Αρχίζει την Τρίτη η ανάπτυξη του ειδικού τμήματος της Frontex, στον Έβρο με την ανάληψη περιπολιών των πρώτων 150 ανδρών στο προγεφύρωμα του Κάραγατς, όπου εντοπίζεται το μεγαλύτερο πρόβλημα. Το ειδικό τμήμα θα είναι ένοπλο, με ειδικά σκυλιά και ειδικούς αισθητήρες κίνησης και ανίχνευσης. Στην δύναμη θα διατεθούν περί τα 30 ειδικά οχήματα.
Στο τμήμα συμμετέχουν μεταφραστές από επτά χώρες αλλά και ειδικοί στην αναγνώριση πλαστών εγγράφων. Αυτή την στιγμή εισέρχονται κατά μέσο όρο από την περιοχή του Έβρου περίπου 200 λαθρομετανάστες την ημέρα. Οι μισοί από αυτούς παραδίδονται αμέσως και οι άλλοι μισοί διαφεύγουν προς τα δυτικά.
Geopolitical Research Institute(GRI)/Εταιρεία Γεωπολιτικών Ερευνών(ΕΓΕ)
Κυριακή 31 Οκτωβρίου 2010
Suicide Bombing Wounds 32 in Istanbul
(ISTANBUL) — A suicide bomber blew himself up Sunday beside a police vehicle in a major Istanbul square near tourist hotels and a bus terminal, wounding 32 people, including 15 policemen.
The attack in Taksim Square, which was followed by police gunfire and sent hundreds of panicked people racing for cover, coincided with the possible end of a unilateral cease-fire by Kurdish rebels, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Turkey, a NATO ally that has deployed troops in a non-combat role in Afghanistan, is also home to cells of radical leftists and Islamic militants.
(See the 25 crimes of the century.)
Istanbul police chief Huseyin Capkin said the bomber tried but failed to get into a parked police van and detonated the bomb just outside the vehicle, blowing himself to pieces. Riot police are routinely stationed at Taksim, a popular spot for street demonstrations that abuts a major pedestrian walkway whose shops and restaurants are usually packed.
At least 32 people, including 15 police officers, were injured, at least two of them seriously, Istanbul Gov. Huseyin Avni Mutlu said.
After the blast, he said, investigators at the scene found and defused a package of plastic explosives that could have been detonated with the push of a button.
"It was a terrifying, very loud explosion," said Mehmet Toz, a coffee stall owner who was in the square at the time of the blast. "Everyone started to run around, people fell on the ground. There was panic."
Another witness, Muammer Ulutas, said a policeman fired four rounds at the body of the suicide bomber after the explosion. He glimpsed the remains of the assailant, who appeared to be in his early 20s.
The attack occurred as Istanbul was preparing to hold Republic Day parades to mark the 1923 founding of Turkey. The celebrations were originally planned for Friday, but were delayed due to heavy rain. Taksim Square, a transport hub that is a major stop on the city's underground train network and close to the Hyatt, Ritz-Carlton and other major hotels, was festooned with red and white Turkish flags.
Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast have a history of suicide bombings in Turkey and their unilateral cease-fire was scheduled to expire at the end of October. The state has held secretive talks with the jailed leader of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in an effort to end the conflict, But an ongoing trial of more than 150 Kurds, including a dozen elected mayors, on charges of rebel links is a sign of the deep reserves of mistrust between authorities and the ethnic minority.
Interior Minister Besir Atalay, speaking to Turkish journalists on a visit to China, said "certain suspicions, certain evidence" indicated who was behind the attack, but said the government would not rush to announce its theories.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was inaugurating a hamlet for villagers whose homes are to be flooded by a new dam in southeastern Turkey, said the suicide attack was aimed at "obstructing Turkey's development."
"We will not show any tolerance toward those who to want cause turmoil," Erdogan said.
President Abdullah Gul said the assailants would "fail in their aim to replace friendship, brotherhood and peace with violence in the face of the people's will for unity to live as brothers."
Turkey frequently accuses the PKK of carrying out attacks to prevent the economic and social progress of Turkey, which has made big strides as a regional power in recent years despite conflict between its Islamic-leaning government and secular elites linked to the military and judiciary. An alleged anti-government network that includes military officers faces charges of seeking to foment chaos that would topple Erdogan's government; secular critics say the trials are a government effort to silence dissent.
At Taksim, police sealed off roads with yellow tape and forensic teams in blue coveralls combed the area for debris and other evidence. One walked around the ledge of a monument to Turkish independence in the center of the square. Hours later, some areas were reopened.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, a militant group linked to the PKK, claimed responsibility for a June bombing in Istanbul that killed four soldiers and an officer's 17-year-old daughter. Authorities suspected Kurdish rebels in a 2008 bombing in Istanbul that killed 17 people, though the PKK denied involvement.
According to the government, the last suicide bombing by the PKK was in 2008, when an assailant blew himself up at a police checkpoint in the Mediterranean city of Mersin and injured 13 police officers. In May 2007, a Kurdish rebel blew himself up in the capital, Ankara, killing seven.
Two previous suicide attacks in Taksim in 1999 and 2001 killed two police officers and wounded a total of 13 people.
Homegrown Islamic militants tied to al-Qaida carried out suicide bombings in Istanbul, killing 58, in 2003. The targets were the British consulate, a British bank and two synagogues. In 2008, an attack blamed on al-Qaida-affiliated militants outside the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul left three assailants and three policemen dead.
On Oct. 22, Turkish police said they detained five people, including three university students, suspected of providing financial and technical support to the al-Qaida network in Afghanistan. The raids were carried out in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir and several other cities.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2028465,00.html#ixzz13xLDA3si
The attack in Taksim Square, which was followed by police gunfire and sent hundreds of panicked people racing for cover, coincided with the possible end of a unilateral cease-fire by Kurdish rebels, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Turkey, a NATO ally that has deployed troops in a non-combat role in Afghanistan, is also home to cells of radical leftists and Islamic militants.
(See the 25 crimes of the century.)
