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View Full Version : US won't accept idea of global ‘spheres of influence’ – Biden




Suzanimal
05-28-2015, 10:54 AM
The US rejects the idea of any nation claiming a sphere of influence, Vice President Joe Biden told a Washington think tank, arguing that the crisis in Ukraine was about the principles and values of the West and international order.

"We will not recognize any nation having a sphere of influence,” the vice president said during a speech at the Brookings Institution on Wednesday. It remained unclear whether the remark applied to US influence around the globe, or referred only to Russia, China and other countries.

Asked by AP diplomatic correspondent Matt Lee to clarify the remark, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke did not quite know how.

“What we see when we look around the world are places where we desire to improve our contacts with countries,” Rathke said, acknowledging that other countries might do the same. “What is important is that those relations develop on the basis of mutual interest, mutual respect, without coercion, and to the benefit of the peoples of the countries involved.”

“I don’t really think the description of that as a ‘sphere of influence’ is particularly apt in those kinds of cases,” Rathke added.

Biden described the conflict in Ukraine as crucial to the future of NATO, the EU and the West in general, something that called for leadership “the kind our parents and grandparents’ generation delivered.”

Allowing the Kremlin to establish a “fiefdom” in Ukraine, he said, would only fan the flames of Russian ambition.

Biden blamed any humanitarian issues in Ukraine on Russia, reiterating US support for the government in Kiev. He has traveled to Ukraine three times over the past year, he said, and talks to President Poroshenko and Prime Minister Yatsenyuk about once a week, on average.

According to the vice president, the US has provided $470 million to Kiev in economic assistance, not counting the billions in loan guarantees if Kiev “continues on the path of reforms” they promised to deliver.

The US needs a Ukraine that “cannot be bribed, coerced or intimidated,” Biden said, one that would someday serve as an example to Russians of what Western values and institutions can accomplish.

In the Vice President’s narrative, the US tried to be a friend to Russia and bring it into the “world of responsible nations” through institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the NATO-Russia Partnership. He said that process was going well between 2009 and 2012, during the Medvedev presidency, but blamed President Vladimir Putin for setting Russia on a different course since.

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http://rt.com/usa/262573-biden-spheres-influence-russia/

Occam's Banana
05-28-2015, 11:25 AM
"We will not recognize any nation having a sphere of influence,” the vice president said during a speech at the Brookings Institution on Wednesday. It remained unclear whether the remark applied to US influence around the globe, or referred only to Russia, China and other countries.

Asked by AP diplomatic correspondent Matt Lee to clarify the remark, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke did not quite know how.

What the hell is so hard to figure out?

To anyone who's been paying even the slightest attention, it's perfectly obvious what Biden really meant: "All your spheres are belong to us!"

Suzanimal
05-28-2015, 11:29 AM
What the hell is so hard to figure out?

To anyone who's been paying even the slightest attention, it's perfectly obvious what Biden really meant: "All your spheres are belong to us!"

muh spheres :(