Minsk sends team to Moscow for crisis gas talks

June 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Belarus said it was sending a delegation to Moscow on Sunday for eleventh-hour emergency talks with Russian gas giant Gazprom after Gazprom threatened to cut supplies over an unresolved price row. Russia has said it will cut 85 percent of gas supplies from Monday to Belarus if its ex-Soviet neighbor fails to pay $192 million in debts to Gazprom — money Belarus denies it owes.

Russia

The prospect of cuts to Belarus has raised the specter of a repeat of supply cuts to Western Europe, which occurred in 2009 when Moscow cut supplies to Ukraine.

However, Gazprom says it does not believe there will be any significant disruption in supply to Western Europe because only about a fifth of its European exports transit through Belarus and demand in June is seasonally low.

Cuts could nonetheless further hurt Russia’s reputation as a reliable exporter at a time when it faces falling demand from crisis-hit Europe and competition from U.S.-produced shale gas.

“The delegation leaves tonight for talks on Monday … the issue of debt will be discussed,” Belarussian Deputy Energy Minister Eduard Tovpenets told Reuters.

Tovpenets later told Interfax news agency that talks would begin at 0700 local time (0300 GMT). Russian officials did not comment on the delegation’s last-minute decision to jet in for talks, nor have they given a time for the Monday cut-off.

A source in the Belarussian government, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said European gas deliveries could be affected. The threatened cut of more than 80 percent to Belarus “is a substantial reduction and of course it can affect transport issues,” he told Reuters.

However, Gazprom chief Alexei Miller said on Saturday that supply to Western Europe “should be viewed very calmly” because the company had spare capacity in other pipelines and demand has fallen as the weather has warmed.

Russia’s gas price disputes with its neighbors became a worry for Europe when its supplies were interrupted for almost two weeks in the dead of winter in early 2009 while Moscow argued over prices and transit terms with Ukraine.

Eighty percent of Russian gas to Western Europe goes through Ukraine and 20 percent goes through Belarus.

Tovpenets added that the delegation for Monday’s talks would include the head of the state transport firm Beltransgaz and representatives of the energy and economy ministries.

(Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; editing by Peter Graff)

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U.S. fears rifts in Afghanistan if presidential vote heads for runoff

August 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Kabul, Aug.22 (ANI): Western officials here have expressed relief that many Afghans defied Taliban threats of reprisals and came out to vote, but they were clearly concerned on Friday that a second round of voting could extend the paralysis of a government that already barely functions and deepen ethnic tensions, in the worst case, to the point of a north-south civil war.

A runoff, according to the New York Times, would also leave many of the Obama administration’s Afghanistan policy initiatives up in the air- like fighting corruption and improving distribution of aid.

The new uncertainties come on top of the stiff military challenges facing the Obama administration as it sends thousands more troops to southern Afghanistan, where Taliban attacks and very low turnout on election day made clear the insurgents’ influence.

Privately, however, American officials have set out a number of possible ways that the election aftermath could affect their operations.

During a meeting on Thursday, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the leader of American and NATO combat operations here, discussed how the military would have to adapt to each.

Particularly worrisome was the specter of a divisive ethnic presidential runoff between Karzai, whose power base is in the Pashtun south, and Abdullah, whose main support resides in the Tajik and Uzbek north, officials said.

Karzai himself has in the past raised the specter of ethnic violence, telling officials that if there was a runoff it could lead to a civil war, Western officials said.

For all of their worry about the problems that a runoff could bring, administration officials have also made clear they are not enamored of the Karzai government, and the president’s re-election would not be risk-free, either.

Should Karzai win, either outright or in a second round, Obama administration officials could find themselves with a president who has engaged in so much deal-making that he may well be even more beholden to warlords than before.

American officials are, however, taking pains to present a neutral public front.Our only interest was the result, fairly, accurately reflecting the will of the Afghan people,” President Obama told reporters at the White House.

Obama’s Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard C. Holbrooke met privately on Friday with Karzai and Abdullah in Kabul.

Western diplomats said that if there was a runoff, it would be widely seen as a blow to Karzai and a boost for Abdullah. (ANI)

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Pakistan Government’s record in handling return of refugees is not good

July 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, July 14 (ANI): The Pakistan Government’s record in handling the return of refugees is not good, and Islamabad is unprepared for the influx of people in the Swat Valley which can result in a loss of public opinion if the delivery of services is no better than before the Taliban’s seizure of the region, analysts have said.

Pakistan on Monday began returning more than two million refugees who were displaced by a government offensive against Taliban elements to the Swat Valley. The process will be closely watched by foreign governments, including in the United States, for signs of Pakistan’s ability to reverse a growing Islamist militancy.

Southeast Asia analysts and humanitarian-aid experts say that Pakistan’s heavily centralized government is unprepared for the massive return, The Christian Science Monitor reports.

“The Pakistani Government does not have a good track record when it comes to returning displaced populations, so this will be an important test,” says Patrick Duplat, a services advocate with Refugees International in Washington.

“If they once again send families back to areas that remain insecure and lack basic government services, the door will be open to more of the loss of public confidence that is so important for the government,” he said.

The specter of a nuclear-armed Pakistan destabilized by Islamist extremists who are allied with their brethren next door in Afghanistan prompted the US to encourage the government’s offensive in Swat in the first place, the CSM report says.

That gives the US not just an interest in seeing the Pakistani government succeed with its own people, but a “special responsibility” in assisting with a successful refugee return process, Duplat says.

He notes that after a similar displacement of residents in the northwest tribal areas last fall was followed by a “hasty” and “poorly planned” return, the same residents had to flee their homes a second time – a disruption that resulted in a precipitous loss of faith in the government.

Still, the Pakistani government may have reason to be more successful in the case of the Swat Valley. For one thing, Swat, which is north of the capital of Islamabad, is a long-settled area as opposed to the remote and semiautonomous tribal areas.

“So there’s reason for a certain amount of confidence that the government has a good read on the region,” says Lisa Curtis, a South Asia expert with the Heritage Foundation in Washington. (ANI)

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Democrats’ get Republican votes for Obama’s economic stimulus plan

February 7, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Feb 7 (ANI): Democrat Senators have gathered 60 votes with the help of two Republican counterparts, needed to advance to a final vote on President Barcak Obama’s economic stimulus plan, which includes about 811 billion dollars in spending and tax cuts.

Senators Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Susan Collins of Maine appeared to be the critical Republicans to sign onto the bill, giving Democrats enough votes to move it forward.

Democrats also voiced confidence that Republican Senator Olympia Snow of Maine would vote for the plan.

It isn’t certain when a vote would come, but sources indicate Sunday is a likely bet, FOX News reported.

Republican leaders still worry the bill contains too much spending on programs that won’t stimulate the economy, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell saying on Friday night on the floor of the Senate that “the big spending programs of the New Deal did not work.”

Obama is pushing for the massive spending plan to jump-start the economy, which otherwise, he says, could be headed for “catastrophe.”

Specter said that action was “very necessary,” and this bill, though not perfect, is better than inaction.

“I think no one could argue with the fact that the situation would be much worse without this bill,” Specter said on Friday.

The president has taken an increasingly public approach to advocating the bill’s passage, sitting for TV interviews early this week and planning trips to Indian and Florida next week to promote the measure. Polls suggest taxpayers are skeptical about the effectiveness of the plan. (ANI)

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