Istanbul police chief Huseyin Capkin said the bomber tried but failed to get into a parked police van and detonated the bomb just outside the vehicle, blowing himself to pieces. Riot police are routinely stationed at Taksim, a popular spot for street demonstrations that abuts a major pedestrian walkway whose shops and restaurants are usually packed.
At least 32 people, including 15 police officers, were injured, at least two of them seriously, Istanbul Gov. Huseyin Avni Mutlu said.
After the blast, he said, investigators at the scene found and defused a package of plastic explosives that could have been detonated with the push of a button.
"It was a terrifying, very loud explosion," said Mehmet Toz, a coffee stall owner who was in the square at the time of the blast. "Everyone started to run around, people fell on the ground. There was panic."
Another witness, Muammer Ulutas, said a policeman fired four rounds at the body of the suicide bomber after the explosion. He glimpsed the remains of the assailant, who appeared to be in his early 20s.
The attack occurred as Istanbul was preparing to hold Republic Day parades to mark the 1923 founding of Turkey. The celebrations were originally planned for Friday, but were delayed due to heavy rain. Taksim Square, a transport hub that is a major stop on the city's underground train network and close to the Hyatt, Ritz-Carlton and other major hotels, was festooned with red and white Turkish flags.
Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast have a history of suicide bombings in Turkey and their unilateral cease-fire was scheduled to expire at the end of October. The state has held secretive talks with the jailed leader of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in an effort to end the conflict, But an ongoing trial of more than 150 Kurds, including a dozen elected mayors, on charges of rebel links is a sign of the deep reserves of mistrust between authorities and the ethnic minority.
Interior Minister Besir Atalay, speaking to Turkish journalists on a visit to China, said "certain suspicions, certain evidence" indicated who was behind the attack, but said the government would not rush to announce its theories.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was inaugurating a hamlet for villagers whose homes are to be flooded by a new dam in southeastern Turkey, said the suicide attack was aimed at "obstructing Turkey's development."
"We will not show any tolerance toward those who to want cause turmoil," Erdogan said.
President Abdullah Gul said the assailants would "fail in their aim to replace friendship, brotherhood and peace with violence in the face of the people's will for unity to live as brothers."
Turkey frequently accuses the PKK of carrying out attacks to prevent the economic and social progress of Turkey, which has made big strides as a regional power in recent years despite conflict between its Islamic-leaning government and secular elites linked to the military and judiciary. An alleged anti-government network that includes military officers faces charges of seeking to foment chaos that would topple Erdogan's government; secular critics say the trials are a government effort to silence dissent.
At Taksim, police sealed off roads with yellow tape and forensic teams in blue coveralls combed the area for debris and other evidence. One walked around the ledge of a monument to Turkish independence in the center of the square. Hours later, some areas were reopened.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, a militant group linked to the PKK, claimed responsibility for a June bombing in Istanbul that killed four soldiers and an officer's 17-year-old daughter. Authorities suspected Kurdish rebels in a 2008 bombing in Istanbul that killed 17 people, though the PKK denied involvement.
According to the government, the last suicide bombing by the PKK was in 2008, when an assailant blew himself up at a police checkpoint in the Mediterranean city of Mersin and injured 13 police officers. In May 2007, a Kurdish rebel blew himself up in the capital, Ankara, killing seven.
Two previous suicide attacks in Taksim in 1999 and 2001 killed two police officers and wounded a total of 13 people.
Homegrown Islamic militants tied to al-Qaida carried out suicide bombings in Istanbul, killing 58, in 2003. The targets were the British consulate, a British bank and two synagogues. In 2008, an attack blamed on al-Qaida-affiliated militants outside the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul left three assailants and three policemen dead.
On Oct. 22, Turkish police said they detained five people, including three university students, suspected of providing financial and technical support to the al-Qaida network in Afghanistan. The raids were carried out in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir and several other cities.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2028465,00.html#ixzz13xLDA3si
Russia Returns to Afghanistan for a Drug Raid
For almost a decade, Russia has stayed on the sidelines of the war in Afghanistan, in part because of its bad memories of the 1980s, when the Afghan mujahedin, with the help of Stinger missiles provided by the U.S., handed the Red Army a humiliating defeat. As Russia's NATO envoy Dmitri Rogozin put it this week in a stroke of understatement, "We've been to Afghanistan, and we didn't really like it over there." But on Friday, Oct. 29, Russia and the U.S. made a startling announcement: they had conducted their first-ever joint military mission in Afghanistan. It was a small one — a coalition-assisted drug bust — but it drove home the point that Russian boots are back on Afghan ground, and they appear ready to help fill a vacuum as the U.S. prepares to pull its troops out next year.
According to a Kremlin source familiar with the operation, the Russians had pushed the Americans for months to carry it out. "They kept brushing us off, saying their helicopters were busy elsewhere, or so-and-so had stepped out for a smoke," he tells TIME. But a week after Russia's drug czar, Viktor Ivanov, met in Washington with his U.S. counterpart, Gil Kerlikowske, the mission went ahead. On the morning of Oct. 28, nine coalition helicopters swept down over the Nangarhar province of northeastern Afghanistan, carrying 70 troops, including Afghan police, U.S. special forces and four Russian officers from Ivanov's agency. In the course of that day, they destroyed four drug labs and 200 million doses of heroin, Ivanov said at a press conference in Moscow on Friday. No one in the strike team was injured, he said; he did not know whether there had been any Afghan casualties.
(See why Moscow is headed back to Afghanistan with U.S. approval.)
"Afghanistan's drug barons will not be able to respond to the coalition and Afghan forces after the destruction of heroin and morphine laboratories," Ivanov said, in a rare bit of Russian back patting for the troops fighting in Afghanistan. Seated beside him at the press conference was Eric Rubin, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, who suggested there would be similar operations in the future. "We expect to continue to work with the Afghan government, and of course with our partners in the Russia Federation, as long as necessary to eradicate the Afghan drug trade."
(See how U.S. troops are resupplied by air in Afghanistan.)
