Mining Sector Ideas

[gfp927z]

Bigworld, Here are Blinken's statements on Ukraine, from the State Dept website (below). It doesn't sound nearly as imminent as Kunstler said (NATO membership 'ASAP'), but more ambiguous -- to 'build a bridge to that membership, create a clear pathway'.

Fwiw, I think the idea has been to isolate and wear down Russia with an extended war, similar to the US strategy back in the 1980s with the 10 year Russia / Afghanistan war, which was originally cooked up by Zbigniew Brzezinski, and culminated in the collapse of the Soviet Union. The US/West presumably believe a similar approach could work again, using Ukraine as the battleground for the proxy war. An extremely dangerous strategy, to say the least -


>>> Secretary Antony J. Blinken and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba Before Their Meeting


https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-and-ukrainian-foreign-minister-dmytro-kuleba-before-their-meeting-10/


REMARKS

ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE

NATO HEADQUARTERS

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

APRIL 4, 2024

SECRETARY BLINKEN: It’s very good to be with my friend and colleague Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine. We just came from a session with all NATO Allies and Foreign Minister Kuleba, and I think it’s safe to say that the support for Ukraine, the determination of every country represented here at NATO remains rock solid. We will do everything we can; Allies will do everything that they can to ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to continue to deal with Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine, an aggression that gets worse with every passing day. And we’ve seen that just in the month of March with thousands of missiles, rockets, projectiles launched at Ukrainians and Ukraine’s cities and towns, its electricity grid – and that continues.

We’re also here at NATO to talk about the summit that’s upcoming in the summer in Washington, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Alliance. Ukraine will become a member of NATO. Our purpose of the summit is to help build a bridge to that membership and to create a clear pathway for Ukraine moving forward. We’ve done a lot of work on that over the last couple of days here in Brussels, a lot more work to be done between now and the summit, but we will see, I think, at the summit very strong support for Ukraine going forward and its relationship with NATO.

But we’re equally focused, as I said, on the immediate and on Ukraine’s needs today, tomorrow, the day after to help it withstand this ongoing aggression from Russia. We’ll talk about all of that and the work that our two countries continue to do together.

The final point is this: The fight that Ukraine has on its hands is not only Ukraine’s fight; it’s everyone’s fight. Because the aggression being committed by Russia is not only an aggression against Ukraine and its people, it’s an aggression against the very principles that lie at the heart of the international system. If Russia were somehow to succeed in Ukraine, if we did not continue to stand with Ukraine, the message to would-be aggressors everywhere is it’s open season; you can get away with it too.

And so it’s imperative that Congress move forward with a supplemental budget request that President Biden made for additional assistance to Ukraine. It’s not only in Ukraine’s interest; it’s profoundly in our own. And we have dozens of allies as well who feel the same way, who are more than picking up their share of the burden. And the supplemental will help ensure that we can continue to deliver for Ukraine because Ukraine is delivering for us, fighting the fight every day to uphold these principles that Russia’s aggressing and that matter to the United States and matter to every country in NATO.

FOREIGN MINISTER KULEBA: Thank you for the kind and strong words that you said just now, but also in the meeting behind the closed doors. I didn’t want to spoil the birthday party for NATO, but I felt compelled to deliver a very sobering message on behalf of Ukrainians about the state of Russian air attacks on my country, destroying our energy system, our economy, killing civilians. And I urged Allies today to provide Ukraine with new additional air defense systems, the best of which is Patriot. This is the only system that effectively intercepts ballistic missiles. In March only, Ukraine suffered from 94 ballistic missiles – 94 ballistic missiles were shot at Ukraine.

As a result of the discussions that we had and these strong encouraging messages from Secretary Blinken, Allies will undertake an exercise of allocating, of finding this – identifying this additional air defense systems in order to bring them to Ukraine, to provide them to Ukraine, and help defend our skies.

Of course, I also listened carefully to the discussion, to the comments related to the upcoming Washington Summit. It is up for – up to Allies themselves to decide on the form and the content of the next step towards Ukraine’s membership in NATO. I understand the decision has been taken today to task the military – military part of the Alliance with designing what that step could be. And we will be looking forward to the outcome, but, of course, we believe that Ukraine deserves to be a member of NATO and that this should happen sooner – rather sooner – sooner rather than later. So we will be looking forward to the outcome of these deliberations.

Finally, I would like to thank the people of the United States, the Biden administration, and those forces in Congress who work tirelessly on finding a solution to a very – to a problem that seems to be very simple; just put something to the vote, put the law to the vote. No one has doubts that the law will be voted by overwhelming majority, but overcoming this last obstacle is crucial. It has to happen as soon as possible. We heard the latest messages coming from Washington, and we hope that this will be delivered. Thank you.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thanks.

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