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US Dispatches Destroyers To Black Sea As Rice Says No New Cold War
Washington (AFP) Aug 20, 2008 The guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul departed from Crete Wednesday loaded with humanitarian relief supplies for war-torn Georgia, a US defense official said. "It's going into the Black Sea and the intent is for it to be able to deliver those (supplies) in the next week," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "This is intended to be for humanitarian purposes," the defense official said. Sending the warship into the Black Sea, albeit on a humanitarian mission, would mark the first projection of armed US military power into the region since the start of the conflict between Russia and Georgia August 7. The US military has delivered humanitarian aid since last week aboard unarmed military transport planes. The McFaul will be joined by the US Coast Guard cutter Dallas, which is taking on supplies in Souda Bay, Crete and is scheduled to depart in a couple of days for the Black Sea, the defense official said. The USS Mount Whitney, the flagship of the US Sixth Fleet, also was ready to go if ordered, but at this point was not going, the official said. The State Department earlier said Turkey had approved transit for two US Navy ships and the Coast Guard cutter through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits. The McFaul had been previously scheduled to make a routine visit to Black Sea ports, which already had been approved by the Turkish government, the defense official said. "We routinely go into the Black Sea," said the official. "It is one of the places we go to conduct military-to-military activities with the Black Sea nations."
earlier related report "I don't think this is a new Cold War," Rice told reporters shortly after she signed a deal in Warsaw on deploying part of a US missile shield on Polish territory in the face of deep Russian anger. "It is a difficult time but I think we shouldn't overstate the depth of the difficulties," Rice said. She noted that during the Cold War, which lasted from the end of World War II until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, there were vast ideological differences between East and West. "The Cold War is over," she said. Washington plans to deploy 10 interceptor missiles in Poland plus a radar facility in the neighbouring Czech Republic between 2011 and 2013 as part of a system to ward off what it says is the risk of attack by "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea. Russia has rejected the US arguments in favour of the shield -- which was endorsed by all 26 NATO member states earlier this year -- dubbing it a security threat designed to undermine Russia's nuclear deterrent and threatening to strike back. The Czech Republic and Poland were Soviet satellites until 1989, but became staunch US allies after the fall of communism, joining NATO in 1999. The signing of a missile deal comes with relations between Moscow and the US -- as well as with America's NATO allies -- at their lowest ebb in years over Russia's conflict with pro-Western Georgia. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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NATO raps Russia over troops in Georgia
Brussels (AFP) Aug 19, 2008NATO said Tuesday it was impossible to continue "business as usual" with Russia until it honoured its promise to withdraw its troops from Georgia. |
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