For more than a year, Moscow has been using the subject of Afghan heroin (and the fact that Russia is its largest consumer) to crowbar its way back from the margins of the debate over Afghanistan. Top government officials have used their turns at conference podiums around the world this year to fume at NATO over its policy on poppy crops, which the coalition has refused to destroy for fear of pushing poppy farmers toward extremism. In June, Ivanov even compared NATO to Dr. Frankenstein, suggesting that its Afghan drug policy was "giving birth to a monster."
But with this week's joint strike, Russia's arguments appear to have gotten the coalition forces to move, although they still refuse to eradicate poppy fields. The success follows a series of other Russian inroads, particularly in terms of arms sales and energy deals with the Afghan government. The Foreign Ministry has said Russia will provide a free weapons shipment for Afghan forces and will help train the country's air force and police. Last month, Russia also agreed to sell the U.S. 21 Mi-17 helicopters for the Afghan air force, a deal estimated to be worth about $370 million. Russian companies are meanwhile pushing for the rights to upgrade Afghanistan's infrastructure, including a $500 million plan to rebuild a hydroelectric-power plant, while Russia's state-controlled oil firm has its eye on gas fields in the north.
(See pictures of the battle against the Taliban.)
"All of this underscores Russia's role in the Afghan question," says Omar Nessar, director of the Center for the Study of Modern Afghanistan in Moscow. "Especially after [Thursday's] operation, that role is direct, and it is growing." For Russia, defining its place on the issue of Afghanistan has become all the more important as relations with NATO improve. This month, President Dmitri Medvedev agreed to attend the NATO summit to be held in Lisbon in November, a decision hailed on both sides as a breakthrough in cooperation between the Cold War enemies.
But Nessar says that rather than joining with the coalition's agenda, Russia will try to balance it out if not provide an alternative to it. "On the ground in Afghanistan, the regular people still view Russia as an enemy of the West. This may no longer be an accurate perception, but that is the feeling left over from the Soviet campaign. And Moscow by no means wants to lose that, because it will allow them to be a counteracting force in many situations in the future."
Given the lingering resentment among many Afghans toward Western troops as well as their memory of Taliban repressions, Russia has an important advantage in becoming a kind of big brother for Afghanistan, a country that lies just at the edge of Russia's traditional sphere of influence. As a decade of war leaves the U.S. exhausted in Afghanistan, that sphere of influence appears to be edging back into the war-torn country. Conveniently, by the time Russian influence returns, the dirty work of dealing with the mujahedin and the Taliban may mostly be done.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2028329,00.html#ixzz13xJAloQ0
According to a Kremlin source familiar with the operation, the Russians had pushed the Americans for months to carry it out. "They kept brushing us off, saying their helicopters were busy elsewhere, or so-and-so had stepped out for a smoke," he tells TIME. But a week after Russia's drug czar, Viktor Ivanov, met in Washington with his U.S. counterpart, Gil Kerlikowske, the mission went ahead. On the morning of Oct. 28, nine coalition helicopters swept down over the Nangarhar province of northeastern Afghanistan, carrying 70 troops, including Afghan police, U.S. special forces and four Russian officers from Ivanov's agency. In the course of that day, they destroyed four drug labs and 200 million doses of heroin, Ivanov said at a press conference in Moscow on Friday. No one in the strike team was injured, he said; he did not know whether there had been any Afghan casualties.
(See why Moscow is headed back to Afghanistan with U.S. approval.)
"Afghanistan's drug barons will not be able to respond to the coalition and Afghan forces after the destruction of heroin and morphine laboratories," Ivanov said, in a rare bit of Russian back patting for the troops fighting in Afghanistan. Seated beside him at the press conference was Eric Rubin, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, who suggested there would be similar operations in the future. "We expect to continue to work with the Afghan government, and of course with our partners in the Russia Federation, as long as necessary to eradicate the Afghan drug trade."
(See how U.S. troops are resupplied by air in Afghanistan.)
For more than a year, Moscow has been using the subject of Afghan heroin (and the fact that Russia is its largest consumer) to crowbar its way back from the margins of the debate over Afghanistan. Top government officials have used their turns at conference podiums around the world this year to fume at NATO over its policy on poppy crops, which the coalition has refused to destroy for fear of pushing poppy farmers toward extremism. In June, Ivanov even compared NATO to Dr. Frankenstein, suggesting that its Afghan drug policy was "giving birth to a monster."
But with this week's joint strike, Russia's arguments appear to have gotten the coalition forces to move, although they still refuse to eradicate poppy fields. The success follows a series of other Russian inroads, particularly in terms of arms sales and energy deals with the Afghan government. The Foreign Ministry has said Russia will provide a free weapons shipment for Afghan forces and will help train the country's air force and police. Last month, Russia also agreed to sell the U.S. 21 Mi-17 helicopters for the Afghan air force, a deal estimated to be worth about $370 million. Russian companies are meanwhile pushing for the rights to upgrade Afghanistan's infrastructure, including a $500 million plan to rebuild a hydroelectric-power plant, while Russia's state-controlled oil firm has its eye on gas fields in the north.
(See pictures of the battle against the Taliban.)
"All of this underscores Russia's role in the Afghan question," says Omar Nessar, director of the Center for the Study of Modern Afghanistan in Moscow. "Especially after [Thursday's] operation, that role is direct, and it is growing." For Russia, defining its place on the issue of Afghanistan has become all the more important as relations with NATO improve. This month, President Dmitri Medvedev agreed to attend the NATO summit to be held in Lisbon in November, a decision hailed on both sides as a breakthrough in cooperation between the Cold War enemies.
But Nessar says that rather than joining with the coalition's agenda, Russia will try to balance it out if not provide an alternative to it. "On the ground in Afghanistan, the regular people still view Russia as an enemy of the West. This may no longer be an accurate perception, but that is the feeling left over from the Soviet campaign. And Moscow by no means wants to lose that, because it will allow them to be a counteracting force in many situations in the future."
