Posted on 04/12/2010 4:48:52 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Kazakhstan has decided to open its airspace to U.S. military aircraft ferrying supplies to American troops serving in Afghanistan, it was decided on Sunday at a meeting between President Barack Obama and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev in Washington.
The permission granted by Kazakstan means that U.S. planes en route to Afghanistan can now use the polar route instead of flying along the indirect route through Europe, which would save precious time and fuel for moving supplies to forward locations in the war-ravaged country.
The meeting, the first between the two leaders, took place on the eve of the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) hosted by Obama and attended by leaders from 47 nations that opens on Monday.
"This will save money, it will save time, in terms of moving our troops and the supplies needed into the theater," Mike McFaul, one of Obama's security advisors told reporters.
According to McFul, Obama hailed Nazarbayev as "one of the model leaders in the world and stressed his role in drumming up support for the Nuclear Security Summit."
The Kazakh leader reportedly proposed the setting up of an International Nuclear Fuel Bank in his country which would complement global monitoring of nuclear materials.
Besides, Obama and Nazarbayev discussed the current turmoil in Kazakhstan's neighboring country of Kyrgyzstan and it was announced that U.S. industry major General Electric will be awarded a contract for building 150 diesel locomotives for use in Kazakhstan and other countries in the region.
An agreement on U.S.-Kazakh cooperation in the fields of science and technology was also announced at the summit-level meeting.
Following the disintegration of the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan had closed down its nuclear test site and taken steps to remove all nuclear material from its territory, including nuclear weapons
(Excerpt) Read more at rttnews.com ...
The Russians are not too pleased about this. The Russians have their space ports and military assets in Kazakhstan.
Good for Borat’s home.
Polar route - over Russia.
Here is the military cooperation treaty signed between Russia and Kazakhstan in 1994.
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/doctrine/940328.htm
They need to invest in some John Deere combine harvesters so those cotton pick'n kids can go to school. And that goes double for their neighbor to the South, Uzbekistan.
We have overflight rights in Russia right now for those supplies. They said “Polar Route” which means we get to fly over Russian airspace and Kazakh airspace to get to Kyrgyzstan, instead of flying from SE Europe, over South Russia and the Caspian.
This also means that Russia is content with allowing us to keep the Kyrgyz base.
I wonder when we’re going to find out how many billions of dollars Obama promised them.
Window dressing. This has been agreed to for some time.
That’s an entirely different set of problems right there. I have no idea on what the education system is like there and no idea what the education level of most children/people is like. Really hope you’re not basing your information off of Borat.
Tractors are great if you can afford them and have access to fuel. The trains would be a big help with bringing in fuel though. And the trains provide the means to transport crops and expand commerce. And of course to transport the tractors.
The Federal Aviation Administration specifically defines the North Polar area of operations as the area lying north of 78 deg north latitude which is entirely north of Alaska and most of Siberia
Yeck Shimesh!
Er, no. Child labor is used extensively to pick cotton in the Ferghana Valley. During harvest the schools buss all the kids to the fields where they live for several weeks picking cotton. They also kidnap people off of the streets and send them to the fields.
Some recent articles:
Our Other Perennial Theme
Cotton Boycotts 2009
My Dad hated GE diesel engines. He was fixing them all the time working for the ATSF.
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