional cooperation with Afghanistan, Pakistan and their neighbours to fight militancy.

“We have to look at Afghanistan and Pakistan together, particularly (in) the border region,” where extremists have taken root, Clinton said.

Remnants of the hardline Taliban regime, which was toppled from power by the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, are waging an insurgency undermining the US-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Petraeus, lauded for turning round a Sunni insurgency in Iraq with a 30,000 troop “surge”, this month called for a regional approach to resolving the conflict in Afghanistan, including Pakistan and perhaps even US foe Iran.

Commander of the US Centcom, General Petreaus, called on Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani at the PM’s House on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister held an in-depth exchange of views with General Petreaus on the regional situation with particular focus on Pakistan-US cooperation in counter-terrorism. The security situation in Afghanistan as well as the escalation of tensions between Pakistan and India was also discussed.

The Prime Minister highlighted the steps taken by Pakistan to promote peace, security and stability as well as Pakistan’s determination to counter-terrorism in the region. The Prime Minister also informed General Petreaus about the steps taken by Pakistan in the context of Mumbai terrorist attacks and Pakistan’s on-going efforts to defuse tensions with India.

General Petreaus applauded the efforts of Government of Pakistan to promote peace and stability in the region and expressed keen interest in further intensifying US-Pakistan cooperation. General Petreaus also expressed appreciation for the series of actions taken by Pakistan to uncover the full facts relating to the Mumbai terrorist attacks and said that these were most “heartening”. Petreaus said that US was working to defuse tensions in South Asia and appreciated the restraint and responsibility demonstrated by Pakistan.In a chat with journalists General David Petraeus on Tuesday made it clear that it is need of hour for Pakistan to overcome its internal differences adding it is in the interest of all countries.

While talking to host of Journalists on Tuesday, US CENTOM Chief General David Petraeus was of the view that all countries are committed to wipe of menace of Extremism from Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

China made a rare appeal for cooperation between its normally secretive military and Washington on Tuesday but said U.S. arms sales to Taiwan remain a “serious harm to Sino-U.S. relations.”

By TINI TRAN
Associated Press Writer
The Seattle Times

BEIJING —
China made a rare appeal for cooperation between its normally secretive military and Washington on Tuesday but said U.S. arms sales to Taiwan remain a “serious harm to Sino-U.S. relations.”

The statements came as China issued a major policy paper on national defense that said blocking formal Taiwanese independence remains the chief concern for one of the world’s fastest-growing armed forces.

A Chinese military spokesman presenting the paper made an apparent reference to Taiwan as one of the “obstacles” the Pentagon should remove for better relations with China.

“At present, when China-U.S. military-to-military relations are faced with difficulties, we call on the U.S. Department of Defense to remove obstacles … and create favorable conditions for the healthy growth of military relations,” said Sr. Col. Hu Changming, chief spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense.

The policy paper itself said U.S. arms sales to Taiwan caused “serious harm to Sino-U.S. relations.”

Though Hu did not specify those difficulties, China suspended some senior-level visits and other exchanges last fall in retaliation for the U.S’s $6.5 billion arms sale to Taiwan that included Patriot III missiles and Apache helicopters.

Defense sales to and relations with Taiwan have been an issue for every U.S. president since Beijing and Washington established diplomatic ties 30 years ago. China considers the self-ruled island a part of its territory and threatens to attack it to prevent it gaining formal independence.

While arms sales remain an irritant, Taiwan should be less of a headache for President Barack Obama than it was for the Bush administration. Prolonged tensions between Taiwan and China have given way to rapprochement in recent months following last year’s election of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, who favors a less confrontational approach to China.

Hu noted there had been major improvements in cross-strait relations, saying “the situation across the Taiwan Strait has taken a significant and positive turn.”

But later Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu reiterated China’s opposition to Taiwan arms sales, warning that Washington should “cautiously and properly handle the Taiwan issue, (and) support the peaceful development of cross-strait relations with concrete actions.”

The new paper on national defense also focused on long-running separatist movements in Tibet and the far western, largely Muslim region of Xinjiang as threats to China’s national security.

“On these matters, we will not compromise,” Hu said.

China faced violent incidents in both regions last year, with an uprising in Tibetan areas last March and a string of attacks in Xinjiang around the time of the Beijing Olympics last August.

The military policy paper did not give new spending figures for China’s 2.3 million-strong armed forces for 2009. Last year, China announced a military budget of $59 billion, up nearly 18 percent over the previous year. It was the 18th year of double digit growth of military spending in the past 19 years.

China’s spending, which puts it on par with Japan, Russia and Britain, is still dwarfed by U.S. military expenditures, which are nearly 10 times as large.

The traditional security concerns that once dominated the U.S.-China agenda - including Taiwan and human rights issues - are not the only challenges that Obama must contend with. The bilateral relationship has become a far more expansive one focused much more heavily on financial interdependence.

