Barack Obama: Russia is a regional power showing weakness over Ukraine

President rejects claims Russia is a principal foe, saying actions in Ukraine an expression of vulnerability rather than strength

theguardian.com, Julian Borger in The Hague,  Tuesday 25 March 2014

The US president, Barack Obama, in The Hague at the nuclear security
summit. Photograph: Robin Van Lonkhuijsen/AFP/Getty Images

President Barack Obama has described Russia as no more than a "regional power" whose actions in Ukraine are an expression of weakness rather than strength, as he restated the threat from the G7 western allies and Japan that they would inflict much broader sanctions if Vladimir Putin went beyond annexation of Crimea and moved troops into eastern Ukraine.

Speaking at the end of a summit on nuclear security in The Hague, Obama rejected the suggestion made by Mitt Romney – his Republican challenger in the last president election – that Russia was the United States' principal geopolitical foe. The president said he was considerably more concerned about the threat of a terrorist nuclear bomb attack on New York.

He said that the US was committed to the defence of its Nato allies but that for non-member states along Russia's borders, Washington and the rest of the international community would use non-military pressure to counter Russian encroachment.

Obama said he would not guess at Putin's motivation, but his remarks appeared to confront one of the apparent aims behind the Russian leader's actions so far in Crimea – to restore the superpower status and prestige Moscow once enjoyed as the capital of the Soviet Union.

"Russia is a regional power that is threatening some of its immediate neighbours, not out of strength but out of weakness," the president said. The US also has influence over its neighbours, he added, but: "We generally don't need to invade them in order to have a strong cooperative relationship with them.

"The fact that Russia felt it had to go in militarily and lay bare these violations of international law indicates less influence, not more," Obama said.

"Russian actions are a problem. They don't pose the number one security threat to the United States. I remain much more concerned about the prospect of a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan," the president said, pointing out that was why he had begun a series of bi-annual summits aimed at improving the security of weapons-grade fissile material stocks around the world.

At this week's summit in The Hague, the third in the series, 35 countries agreed to abide by a set of international standards governing security at nuclear sites and accept international inspections of their security arrangements. However, Russia and China were among the 18 countries at the summit that did not sign the agreement, a reflection of how old Cold War era divisions remained, and have deepened with the Ukraine crisis. China has remained neutral over Russia's annexation of Crimea, abstaining in a UN Security Council vote and refusing to respond to western invitations to join international condemnation of the move.

In his remarks in The Hague, Obama said that he did not think that the Russian leadership, which has massed troops on Ukraine's eastern border, had made a decision yet over whether to invade that part of the country.

"If they stay on Russian soil, they pose what appears to be an effort of intimidation, but Russia has the right legally to have its troops on its own soil. I don't think it's a done deal," the president said. He added that he thought Moscow was "making a series of calculations" and that those calculations would be affected by how the US and the international community respond.

He adamantly rejected Russian justification for the invasion and annexation of Crimea on the grounds that Russian speakers were under threat, and rejected Moscow's comparisons to Kosovo, whose declaration of independence – a decade after the start of a Serbian campaign of ethnic cleansing of its ethnic-Albanian majority – was recognised by western capitals.

"There has been no evidence that Russian speakers have been in any way threatened," Obama said. "When I hear analogies to Kosovo, where you had thousands of people who were being slaughtered by their government, it's a comparison that makes absolutely no sense." "I think it is important for everybody to be clear and strip away some of the possible excuses for potential Russian action."

The president acknowledged that the broad sanctions on the energy, finance, and arms-export sectors of the Russian economy, threatened by the G7 in the event of further territorial expansion by Moscow, would also have an impact on the West, but he vowed that the impact on Russia would be far worst.

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Nuclear security summit comes to a close, with joint declaration

The official group portrait. Photo: NSS2014

.

Nuclear security summit comes to a close, with joint declaration

DutchNews.nl, Tuesday 25 March 2014

The official group portrait. Photo: NSS2014

The nuclear security summit in The Hague drew to a close on Tuesday afternoon with the publication of the final communiqué.

The communiqué states that the 58 world leaders who took part made concrete agreements to stop terrorists getting their hands on nuclear material which further reduces the threat of a nuclear attack.

Among the new agreements are measures to reduce the amount of dangerous nuclear material in the world, to improve the security of radioactive material which can be used to make a 'dirty' bomb and to improve the international exchange of information and international cooperation.

The outcome of this nuclear security summit is 'a major step towards a safer world', the communiqué says.

Home

Not all the delegates stayed until the end. By early afternoon, several world leaders were heading home, including German chancellor Angel Merkel, French president François Hollande and Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi.