Given the lingering resentment among many Afghans toward Western troops as well as their memory of Taliban repressions, Russia has an important advantage in becoming a kind of big brother for Afghanistan, a country that lies just at the edge of Russia's traditional sphere of influence. As a decade of war leaves the U.S. exhausted in Afghanistan, that sphere of influence appears to be edging back into the war-torn country. Conveniently, by the time Russian influence returns, the dirty work of dealing with the mujahedin and the Taliban may mostly be done.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2028329,00.html#ixzz13xJAloQ0
China’s Fast Rise Leads Neighbors to Join Forces
HANOI, Vietnam — China’s military expansion and assertive trade policies have set off jitters across Asia, prompting many of its neighbors to rekindle old alliances and cultivate new ones to better defend their interests against the rising superpower.
A whirl of deal-making and diplomacy, from Tokyo to New Delhi, is giving the United States an opportunity to reassert itself in a region where its eclipse by China has been viewed as inevitable.
President Obama’s trip to the region this week, his most extensive as president, will take him to the area’s big democracies, India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan, skirting authoritarian China. Those countries and other neighbors have taken steps, though with varying degrees of candor, to blunt China’s assertiveness in the region.
Mr. Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India are expected to sign a landmark deal for American military transport aircraft and are discussing the possible sale of jet fighters, which would escalate the Pentagon’s defense partnership with India to new heights. Japan and India are courting Southeast Asian nations with trade agreements and talk of a “circle of democracy.” Vietnam has a rapidly warming rapport with its old foe, the United States, in large part because its old friend, China, makes broad territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The deals and alliances are not intended to contain China. But they suggest a palpable shift in the diplomatic landscape, on vivid display as leaders from 18 countries gathered this weekend under the wavelike roof of Hanoi’s futuristic convention center, not far from Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, for a meeting suffused by tensions between China and its neighbors.
China’s escalating feud with Japan over another set of islands, in the East China Sea, stole the meeting’s headlines on Saturday, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed three-way negotiations to resolve the issue.
Most Asian countries, even as they argue that China will inevitably replace the United States as the top regional power, have grown concerned at how quickly that shift is occurring, and what China the superpower may look like.
China’s big trading partners are complaining more loudly that it intervenes too aggressively to keep its currency undervalued. Its recent restrictions on exports of crucial rare earths minerals, first to Japan and then to the United States and Europe, raised the prospect that it may use its dominant positions in some industries as a diplomatic and political weapon.
And its rapid naval expansion, combined with a more strident defense of its claims to disputed territories far off its shores, has persuaded Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and Singapore to reaffirm their enthusiasm for the American security umbrella.
“The most common thing that Asian leaders have said to me in my travels over this last 20 months is, ‘Thank you, we’re so glad that you’re playing an active role in Asia again,’ ” Mrs. Clinton said in Hawaii, opening a seven-country tour of Asia that included a last-minute stop in China.
Few of China’s neighbors voice their concerns about the country publicly, but analysts and diplomats say they express wariness about the pace of China’s military expansion and the severity of its trade policies in private.
“Most of these countries have come to us and said, ‘We’re really worried about China,’ ” said Kenneth G. Lieberthal, a China adviser to President Bill Clinton who is now at the Brookings Institution.
The Obama administration has been quick to capitalize on China’s missteps. Where officials used to speak of China as the Asian economic giant, they now speak of India and China as twin giants. And they make clear which one they believe has a closer affinity to the United States.
“India and the United States have never mattered more to each other,” Mrs. Clinton said. “As the world’s two largest democracies, we are united by common interests and common values.”
As Mr. Obama prepares to visit India in his first stop on his tour of Asian democracies, Mr. Singh, India’s prime minister, will have just returned from his own grand tour — with both of them somewhat conspicuously, if at least partly coincidentally, circling China.
None of this seems likely to lead to a cold war-style standoff. China is fully integrated into the global economy, and all of its neighbors are eager to deepen their ties with it. China has fought no wars since a border skirmish with Vietnam three decades ago, and it often emphasizes that it has no intention of projecting power through the use of force.
At the same time, fears that China has become more assertive as it has grown richer are having real consequences.
India is promoting itself throughout the region as a counterweight to China; Japan is settling a dispute with the United States over a Marine air base; the Vietnamese are negotiating a deal to obtain civilian nuclear technology from the United States; and the Americans, who had largely ignored the rest of Asia as they waged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, see an opportunity to come back in a big way.
In July, for example, Mrs. Clinton reassured Vietnam and the Philippines by announcing that the United States would be willing to help resolve disputes between China and its neighbors over a string of strategically important islands in the South China Sea.
A whirl of deal-making and diplomacy, from Tokyo to New Delhi, is giving the United States an opportunity to reassert itself in a region where its eclipse by China has been viewed as inevitable.
President Obama’s trip to the region this week, his most extensive as president, will take him to the area’s big democracies, India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan, skirting authoritarian China. Those countries and other neighbors have taken steps, though with varying degrees of candor, to blunt China’s assertiveness in the region.
Mr. Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India are expected to sign a landmark deal for American military transport aircraft and are discussing the possible sale of jet fighters, which would escalate the Pentagon’s defense partnership with India to new heights. Japan and India are courting Southeast Asian nations with trade agreements and talk of a “circle of democracy.” Vietnam has a rapidly warming rapport with its old foe, the United States, in large part because its old friend, China, makes broad territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The deals and alliances are not intended to contain China. But they suggest a palpable shift in the diplomatic landscape, on vivid display as leaders from 18 countries gathered this weekend under the wavelike roof of Hanoi’s futuristic convention center, not far from Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, for a meeting suffused by tensions between China and its neighbors.
China’s escalating feud with Japan over another set of islands, in the East China Sea, stole the meeting’s headlines on Saturday, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed three-way negotiations to resolve the issue.
Most Asian countries, even as they argue that China will inevitably replace the United States as the top regional power, have grown concerned at how quickly that shift is occurring, and what China the superpower may look like.
China’s big trading partners are complaining more loudly that it intervenes too aggressively to keep its currency undervalued. Its recent restrictions on exports of crucial rare earths minerals, first to Japan and then to the United States and Europe, raised the prospect that it may use its dominant positions in some industries as a diplomatic and political weapon.
And its rapid naval expansion, combined with a more strident defense of its claims to disputed territories far off its shores, has persuaded Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and Singapore to reaffirm their enthusiasm for the American security umbrella.