Bilateral trade has soared to $400 billion, and China’s $1.9 trillion in foreign reserves makes it a potential lifeline in the midst of the global financial crisis.

The power balance between the two countries has also shifted with China now owning more than a half trillion dollars in U.S. government bonds.

Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company

Source: Muhammad Najeeb
Sulekha.com

Islamabad, Jan 10 (IANS) India should not talk of ’surgical strikes’ on Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attack, as forces were ready to ‘retaliate to any aggression’, former president Pervez Musharraf said Saturday.

‘India should not talk rubbish like surgical strikes. Our forces are not sitting idle and have full capacity to retaliate to any level of aggression,’ the former military dictator told reporters before leaving for the US where he is scheduled to deliver lectures at various institutes.

‘Why they (Indians) are again and again talking of surgical strikes? Why can’t Pakistan say the same,’ asked Musharraf, considered the architect of the Kargil conflict with India in 1999.

Musharraf said his government had tried its best to develop friendly relations with the eastern neighbour. ‘I believe relations were going fine with India until the Mumbai attacks,’ he said.

‘The only way to resolve the mystery of the Nov 26 attacks is to hold joint investigations,’ he added.

He avoided questions on the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government’s handling of the crisis after the Mumbai attacks that India has blamed on Pakistani elements.

He said he would not comment on the performance of the government and neither would he compare it with his government.

Musharraf ruled Pakistan for nine and a half years after dismissing the elected government of Nawaz Sharif in October 1999, when Musharraf was the chief of army staff.

The former president said his government had never authorised any drone strikes inside Pakistan by the US-led forces. ‘It was agreed that the US or the NATO forces can strike upto the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and would not enter the Pakistan territory,’ he said.

Musharraf said the West asking Pakistan to ‘do more’ on the terrorism front was ‘beyond understanding’.

‘Pakistan has done its best against terrorism and we are the worst victim of terrorism and still we are being targeted,’ said the former ruler who was forced to resign in August last year under national and international pressure.

This is his second foreign visit since his resignation. ‘I’ll continue to visit foreign countries as I have invitations from friends, family and some international institutions,’ he said.

By WILL WEISSERT – 1 hour ago

HAVANA (AP) — A Russian anti-submarine destroyer and two logistical warships docked in Cuba on Friday, a thumb-your-nose port call aimed at Washington in waters just 90 miles (145 kilometers) from Florida.

The arrival extends a tour that included stops in Venezuela and Panama and shows Moscow’s desire to flex some muscle in America’s backyard. It comes even as President Raul Castro reaches out to the U.S., offering to negotiate directly with President-elect Barack Obama and proposing an unprecedented swap of political prisoners.

“That is Cuba’s diplomatic specialty, playing both sides, or all sides, on every issue,” said Daniel Erikson, director of Caribbean programs at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank.

Russians sailors in white and tan dress uniforms stood at attention on the deck of the Admiral Chabanenko destroyer, which chugged into Havana Bay amid a cloud of gray smoke. The ships will be moored here until Tuesday and the crew planned a tour of Havana that includes a trip to a Cuban naval school.

A ceremonial Cuban cannon fired a 21-blast salute that rattled the windows of nearby buildings, and a naval band waiting on a cruise ship dock played the Russian and Cuban national anthems. A hulking barge that frequently ferries U.S. food to the island happened to be waiting in the area but had to move to make room for the Russian warships. It was unclear whether it had any American cargo aboard.

Washington’s nearly 50-year-old trade embargo prohibits American tourists from visiting Cuba, but the U.S. has allowed cash-only sales of its agricultural products to the island since 2000 and has long since become the country’s largest source of food.
Erikson, author of a new book called “Cuba Wars,” said he was not surprised to see Russian ships come to Cuba at the same time the communist government is promoting a thawing in its relations with Washington.

“Cuba has always been a country that wants to have its cake and eat it to,” he said. “They want to keep the United States as the No. 1 enemy and at the same time benefit from U.S. travel and trade.”

The Soviet Union provided billions of dollars in trade and annual subsidies to Cuba before its 1991 collapse. Relations soured after that, but the Cold War allies have become close again, with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visiting Havana in November.

Friday marked the first time Russian military ships have visited Cuba since the end of the Soviet era. About 100 Cubans — as well as tourists from Russia and other foreign destinations — watched the arrival from a nearby sidewalk. The crowd grew so large that police blocked off the right lane of a crowded boulevard adjacent the bay.

“This shows relations with Russia never deteriorated,” said Eric Hernandez, a naval administrative employee who left his office across the street for a closer view. “Russia is a brother nation to Cuba, and Cuba has brother nations all over the world, despite what the United States wants.”

But another onlooker, retired airport employee Jorge Fernandez, said he hoped the Russian visit wouldn’t send Washington the wrong signal.

