Posted on 08/16/2007 1:52:31 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — The leaders of Russia, China and Iran said Thursday that Central Asia should be left alone to manage its stability and security — an apparent warning to the United States to avoid interfering in the strategic, resource-rich region.
The veiled warning came at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and on the eve of major war games between Russia and China.
The SCO was created 11 years ago to address religious extremism and border security in Central Asia, but in recent years, with countries such as Iran signing on as observers, it has grown into a bloc aimed at defying U.S. interests in the region.
"Stability and security in Central Asia are best ensured primarily through efforts taken by the nations of the region on the basis of the existing regional associations," the leaders said in a statement at the end of the organization's summit in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, attending the summit for the second consecutive year, criticized U.S. plans to put parts of a missile defense system in Eastern Europe as a threat to the entire region.
"These intentions go beyond just one country. They are of concern for much of the continent, Asia and SCO members," he said.
Washington has said the system would help protect against potential Iranian missiles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin didn't mention the United States in his speech, but he said that "any attempts to solve global and regional problems unilaterally are hopeless."
He also called for "strengthening a multi-polar international system that would ensure equal security and opportunities for all countries" — comments echoing Russia's frequent complaints that the United States dominates world affairs.
Moscow has also bristled at Washington's plans to deploy the anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic, saying the system would threaten Russian security.
Putin and Hu Jintao of China were set to attend Friday's military exercises in the Chelyabinsk region in Russia's Ural Mountains. Some 6,000 Russian and Chinese troops, dozens of aircraft and hundreds of armored vehicles and other heavy weapons will participate — the first such joint drills on Russia's territory.
China hosted the first-ever joint maneuvers in August 2005, which included a mock assault on the beaches of northern China and featured Russia's long-range bombers.
Moscow and Beijing have developed what they dubbed a "strategic partnership" after the Soviet collapse, cemented by their perceptions that the United States dominates global affairs.
In 2005, the SCO called for a timetable to be set for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from two member countries, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan evicted American forces later that year, but Kyrgyzstan still hosts a U.S. base, which supports operations in nearby Afghanistan.
Russia also maintains a military base in Kyrgyzstan.
The SCO, whose members are some of the world's biggest energy producers and consumers, also discussed ways to enhance energy cooperation. Washington has supported plans for new pipelines that would carry the region's oil and gas to the West and bypass Russia, while Moscow has pushed strongly to control the export flows.
A further sign of the group's intention to influence energy markets was the participation in the Bishkek summit of Turkmen President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov, whose country is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the former Soviet Union after Russia. Turkmenistan is not an SCO member; the president was attending as a guest.
Hmmm..ok- so we have Russia and China teaming up with..IRAN.
All rhetoric..but alarming anyway.
The only one missing at this love-in is Borat.
who says it rehtoric?
The US is in there only until Russia recovers and can fill the temporary power vacuum that followed the collapse of the USSR.
A purely defensive system "a threat to the entire region"? Only in the minds of those who plan on launching offensive missiles.
Surely someone will show up to tell us all how Russia and China are right and we need to bow down scrape before them...
Oh my gosh JohnA. I didn’t realize you saw this ping. I was just talking about you.
And the nutty Globalists and Business Socialists will still claim “its good to trade with Commie China”....
Russia doesn’t recover, Russia declines. Their global power is dramatically shrinking with an ever expanding NATO and US alliances/bases in former Soviet territory. The Russian population is shrinking, their Army is only a far cry from the Soviet days. The only thing that gives them some (dubious) reputation are new-rich oligarchs, the state expropiating private owners, and some foreign policy jingoism coupled with a wannabe Stalinesque macho President.
Also what are we supposed to understand under “US ist there only until...”, do you suggest the USA will dissapear or crumble?
Are you sure about that?
War games involving China, Russia and their allies
Russia resumes nuke bomber sorties
Also, China and India will have to take more responsibility for their sphere of influence.
SCO ping.
Really no surprise as the Soviets have always supplied the ragheads with weapons to fight Israel.
Russia likes idiots in Iran, if not for them, gas would be cheap.
The only reason they are in power today is because those idiots Roosevelt and Churchill.
BigMack
Yeah, Asia should be ruled by Asians. At least that’s what Japan once said, and we know how well THAT worked out!
When you make a rattlesnake your pet... be careful... he will bite... and Russia will find out what it means to sleep with a snake!
LLS
SCO aka USSR-II aka The Fourth Reich.
Fight it now or fight it later. Fight it we will. I hope we win.
My husband was in Shanghai last year, staying at the same hotel where the SCO meeting was being held. He didn’t know what was going on and called me to see if I had heard anything (news black out there). I immediately went to my favorite news source (Free Republic) and read for the first time, to me anyway, of the SCO. He was unable to leave the hotel for two days and was a bit unnerved to see the incredible security, flags with red stars and crescent moons...........and Ahmadinejad.
From what I’ve learned since, I think the SCO is something we should keep our collective eyes on.
Granny, thank you for all your pings on this subject.
Yes...we do. Thanks for the ping.
Well- maybe not so sure. Wishful thinking..
The gathering clouds of war/armageddon, and distant thunder is heard...
All this would be true but for one word.
Oil
This is what used to be called "imperialism," isn't it?
You'll notice the term "self-determination" does not appear in any of the rhetoric here. And, in fact, there are several countries in the region (Afghanistan and Mongolia especially) that absolutely want an American presence there. These are places that have endured decades of "efforts taken by the nations of the region" and want no more of it, thanks.