They did, however, attend the informal lunch catered by Jonnie and Thérèse Boer, owners of the three-star De Librije restaurant. The meal included a starter of cod from the North Sea with Dutch asparagus and a main dish of Dutch lamb with organic vegetables.

Prior to the lunch, the leaders also gathered for a group photo with host and Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte and US president Barack Obama front and centre.

Agreements

One agreement made earlier in the day by 32 of the participating countries was to allow experts from other countries to inspect their storage of nuclear waste.

Among them are the US and most of the EU countries. Russia and China are among those who refused to take part.

Also earlier in the day, Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans said that countries should do more to make the world nuclear weapons free. Timmermans said that the security of nuclear waste cannot be seen as separate from stock piles of nuclear weapons.

Obama remains in the Netherlands until later in the day. He has a series of meetings in The Hague before flying out to Belgium where he will visit various EU organisations on Wednesday.

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G7 snubs Russia summit over Ukraine crisis

Google – AFP, Jan Hennop in The Hague and Dmitry Zaks in Kiev (AFP), 24 March 2014

G7 leaders meet at the official residence of the Dutch prime minister in

The Hague on March 24, 2014 (AFP, Saul Loeb)

The Hague — The G7 group of top economic powers on Monday scrapped a planned meeting to be hosted by Russia as they sought to deepen Moscow's isolation over the Ukraine crisis.

After emergency talks on the Ukraine crisis called by US President Barack Obama, the G7 said they would hold a meeting in Brussels without Russia instead of the wider G8 summit that was to have taken place in Sochi.

The G7 also threatened tougher sanctions against Russia for its annexation of Crimea that has plunged relations between the West and Moscow to their lowest level since the end of the Cold War.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov

 holds a press conference in The Hague

 on March 24, 2014 on the sidelines of

 the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) (Pool/

AFP, Evert-Jan Daniels)

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov defiantly dismissed such a move as "no great tragedy" after separate talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry and Ukraine's interim Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya.

"If our Western partners think that this format has outlived itself, then so be it," Lavrov told reporters.

"We are not trying to hold on to this format, and we see no great tragedy if it (the G8) does not meet," Lavrov said, insisting that Crimea has "a right to self determination."

Russia's takeover of the region was not "malicious intent," said Lavrov but was to "protect the Russians who have been living there for hundreds of years."

Concern over missing troops

Kerry met with Lavrov for over an hour earlier in the day, his spokeswoman Marie Harf said, welcoming the Russia-Ukraine talks, the highest level contact between Russia and Ukraine since the start of the crisis.

He reiterated to Lavrov US concern about the massing of Russian troops on Ukraine's border and the treatment of Ukrainian troops, "including many Ukrainian service members who are missing," Harf said.

Kerry reminded Lavrov that Obama has signed an executive order "that provides the flexibility to sanction specific industries if Russia continues to take escalatory steps," Harf said, urging Russia to de-escalate the situation and pursue a dialogue with the Ukrainian government.

Ahead of the talks, Obama stressed that Europe and the United States were "united in our support of the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people" and "united in imposing a cost on Russia for its actions so far".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a G7 meeting at the official residence

 of the Dutch premier in The Hague on March 24, 2014 on the sidelines of the

Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) (Pool/AFP, Jerry Lampen)

In Crimea, Russian forces stormed a Ukrainian navy ship, with an AFP correspondent reporting plumes of smoke as a Ukrainian defence spokesman said the crew had fired smoke grenades in self-defence.

Ukraine's interim Foreign Minister Deshchytsya stressed that Kiev sought to resolve the crisis through diplomacy.

"The position of the Ukrainian government is to use all peaceful means, all diplomatic and economic means to resolve this conflict peacefully," Deshchytsya told reporters.

"However, we don't know what are the Russian plans. What the plans of President (Vladimir) Putin (are). That's why we ask for meetings with the Russians," he said, before holding talks with Lavrov.

'Enormous loss'

The diplomatic efforts came as Ukrainian authorities pulled out all servicemen and their families to the mainland.

In a televised address to the nation, Ukraine's acting president Oleksandr Turchynov said a decision had been taken "to conduct a redeployment of military units stationed in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea".

Turchynov's announcement came less than a month after Putin won authorisation to use force in response to the February 22 ouster of pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych's regime by more nationalist leaders who are seeking a closer alliance with Europe.

Russian military ships, including former

 the Ukrainian corvette Khmelnitsky (2nd R),

 which was seized by pro-Russian forces

 last week, are moored in the bay of the

 Crimean city of Sevastopol on March 24,

 2014 (AFP, Viktor Drachev)

Ukraine's increasingly demoralised forces had been steadily losing ground on the Black Sea peninsula and saw their main airbase outside the regional capital Simferopol stormed on Saturday.

