{"id":14045,"date":"2014-06-04T10:34:42","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T10:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=14045"},"modified":"2014-06-04T10:45:46","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T10:45:46","slug":"obamas-1bn-pledge-on-european-defence-could-provoke-new-cold-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=14045","title":{"rendered":"Obama\u2019s $1bn pledge on European defence could provoke new Cold War"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Obama_fly2\"<\/a>
Clueless<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

President Barack Obama has pledged up to $1bn in new US funding for European defence, reasserting Washington\u2019s role in the region despite warnings from Russia that any military build up near its borders with eastern Europe could provoke a new arms race and a new Cold War.<\/p>\n

The announcement at the beginning of Mr Obama\u2019s four-day trip to Europe coincided with heavy fighting in Ukraine, where government forces launched a fresh offensive against the pro-Russian citizens.<\/p>\n

Eastern European elites\u00a0are also seeking reassurances the US will protect them\u00a0from their voters.<\/p>\n

Obama referred to this new geopolitical landscape as he flew into Warsaw. Speaking in front of four F-16 fighter jets, he said America\u2019s commitment was particularly important now. \u201cThe security of our allies in central and eastern Europe is a cornerstone of our own security, and it is sacrosanct,\u201d Mr Obama said.<\/p>\n

He will ask Congress to approve $1bn in new funding, which is earmarked for training and exercises for Nato forces, military equipment, naval deployments in the Black and Baltic Seas, and an increase in the deployment of US planners and advisers in eastern Europe.<\/p>\n

The US has already sent 150 troops to Poland and more to the Baltic states, but Mr Obama was clear that they were not trying to provoke military confrontation with Russia. \u201cWe are interested in good relations with Russia. We are not interested in threatening Russia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Russia is deeply suspicious of any creep of Nato forces towards its borders, and Moscow\u2019s envoy to Nato warned on Monday that new rotations of troops or a build-up of military hardware would provoke a reaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll this could cast Europe back to the days of the Cold War and launch an arms race,\u201d Alexander Grushko was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.<\/p>\n

Nato defence ministers also met in Brussels with Ukraine at the top of the agenda. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Secretary General of the military alliance, said that they would be assessing their long-term response to Russia\u2019s actions in Ukraine. He also praised America\u2019s leadership in the crisis.<\/p>\n

Source: The Independent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Barack Obama has pledged up to $1bn in new US funding for European defence, reasserting Washington\u2019s role in the region despite warnings from Russia that any military build up near its borders with eastern Europe could provoke a new arms race and a new Cold War. The announcement at the beginning of Mr Obama\u2019s … Continue reading “Obama\u2019s $1bn pledge on European defence could provoke new Cold War”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[5237,2376,6533,745],"class_list":["post-14045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-united-states","tag-cold-war","tag-nato","tag-president-obama","tag-usa"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Obama_fly2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14045"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14051,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14045\/revisions\/14051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}