“The new president of the United States wants peace and tranquility with Cuba,” he said. “This is positive for Cuba and Russia. But they might not agree in the United States.”

The Russian ships arrived as Castro returned from his first state visit to Brazil, where he said Thursday he would consider releasing some jailed political dissidents as a gesture to opening talks with the Obama administration. Castro’s trip also included a stop in Venezuela, where he met with U.S. critic Hugo Chavez.

Erikson noted that “the U.S. is important for Cuba, but it’s not the only international relationship they’re trying to manage.”
“To some degree, the Cuban government says ‘There’s no way of knowing what the U.S. will do ultimately so we better have relationships with Russia, Brazil and China in our back pocket,’” he said. “It’s hard to imagine Cuba saying ‘We don’t want Russian warships to come,’ because they don’t know what the U.S. will do.”

The Russian ships’ trip to Cuba has largely failed to register in Washington, but State Department spokeswoman Heidi Bronke rejected Castro’s offer of a prisoner swap, saying the more than 200 jailed dissidents should be released immediately without conditions. Castro said the U.S. would need to release the so-called “Cuban Five,” who were convicted in 2001 on U.S. espionage charges.

Cuban human rights activists also have panned the notion of a prisoner exchange, saying the jailed activists, independent journalists and political dissidents should be not be used as bargaining chips.

In a statement Friday, the country’s best-known political opposition leader, Oswlado Paya, called on Castro to free political prisoners without asking for anything in return, saying doing so “would be an act of justice for the people of Cuba, and is a moral and political obligation for the government.”

Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

19 December 2008
Air Force Technology

The United States hopes China, which suspended military contacts with Washington in October, will soon resume them to work together against piracy in the Gulf of Aden, US defence officials said on Thursday.

China took the action to protest a $6.5bn US arms sale to Taiwan.

“It is a fact that the Chinese suspended ‘mil-to-mil’ dialogue with the Department of Defense in general and US Pacific Command,” said Navy Adm. Timothy Keating, who commands all US forces in Asia and the Pacific.

A defence official said the suspension occurred after the United States announced the arms package including 30 Apache attack helicopters and 330 Patriot missiles.

The sale angered Beijing, which has vowed in the past to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary. The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 but Washington remains Taiwan’s strongest ally and biggest arms supplier.

At the time, the Pentagon said China cancelled or postponed several military-to-military exchanges, including senior officer visits and a humanitarian relief programme.

Keating told reporters prospects of China sending warships to the seas off Somalia to help international efforts against piracy could provide a ’springboard’ for resuming ties.

“We are in dialogue in various agencies and commands in an attempt to provide information to the People’s Liberation Army Navy should their country decide to deploy ships,” he said.

“This augurs well for increased cooperation and collaboration between the Chinese military forces and US Pacific Command forces,” Keating said. “So I’m cautiously optimistic.”

China said on Thursday that it preparing to send warships to the Gulf of Aden after a multilateral force rescued a Chinese ship from Somali pirates the previous day.

By David Morgan, Reuters.

12 April 2008

Sino Defence

Chinese Defence Minister General Liang Guanglie and his U.S. counterpart Defence Secretary Robert Gates spoke to each other for about 30 minutes on Thursday over the direct telephone hotline between the U.S. and PRC defence ministries. This was the first time that the hotline was used since its establishment last year.

The conversation over the hotline has been confirmed by both Pentagon and the PRC Ministry of National Defence (MND).

During their conversation, both ministers welcomed the opening of the direct line, and believed that it would help enhance the consultations, mutual trust, coordination and cooperation between the two countries.

Gates congratulated Liang on his recent appointment as the Defence Minister of the PRC, and used the opportunity to urge the PRC to work with the newly elected leaders of Taiwan, and reiterated the United States opposes any unilateral effort by either side to change the status quo.

Liang urged the U.S. to stop selling its weapons to Taiwan and abide by its repeated commitments to adhere to the one-China policy and the three Sino-U.S. joint communiqués.

A U.S. DoD spokesman said they discussed “building on the positive momentum in military-to-military relations, encouraging the trend of greater transparency at all levels in which substantive dialogue can help avoid miscalculation.”

The idea of a military hotline between the defence ministries of the two countries can be traced back to the aftermath of the 1996 Taiwan Crisis. The U.S. has raised the idea of a direct telephone link at the defence ministry level many time. In April 2006, the Chinese President Hu Jintao and the U.S. President George W Bush agreed in principle to improve the military dialogue between the two countries.

A technical team from the Pentagon was sent to Beijing in April 2007 to discuss various details on the hotline.

During his visit to Beijing in November 2007, Gates finalised the details with then Defence Minister General Cao Gangchuan on the establishment of the military hotline.

Shortly before the Sino-US military hotline was activated, a telephone hotline was established between the defence ministries of the PRC and Russia. Defence ministers of the two countries made their first conversation over the hotline on 14 March.