Earlier Monday, the White House said it was "very concerned" about the risk of escalation as Russia massed its troops on Ukraine's eastern border.

A top NATO commander had warned that the Western military alliance was carefully watching massive Russian troop formations that could theoretically make a push across the vast ex-Soviet country at any point.

Moscow has denied any such plans despite Putin's open ambition to resurrect vestiges of the Soviet empire and stamp his authority over eastern European nations that sought protection from the West following the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.

But the Kremlin has made clear it intends to "protect" compatriots in the Russified southeastern swaths of Ukraine that it says have been victimised by violent nationalists since last month's rise to power of a pro-European team.

The Kremlin stamped its claim on Crimea on Monday with a symbolic visit by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu -- the first top Moscow official to visit the mostly Russian-speaking region of two million people since its March 16 independence referendum.

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World leaders gather in The Hague for nuclear security summit

DutchNews.nl, Monday 24 March 2014

Prime Minister Rutte opens the NSS

in The Hague. (NOS/ReutersTV)

World leaders from 53 countries, including US president Barack Obama and UN secretary Ban Ki-Moon, are in the Netherlands on Monday for the nuclear security summit in The Hague.

The event has taken months of preparations and is the biggest security operation ever mounted in the Netherlands.

Large parts of central The Hague have been sealed off and motorways from Schiphol airport closed to all but conference traffic.

However, motoring organisations said people appeared to have taken the advice to work at home on Monday and Tuesday and jams are no longer than normal. Extra trains have also been laid on.

Amsterdam

Obama will make a short visit to Amsterdam on Monday morning and the Museumplein has largely been sealed off by containers as part of the security operation. People living around the square have been warned not to use their roof terraces and balconies during the visit.

In a written interview in the Volkskrant, Obama praised the Dutch preparations for the summit. ‘The Netherlands is one of our most powerful allies and I am impressed at the way prime minister Mark Rutte is working for nuclear security,’ he said.

Nuclear power

In Amsterdam, anti-nuclear power demonstrators have gathered in front of the Beurs van Berlage conference centre in protest at a nuclear power industry meeting which is taking place there.

The ‘Nuclear Industry Summit’ coincides with the NSS in The Hague and the demonstrators say it is hypocritical.

‘In The Hague they are talking about reducing the spread of and better security for nuclear materials while in Amsterdam the sector is meeting to discuss spreading the technology,’ one protestor told RTL news.

Trade

Dutch foreign trade minister Lilianne Ploumen told website nu.nl hosting the summit will be good for the Netherlands.

‘Although nuclear safety will be central in the coming days, there is also a large economic programme,’ she said. ‘This summit will highlight the Netherlands as an open economy and trading nation.’

But shopkeepers and restaurant owners are angry they are not being compensated for loss of trade. Many have been ordered to close during the two-day period.

Experts have put the cost of the security operation at between €150m and €250m.

Dutch design

The Volkskrant has a list of 11 things everyone should know about the summit and points out that delegates will sit on chairs designed by Dutch furniture maker Atelier Van Lieshout. Even the wine that will be served during the event is Dutch, the NSS project leader Marc Gerritsen told the paper.

The lunch menu will be be both organic and halal. Spinach has been banned because of the risk it could get stuck between people’s teeth and spoil the photo, the Volkskrant said.

However, the AD reports that only men over the age of 25 will be allowed to serve the guests. The inclusion of ‘three blonde women’ would distort the unified image, Hans van der Linde of catering company Van der Linde Catering told the AD.

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China, US presidents to meet in Netherlands

Want China Times, Xinhua 2014-03-17

Xi Jin-ping and Obama meet in Saint Petersburg, Sept. 6, 2013. (Photo/Xinhua)

China's president Xi Jinping will meet with his US counterpart Barack Obama later this month on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) in the Netherlands, vice foreign minister Li Baodong said on Monday.

The NSS will be held in The Hague from March 24 to 25.

The bilateral meeting, the first between the two presidents this year, is significant for the further development of the China-US relationship, Li said at a press briefing on Xi's upcoming overseas trip.

Li said the two leaders will exchange views on the China-US relationship and other issues of concern.

"The Chinese side will work with the US side to pursue positive outcomes at the NSS as well as the meeting between the two heads of state and instill new momentum in the push to build a new type of major-country relationship between China and the United States," said the official.

Besides his attendance at the NSS, Xi will also pay state visits to the Netherlands, France, Germany and Belgium, and will visit the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the headquarters of the European Union during the trip.

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