“The most common thing that Asian leaders have said to me in my travels over this last 20 months is, ‘Thank you, we’re so glad that you’re playing an active role in Asia again,’ ” Mrs. Clinton said in Hawaii, opening a seven-country tour of Asia that included a last-minute stop in China.
Few of China’s neighbors voice their concerns about the country publicly, but analysts and diplomats say they express wariness about the pace of China’s military expansion and the severity of its trade policies in private.
“Most of these countries have come to us and said, ‘We’re really worried about China,’ ” said Kenneth G. Lieberthal, a China adviser to President Bill Clinton who is now at the Brookings Institution.
The Obama administration has been quick to capitalize on China’s missteps. Where officials used to speak of China as the Asian economic giant, they now speak of India and China as twin giants. And they make clear which one they believe has a closer affinity to the United States.
“India and the United States have never mattered more to each other,” Mrs. Clinton said. “As the world’s two largest democracies, we are united by common interests and common values.”
As Mr. Obama prepares to visit India in his first stop on his tour of Asian democracies, Mr. Singh, India’s prime minister, will have just returned from his own grand tour — with both of them somewhat conspicuously, if at least partly coincidentally, circling China.
None of this seems likely to lead to a cold war-style standoff. China is fully integrated into the global economy, and all of its neighbors are eager to deepen their ties with it. China has fought no wars since a border skirmish with Vietnam three decades ago, and it often emphasizes that it has no intention of projecting power through the use of force.
At the same time, fears that China has become more assertive as it has grown richer are having real consequences.
India is promoting itself throughout the region as a counterweight to China; Japan is settling a dispute with the United States over a Marine air base; the Vietnamese are negotiating a deal to obtain civilian nuclear technology from the United States; and the Americans, who had largely ignored the rest of Asia as they waged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, see an opportunity to come back in a big way.
In July, for example, Mrs. Clinton reassured Vietnam and the Philippines by announcing that the United States would be willing to help resolve disputes between China and its neighbors over a string of strategically important islands in the South China Sea.
Κρίσιμη σύνοδος του ASEAN αυτή την εβδομάδα στο Ανόι
Οι ηγέτες των 16 κρατών μελών του ASEAN και των Συνόδων Κορυφής της Ανατολικής Ασίας, που βρίσκονται στο επίκεντρο της παγκόσμιας ανάκαμψης θα συναντηθούν αυτή την εβδομάδα στην πρωτεύουσα του Βιετνάμ, το Ανόι.
Ποιοι συμμετέχουν:
Οι δέκα ηγέτες κρατών μελών του ASEAN (Μπρουνέι, Καμπότζη, Ινδονησία, Λάος, Μαλαισία, Μιανμάρ, Φιλιππίνες, Σιγκαπούρη, Ταϊλάνδη και Βιετνάμ) συναντιούνται την Πέμπτη. Την Παρασκευή θα συναντηθούν με τους ηγέτες Κίνας, Ιαπωνίας και Νότιας Κορέας, προτού συγκαλέσουν τους ηγέτες Αυστραλίας, Νέας Ζηλανδίας και Ινδίας το Σάββατο για σύνοδο κορυφής Α. Ασίας.
Η Αμερικανίδα ΥΠΕΞ Χίλαρι Κλίντον, ο Ρώσος ομόλογός της Σεργκέι Λαβρόφ, ο Ρώσος πρόεδρος Μεντβέντεφ και ο γγ του ΟΗΕ Μπαν Κι Μουν θα παραστούν στη σύνοδο.
Ποια οικονομικά ζητήματα θα συζητηθούν;
Αν και τα παγκόσμια συναλλαγματικά προβλήματα δεν περιλαμβάνονται στην ατζέντα, το θέμα θα προκύψει οπωσδήποτε στο περιθώριο των συναντήσεων. ΗΠΑ και Κίνα συνεχίζουν να διαφωνούν για το ποιος ευθύνεται για τις παγκόσμιες ανισορροπίες, ενώ ο ASEAN νιώθει έρμαιο της διένεξης αυτής, που είναι ικανή να υποσκάψει την ανταγωνιστικότητα των προϊόντων του.
Ο ASEAN επιδιώκει να δημιουργήσει οικονομική κοινότητα στα πρότυπα της ΕΕ το 2015, πράγμα που θα απαιτήσει όμως σημαντικές προόδους στις σχέσεις των κρατών μελών μεταξύ τους.
Οι ανησυχίες για την Κίνα θα αποτελέσουν θέμα συζήτησης;
Οι ΗΠΑ και άλλες χώρες έχουν εκφράσει ανησυχίες σχετικά με την ενίσχυση της Κίνας και την επιθετικότητά της στις συνοριακές διενέξεις στα θαλάσσια σύνορά της. Αντιπαράθεση μεταξύ Κίνας και Ιαπωνίας ξέσπασε τον περασμένο μήνα μετά τη δέσμευση κινεζικού αλιευτικού κοντά σε διαφιλονικούμενα νησιά της θάλασσας της Ανατολικής Κίνας. Οι ηγέτες τους μπορεί να επιδιώξουν να δώσουν λύση στη διένεξη στο παρασκήνιο της συνόδου.
Η Κίνα επιμένει ότι οι διαφωνίες σχετικά με την υφαλοκρηπίδα της πρέπει να επιλυθούν μέσω διμερών συνομιλιών και να μην τεθούν επί τάπητος στο πλαίσιο του ASEAN.
Οι ΗΠΑ έχουν αρχίσει να δραστηριοποιούνται διπλωματικά στη Νοτιοανατολική Ασία, ύστερα από χρόνια αδράνειας, που άφησε ανοικτό το πεδίο στο Πεκίνο να ενισχύσει τη διπλωματική και οικονομική του παρουσία στην περιοχή.
Τί θα γίνει με τη Βόρεια Κορέα;
Παρότι πέντε από τα κράτη που συμμετέχουν στις εξαμερείς συνομιλίες για τον πυρηνικό αφοπλισμό της Βόρειας Κορέας συμμετέχουν στη σύνοδο (Ιαπωνία, Κίνα, Ρωσία και ΗΠΑ), δεν αναμένονται ουσιαστικές εξελίξεις στο θέμα.
