"It is essential that the United States and China have a positive, cooperative relationship," Clinton told a group of reporters.
New defining Sino-U.S. strategic goals: the world economic crisis, regional security and the environment
The United States and China are the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases.
China, the world's top holder of U.S. debt
China-U.S. trade volume rose by 10.5 percent in 2008 to $333.7 billion, Xinhua reported.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and U.S. President Barack Obama are scheduled to meet at the G20 meeting in London in April.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/21/clinton.china.asia/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
New strategic missiles treaty. Reduction to 1000 missiles, by 80%.
Sergei Ivanov, the Deputy Prime Minister, said that Russia was ready to sign a new strategic missile treaty with the United States after The Times disclosed that Mr Obama is to seek an 80 per cent reduction in stockpiles.
The landmark Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) signed by the US and the Soviet Union in 1991 is due to expire in December 09.
It reduced stockpiles held by the two states from 10,000 to 5,000 but there has been little progress in negotiating a successor treaty.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5660089.ece
The landmark Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) signed by the US and the Soviet Union in 1991 is due to expire in December 09.
It reduced stockpiles held by the two states from 10,000 to 5,000 but there has been little progress in negotiating a successor treaty.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5660089.ece
Friday, January 9, 2009
Gas crisis
Talks aimed at restarting gas shipments to Europe hung in the balance Friday 1-9-9, with Russia and Ukraine still at odds over the terms of deploying a European Union-led monitoring mission to track flows of Russian gas through Ukrainian pipelines.
"Our goal is to show who is to blame for stealing gas," President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia said. "Such thievery can't be left unaccountable."
Senior officials from the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said late Friday 1-9-9 that Ukraine had agreed to the deployment of the EU monitoring mission on Ukrainian soil, including the Russian demand that Russian monitors be included.
An impasse developed when Russia insisted on the right to have its own experts on Ukrainian soil, which Kiev flatly refused.
Short-term measures including increasing production in Norway, the Netherlands, Britain, Romania and Poland as a way of compensating for the loss of Russian gas.
Both Gazprom and Naftogaz, the Ukrainian energy company, issued sharp statements Friday, blaming the other's intransigence for prolonging the crisis.
"So far, our negotiations have been fruitless," Oleh Dubyna, chief executive of Naftogaz, said in a statement. "The Russian delegation looks unprepared to continue the negotiating process."
Gazprom, in turn, issued a statement saying that "the latest step by Ukraine is aimed at escalating the crisis situation with transit of Russian gas to Europe."
EU officials said Topolanek was engaged in tireless diplomacy, along with Vaclav Bartuska, the Czech roving ambassador for energy issues, and Alexandr Vondra, the deputy prime minister, who have been in regular contact in the past few days with senior officials from both Gazprom and Naftogaz.
People close to the negotiations said Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who grew up in East Germany during the Cold War, was playing a crucial role, using her close working relationship with Putin, with whom she regularly converses in fluent Russian, to try to overcome the impasse.
Merkel's close relationship with Topolanek is also helping the EU to develop a coordinated stance with Russia, EU officials said; Merkel worked as a scientist in Prague during the Communist era, and both she and Topolanek are economic liberals who are eager to put Europe's strained relations with Russia back on course.
Topolanek gained knowledge of the energy sector as a young mining engineer.
Putin blamed Ukraine's leaders for the shutoff and suggested they were unwilling to cut out a middleman company, RosUkrEnergo, owned by a business ally of the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yushchenko.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/09/europe/gazprom.php?page=1
"Our goal is to show who is to blame for stealing gas," President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia said. "Such thievery can't be left unaccountable."
Senior officials from the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said late Friday 1-9-9 that Ukraine had agreed to the deployment of the EU monitoring mission on Ukrainian soil, including the Russian demand that Russian monitors be included.
An impasse developed when Russia insisted on the right to have its own experts on Ukrainian soil, which Kiev flatly refused.
Short-term measures including increasing production in Norway, the Netherlands, Britain, Romania and Poland as a way of compensating for the loss of Russian gas.
Both Gazprom and Naftogaz, the Ukrainian energy company, issued sharp statements Friday, blaming the other's intransigence for prolonging the crisis.
"So far, our negotiations have been fruitless," Oleh Dubyna, chief executive of Naftogaz, said in a statement. "The Russian delegation looks unprepared to continue the negotiating process."
Gazprom, in turn, issued a statement saying that "the latest step by Ukraine is aimed at escalating the crisis situation with transit of Russian gas to Europe."
EU officials said Topolanek was engaged in tireless diplomacy, along with Vaclav Bartuska, the Czech roving ambassador for energy issues, and Alexandr Vondra, the deputy prime minister, who have been in regular contact in the past few days with senior officials from both Gazprom and Naftogaz.
People close to the negotiations said Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who grew up in East Germany during the Cold War, was playing a crucial role, using her close working relationship with Putin, with whom she regularly converses in fluent Russian, to try to overcome the impasse.
Merkel's close relationship with Topolanek is also helping the EU to develop a coordinated stance with Russia, EU officials said; Merkel worked as a scientist in Prague during the Communist era, and both she and Topolanek are economic liberals who are eager to put Europe's strained relations with Russia back on course.
Topolanek gained knowledge of the energy sector as a young mining engineer.
Putin blamed Ukraine's leaders for the shutoff and suggested they were unwilling to cut out a middleman company, RosUkrEnergo, owned by a business ally of the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yushchenko.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/09/europe/gazprom.php?page=1
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Gas crisis escalation, incresing confrontation Russia - West
Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, halted nearly its entire export of natural gas to Europe on Tuesday in a sharp escalation of a dispute over prices with neighboring Ukraine that also underscored Russia's increasingly confrontational stance toward the West.
Ukraine has angered Russia by seeking membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as has Georgia, a country Russia fought a brief war against in August.
Oil and gas exports make up about 60 percent of the Russia budget. Oil prices, meanwhile, have fallen by about two-thirds since their peak last summer 08 of around $150.
Gazprom is seeking to raise the price Ukraine pays for gas from $179.50 last year to $450, and to collect what it says are fines for late payments on previous shipments.
Ukraine, in exchange, wants to raise tariffs for gas shipped across its territory.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/06/europe/gazprom.php
I guess this is better than the open war.
Ukraine has angered Russia by seeking membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as has Georgia, a country Russia fought a brief war against in August.
Oil and gas exports make up about 60 percent of the Russia budget. Oil prices, meanwhile, have fallen by about two-thirds since their peak last summer 08 of around $150.
Gazprom is seeking to raise the price Ukraine pays for gas from $179.50 last year to $450, and to collect what it says are fines for late payments on previous shipments.
Ukraine, in exchange, wants to raise tariffs for gas shipped across its territory.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/06/europe/gazprom.php
I guess this is better than the open war.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Iraq, electricity, GE
...GE will install 7,000 megawatts of electricity, nearly doubling the country's generating capacity.
GE has supplied power equipment to Iraq, which the company estimates needs about 30,000 megawatts ...
Iraq's daily power-generation output averages less than 6,000 megawatts, while demand is typically more than 10,000, GE said in a statement
One would wonder how to understand exactly these official numbers.
GE has supplied power equipment to Iraq, which the company estimates needs about 30,000 megawatts ...
Iraq's daily power-generation output averages less than 6,000 megawatts, while demand is typically more than 10,000, GE said in a statement
One would wonder how to understand exactly these official numbers.
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