"SCO aka USSR-II aka The Fourth Reich."Yep. I have some opinions on how Soviet Communism and Islamism finally end up—in short, in smoking ruins on the trash pile of human history.
"Fight it now or fight it later. Fight it we will. I hope we win."
Nevertheless, friend and associate David J. Jonsson has been tracking the SCO since its creation. News such as this is notable. Thanks for posting it.
"...It's time we recognized the nature of the conflict. It's total war and we are all involved. Nobody on our side is exempted because of age, gender, or handicap. The Islamofacists have stolen childhood from the world." [FReeper Retief]
"...That the totalitarian force pitted against freedom wears a religious makes this civil war among mankind all the more difficult to engage. Loving freedom as we do, it seems reprehensible to deliberate against a religion. But this is no ordinary religion as it demands absolute obedience of all to their religion at the cost of freedom itself." [FReeper Backtothestreets]
5.56mm
S. Korea, U.S. verifying reports on test of new N.K. missile in Iran: source
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1834307/posts
(4,000 kilometer range—will reach London and Rome—May 16th, 2007)
Population decline. Fertility rates as low as 1.3 which means that within 50 years they are going to halve themselves.
Should have included you in my earlier ping.
SCO needs to be watched.
Yea yea yea, just pipe down and send us your poisoned food and lead painted toys already.
Russia is the world’s largest oil producer.
I think that says something about their influence.
I think we should Nuke China, Russia and Iran at the same time.
The leaders of Russia, China and Iran said Thursday that Central Asia should be left alone to manage its stability and security — an apparent warning to the United States to avoid interfering in the strategic, resource-rich region. The veiled warning came at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and on the eve of major war games between Russia and China.Let's see... China occupies Tibet... the Russian empire conquered various independent states in Central Asia, and the USSR tried to conquer Afghanistan, and Putin is trying to use oil and gas supplies to bully various former SSRs... but Central Asia should be left alone to manage itself... what that conference needs is [great idea omitted]...
Nice idea, although I’d nuke Russia and China, and then let Iran sweat it out for a couple of years. Then nuke ‘em. ;’)
R.R. Is correct, we had better keep an eye on the plans of this group.
Ping.
the axis of scum.
“The only one missing at this love-in is Borat.”
Where’s Chavez?
You know how it is at conventions - any conventions. People get all razzed up and make speeches. Then they go home.
You are not serious are you? You really aren’t defending all this as meaningless bluster?
Do you really think that there is NO threat to America here? none? Dude, I’m sorry but I think you are out of your mind or are absolutely some kind of DU plant just trying to piss people off over here. Odd.
Read Fred Weir’s piece. Fred knows more about Russia than all of FR combined. That will be all.
Hopefully for you it will. Your kind of nutty but whatever.
Entirely successfully. We are getting our tails kicked, pure and simple.
Did you read this stuff? Did you read the end of this article? And this is supposed to make me feel warm and fuzzy about these guys?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Fred Wier, August 17, In Christian Science Monitor
Moscow’s growing military footprint – and the apprehensions of others about it – is evident in a spate of recent news events.
• Last week the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia accused Russian warplanes of invading its airspace and firing a missile, which failed to explode, at a radio station. Russian officials denied the allegation and suggested that Georgian leaders fabricated the incident. Tensions have been high between Russia and Georgia over Moscow’s support for two breakaway Georgian regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which are protected by Russian “peacekeeping” troops.
• Russian naval chief Admiral Vladimir Masorin announced this month that Russia may reclaim a naval base at Tartus, in Syria, from which Soviet warships used to keep tabs on US ships. “The Mediterranean is an important theater of operations for the Russian Black Sea Fleet,” he said. “We must restore a permanent presence of the Russian Navy in this region.”
• In July, amid worsening relations between Russia and Britain over the still unsolved poisoning death of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko, two Russian Tu-95 bombers flew deep into NATO territory for the first time since the cold war’s end and, according to Britain’s defense ministry, briefly entered British airspace before being escorted away by British fighter planes.
Last week, in another post-Soviet first, Russian bombers “revived the tradition of our long-range aviation to fly far into the ocean, to meet US aircraft carriers and greet US pilots visually,” ending up near the American Pacific base of Guam, Russian Air Force Maj. Gen. Pavel Androsov told Russian media. He added that the pilots on both sides “exchanged grins.”
• Russia has recently conducted tests of new land- and sea-based intercontinental missiles, which are expected to soon replace the country’s aging Soviet-era nuclear deterrent. As a partial response to US missile defense plans, Russia will develop a missile defense “project that will include not only air defense systems but also antiballistic missile and space defense systems” to protect Moscow and other Russian centers, Russian Air Force chief Col. Gen. Alexandr Zelin told Russian media last week.
Critics are skeptical that, despite major Putin-era infusions of cash, Russia’s weak industrial base can deliver on the Kremlin’s ambitions to restore a global military presence.
“Now our military leaders have enough money to create a kind of caricature of the Soviet armed forces, and they want to do a lot of the same old things,” says Alexander Goltz, military expert with the independent online magazine Yezhednevny Zhurnal. “But their plans are a confused mixture of realistic goals and unworkable Soviet-style symbolism,” says Mr. Goltz.
You seem to prefer a weak Russia.
????????????
I prefer a Russia that doesn’t threaten my way of life. And you, Why are you so enamored with Russia?
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