Ποιοι συμμετέχουν:
Οι δέκα ηγέτες κρατών μελών του ASEAN (Μπρουνέι, Καμπότζη, Ινδονησία, Λάος, Μαλαισία, Μιανμάρ, Φιλιππίνες, Σιγκαπούρη, Ταϊλάνδη και Βιετνάμ) συναντιούνται την Πέμπτη. Την Παρασκευή θα συναντηθούν με τους ηγέτες Κίνας, Ιαπωνίας και Νότιας Κορέας, προτού συγκαλέσουν τους ηγέτες Αυστραλίας, Νέας Ζηλανδίας και Ινδίας το Σάββατο για σύνοδο κορυφής Α. Ασίας.
Η Αμερικανίδα ΥΠΕΞ Χίλαρι Κλίντον, ο Ρώσος ομόλογός της Σεργκέι Λαβρόφ, ο Ρώσος πρόεδρος Μεντβέντεφ και ο γγ του ΟΗΕ Μπαν Κι Μουν θα παραστούν στη σύνοδο.
Ποια οικονομικά ζητήματα θα συζητηθούν;
Αν και τα παγκόσμια συναλλαγματικά προβλήματα δεν περιλαμβάνονται στην ατζέντα, το θέμα θα προκύψει οπωσδήποτε στο περιθώριο των συναντήσεων. ΗΠΑ και Κίνα συνεχίζουν να διαφωνούν για το ποιος ευθύνεται για τις παγκόσμιες ανισορροπίες, ενώ ο ASEAN νιώθει έρμαιο της διένεξης αυτής, που είναι ικανή να υποσκάψει την ανταγωνιστικότητα των προϊόντων του.
Ο ASEAN επιδιώκει να δημιουργήσει οικονομική κοινότητα στα πρότυπα της ΕΕ το 2015, πράγμα που θα απαιτήσει όμως σημαντικές προόδους στις σχέσεις των κρατών μελών μεταξύ τους.
Οι ανησυχίες για την Κίνα θα αποτελέσουν θέμα συζήτησης;
Οι ΗΠΑ και άλλες χώρες έχουν εκφράσει ανησυχίες σχετικά με την ενίσχυση της Κίνας και την επιθετικότητά της στις συνοριακές διενέξεις στα θαλάσσια σύνορά της. Αντιπαράθεση μεταξύ Κίνας και Ιαπωνίας ξέσπασε τον περασμένο μήνα μετά τη δέσμευση κινεζικού αλιευτικού κοντά σε διαφιλονικούμενα νησιά της θάλασσας της Ανατολικής Κίνας. Οι ηγέτες τους μπορεί να επιδιώξουν να δώσουν λύση στη διένεξη στο παρασκήνιο της συνόδου.
Η Κίνα επιμένει ότι οι διαφωνίες σχετικά με την υφαλοκρηπίδα της πρέπει να επιλυθούν μέσω διμερών συνομιλιών και να μην τεθούν επί τάπητος στο πλαίσιο του ASEAN.
Οι ΗΠΑ έχουν αρχίσει να δραστηριοποιούνται διπλωματικά στη Νοτιοανατολική Ασία, ύστερα από χρόνια αδράνειας, που άφησε ανοικτό το πεδίο στο Πεκίνο να ενισχύσει τη διπλωματική και οικονομική του παρουσία στην περιοχή.
Τί θα γίνει με τη Βόρεια Κορέα;
Παρότι πέντε από τα κράτη που συμμετέχουν στις εξαμερείς συνομιλίες για τον πυρηνικό αφοπλισμό της Βόρειας Κορέας συμμετέχουν στη σύνοδο (Ιαπωνία, Κίνα, Ρωσία και ΗΠΑ), δεν αναμένονται ουσιαστικές εξελίξεις στο θέμα.
Συμφωνία Βιετνάμ με Ρωσία για τον πρώτο του πυρηνικό σταθμό
Το Βιετνάμ και η Ρωσία υπέγραψαν σήμερα στο Ανόι συμφωνία για την κατασκευή του πρώτου πυρηνικού σταθμού στο Βιετνάμ, σύμφωνα με δημοσιογραφικές πηγές.
Η υπογραφή της συμφωνίας έγινε παρουσία του Ρώσου προέδρου Ντμίτρι Μεντβέντεφ, ο οποίος επιδιώκει την ενίσχυση των σχέσεων με το Βιετνάμ. Εκπρόσωπος της Rosatom, της ρωσικής εταιρίας ατομικής ενεργείας, δήλωσε την περασμένη εβδομάδα ότι η κατασκευή του εργοστασίου αυτού στο οποίο θα υπάρχουν δυο αντιδραστήρες, εκτιμάται στα τέσσερα δισεκατομμύρια ευρώ και πλέον.
Το Ανόι αναμένεται να κατασκευάσει δυο πυρηνικούς σταθμούς καθένας από τους οποίους θα έχει δυο αντιδραστήρες 1.000 mw και ελπίζει να θέσει σε λειτουργία το 2020 τουλάχιστον έναν από τους αντιδραστήρες αυτούς και να έχει σε 20 χρόνια οχτώ πυρηνικούς σταθμούς στο έδαφός του.
Η υπογραφή της συμφωνίας έγινε παρουσία του Ρώσου προέδρου Ντμίτρι Μεντβέντεφ, ο οποίος επιδιώκει την ενίσχυση των σχέσεων με το Βιετνάμ. Εκπρόσωπος της Rosatom, της ρωσικής εταιρίας ατομικής ενεργείας, δήλωσε την περασμένη εβδομάδα ότι η κατασκευή του εργοστασίου αυτού στο οποίο θα υπάρχουν δυο αντιδραστήρες, εκτιμάται στα τέσσερα δισεκατομμύρια ευρώ και πλέον.
Το Ανόι αναμένεται να κατασκευάσει δυο πυρηνικούς σταθμούς καθένας από τους οποίους θα έχει δυο αντιδραστήρες 1.000 mw και ελπίζει να θέσει σε λειτουργία το 2020 τουλάχιστον έναν από τους αντιδραστήρες αυτούς και να έχει σε 20 χρόνια οχτώ πυρηνικούς σταθμούς στο έδαφός του.
Συνάντηση Κίνας, Ιαπωνίας και ΗΠΑ προτείνει η Χ. Κλίντον
Συνάντηξη με τον Κινέζο υπουργό Εξωτερικών, Γιανκ Τζιετσί είχε σήμερα η υπουργός Εξωτερικών των ΗΠΑ Χίλαρι Κλίντον με αντικείμενο τις εντάσεις που προκαλούν οι εδαφικές κινεζικές διεκδικήσεις στην Ασία.
Η Αμερικανίδα υπουργός Εξωτερικών Χίλαρι Κλίντον δήλωσε ότι οι ΗΠΑ έχουν προτείνει να φιλοξενήσουν μία συνάντηση ανάμεσα στην Κίνα, την Ιαπωνία και τις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, σε μία προσπάθειά τους να αμβλύνουν την σινο-ιαπωνική ένταση που έχει δημιοργηθεί για μία διαφιλονικούμενη θαλάσσια περιοχή.
Η Χίλαρι Κλίντον πρόσθεσε ότι οι ΗΠΑ είναι ικανοποιημένες για τις διαβεβαιώσεις που έλαβαν από την Κίνα σχετικά με τις εξαγωγές σπάνιων ορυκτών αλλά σημείωσε ότι ακόμη πιστεύει πως ο κόσμος χρειάζεται να αναπτύξει εναλλακτικούς προμηθευτές.
Από την πλευρά του, ο Κινέζος υπουργός Εξωτερικών Γιανγκ Τζιετσί ζήτησε από τις ΗΠΑ να παραμείνουν «προσεκτικές» σχετικά με την σινο- ιαπωνική διένεξη.
«Ο Γιανγκ Τζιετσί υπογράμμισε την επίσημη θέση της Κίνας για τα νησιά Ντιαόγιου. Καλεί ακόμη τις ΗΠΑ να είναι προσεκτικές σχετικά με αυτό το ιδιαίτερα ευαίσθητο ζήτημα και να σέβονται την κυριαρχία και την εδαφική ακεραιότητα της Κίνας, και να μην προβαίνουν σε ψευδείς δηλώσεις» ανέφερε η ιστοσελίδα του κινεζικού υπουργείου Εξωτερικών, μετά από την συνάντηση ανάμεσα στην κ. Κλίντον και τον κ. Τζιετσί.
Η Χίλαρι Κλίντον επιβεβαίωσε την πλευρά της, ότι αυτές η θαλάσσιες διαφορές πρέπει να επιλυθούν σύμφωνα με το διεθνές δίκαιο.
Η συνάντηση αυτή πραγματοποιήθηκε στο περιθώριο της συνόδου κορυφής της Ανατολικής Ασίας που άρχισε στην πρωτεύουσα του Βιετνάμ, παρουσία των ηγετών 10 χωρών της Ένωσης Κρατών της Νοτιοανατολικής Ασίας (ASEAN) και των εταίρων τους (Κίνα, Ιαπωνία, Ινδία, Νότια Κορέα, Αυστραλία και Νέα Ζηλανδία.
Εν τω μεταξύ, η Κίνα εξέφρασε χθες την έντονη δυσαρέσκειά της μετά τις υπέρ της Ιαπωνίας δηλώσεις της Κλίντον για το εδαφικό ζήτημα που έχει προκαλέσει μια σοβαρή σινο-ιαπωνική κρίση από τον Σεπτέμβριο.
Η Ουάσινγκτον και το Πεκίνο βρίσκονται σε αντιπαράθεση για το κινεζικό νόμισμα, για εμπορικά ζητήματα και για τα ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα. Όμως και οι δυο δεν έχουν συμφέρον να κλιμακωθεί η ένταση πριν από την επίσκεψη του κινέζου προέδρου Χου Τζιντάο, τον Ιανουάριο στις ΗΠΑ.
Η Κλίντον πραγματοποιεί περιοδεία στην Ασία στη διάρκεια της οποίας θα επισκεφθεί επίσης την Καμπότζη, τη Μαλαισία, την Παπούα-Νέα Γουινέα, την Αυστραλία και τις αμερικανικές Σαμόα.
Συμφωνία για τα σπάνια ορυκτά
Η υπουργός Εξωτερικών των ΗΠΑ Χίλαρι Κλίντον έλαβε σήμερα στο Ανόι «διαβεβαιώσεις» από τον Κινέζο ομόλογό της Γιανγκ Τζιετσί όσον αφορά τις εξαγωγές σπάνιων ορυκτών, δήλωσε εκπρόσωπος της αμερικανικής αντιπροσωπείας.
Σύμφωνα με την ίδια πηγή, η Κλίντον «ζήτησε διευκρινίσεις για την κινεζική πολιτική σχετικά με τις εξαγωγές σπάνιων ορυκτών και έλαβε διαβεβαιώσεις».
Η Κίνα κατηγορείται, κυρίως από την Ιαπωνία, ότι περιορίζει την πρόσβαση στα σπάνια ορυκτά, τα οποία είναι απαραίτητα κυρίως στην ηλεκτρονική βιομηχανία και την αυτοκινητοβιομηχανία. Διαθέτει το ένα τρίτο των παγκόσμιων αποθεμάτων, ωστόσο το 97% των σπάνιων ορυκτών που πωλήθηκαν πέρυσι ήταν κινεζικής προέλευσης.
Η Κλίντον τόνισε εξάλλου ότι οι θαλάσσιες διαμάχες πρέπει να επιλύονται με βάση το διεθνές δίκαιο, δήλωση η οποία αναμένεται να εξοργίσει την Κίνα η οποία είναι υπέρ των διμερών συνομιλιών.
«Η ελεύθερη ναυσιπλοΐα και το ελεύθερο θαλάσσιο εμπόριο είναι εθνικό συμφέρον των ΗΠΑ», τόνισε η Κλίντον απευθυνόμενη στους αντιπροσώπους των 16 ασιατικών χωρών που συναντώνται στο Ανόι.
«Οταν υπάρχουν θαλάσσιες κυριαρχικές διεκδικήσεις είμαστε υποχρεωμένοι να τις επιλύουμε ειρηνικά βάσει του διεθνούς δικαίου», τόνισε η Κλίντον
Η Αμερικανίδα υπουργός Εξωτερικών Χίλαρι Κλίντον δήλωσε ότι οι ΗΠΑ έχουν προτείνει να φιλοξενήσουν μία συνάντηση ανάμεσα στην Κίνα, την Ιαπωνία και τις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, σε μία προσπάθειά τους να αμβλύνουν την σινο-ιαπωνική ένταση που έχει δημιοργηθεί για μία διαφιλονικούμενη θαλάσσια περιοχή.
Η Χίλαρι Κλίντον πρόσθεσε ότι οι ΗΠΑ είναι ικανοποιημένες για τις διαβεβαιώσεις που έλαβαν από την Κίνα σχετικά με τις εξαγωγές σπάνιων ορυκτών αλλά σημείωσε ότι ακόμη πιστεύει πως ο κόσμος χρειάζεται να αναπτύξει εναλλακτικούς προμηθευτές.
Από την πλευρά του, ο Κινέζος υπουργός Εξωτερικών Γιανγκ Τζιετσί ζήτησε από τις ΗΠΑ να παραμείνουν «προσεκτικές» σχετικά με την σινο- ιαπωνική διένεξη.
«Ο Γιανγκ Τζιετσί υπογράμμισε την επίσημη θέση της Κίνας για τα νησιά Ντιαόγιου. Καλεί ακόμη τις ΗΠΑ να είναι προσεκτικές σχετικά με αυτό το ιδιαίτερα ευαίσθητο ζήτημα και να σέβονται την κυριαρχία και την εδαφική ακεραιότητα της Κίνας, και να μην προβαίνουν σε ψευδείς δηλώσεις» ανέφερε η ιστοσελίδα του κινεζικού υπουργείου Εξωτερικών, μετά από την συνάντηση ανάμεσα στην κ. Κλίντον και τον κ. Τζιετσί.
Η Χίλαρι Κλίντον επιβεβαίωσε την πλευρά της, ότι αυτές η θαλάσσιες διαφορές πρέπει να επιλυθούν σύμφωνα με το διεθνές δίκαιο.
Η συνάντηση αυτή πραγματοποιήθηκε στο περιθώριο της συνόδου κορυφής της Ανατολικής Ασίας που άρχισε στην πρωτεύουσα του Βιετνάμ, παρουσία των ηγετών 10 χωρών της Ένωσης Κρατών της Νοτιοανατολικής Ασίας (ASEAN) και των εταίρων τους (Κίνα, Ιαπωνία, Ινδία, Νότια Κορέα, Αυστραλία και Νέα Ζηλανδία.
Εν τω μεταξύ, η Κίνα εξέφρασε χθες την έντονη δυσαρέσκειά της μετά τις υπέρ της Ιαπωνίας δηλώσεις της Κλίντον για το εδαφικό ζήτημα που έχει προκαλέσει μια σοβαρή σινο-ιαπωνική κρίση από τον Σεπτέμβριο.
Η Ουάσινγκτον και το Πεκίνο βρίσκονται σε αντιπαράθεση για το κινεζικό νόμισμα, για εμπορικά ζητήματα και για τα ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα. Όμως και οι δυο δεν έχουν συμφέρον να κλιμακωθεί η ένταση πριν από την επίσκεψη του κινέζου προέδρου Χου Τζιντάο, τον Ιανουάριο στις ΗΠΑ.
Η Κλίντον πραγματοποιεί περιοδεία στην Ασία στη διάρκεια της οποίας θα επισκεφθεί επίσης την Καμπότζη, τη Μαλαισία, την Παπούα-Νέα Γουινέα, την Αυστραλία και τις αμερικανικές Σαμόα.
Συμφωνία για τα σπάνια ορυκτά
Η υπουργός Εξωτερικών των ΗΠΑ Χίλαρι Κλίντον έλαβε σήμερα στο Ανόι «διαβεβαιώσεις» από τον Κινέζο ομόλογό της Γιανγκ Τζιετσί όσον αφορά τις εξαγωγές σπάνιων ορυκτών, δήλωσε εκπρόσωπος της αμερικανικής αντιπροσωπείας.
Σύμφωνα με την ίδια πηγή, η Κλίντον «ζήτησε διευκρινίσεις για την κινεζική πολιτική σχετικά με τις εξαγωγές σπάνιων ορυκτών και έλαβε διαβεβαιώσεις».
Η Κίνα κατηγορείται, κυρίως από την Ιαπωνία, ότι περιορίζει την πρόσβαση στα σπάνια ορυκτά, τα οποία είναι απαραίτητα κυρίως στην ηλεκτρονική βιομηχανία και την αυτοκινητοβιομηχανία. Διαθέτει το ένα τρίτο των παγκόσμιων αποθεμάτων, ωστόσο το 97% των σπάνιων ορυκτών που πωλήθηκαν πέρυσι ήταν κινεζικής προέλευσης.
Η Κλίντον τόνισε εξάλλου ότι οι θαλάσσιες διαμάχες πρέπει να επιλύονται με βάση το διεθνές δίκαιο, δήλωση η οποία αναμένεται να εξοργίσει την Κίνα η οποία είναι υπέρ των διμερών συνομιλιών.
«Η ελεύθερη ναυσιπλοΐα και το ελεύθερο θαλάσσιο εμπόριο είναι εθνικό συμφέρον των ΗΠΑ», τόνισε η Κλίντον απευθυνόμενη στους αντιπροσώπους των 16 ασιατικών χωρών που συναντώνται στο Ανόι.
«Οταν υπάρχουν θαλάσσιες κυριαρχικές διεκδικήσεις είμαστε υποχρεωμένοι να τις επιλύουμε ειρηνικά βάσει του διεθνούς δικαίου», τόνισε η Κλίντον
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