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Leading Indicators: Off-the-Radar News Roundup
Judah Grunstein
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09 Mar 2010
- Turkey's Interior Ministry is training the Sudanese police force in anticipation of the country's April elections. Sudan has been one of the problematic areas of Turkey's maverick "open arms" foreign policy orientation, but this seems like an area where even that could deliver some payoff.
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov seems pretty convinced the START follow-on nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia will include a "legally binding" link to missile defense. I'm pretty convinced that's the kind of treaty that won't make it past the Senate.
- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev directed the Defense Ministry to open talks with South Ossetia with the aim of establishing a Russian military base in the broken-away Georgian province, along the lines of the arrangement already in place in Abkhazia.
- The European Parliament weighed in on the proposals currently circulating for the formation of the European diplomatic corps, demanding budgetary control and oversight powers over the service, and generally siding with the European Commission over the European Council in terms of influence within the new structure. That's to be expected, since the parliament has an oversight role over the supranational commission, and not over the national governments that make up the council.
- The European aircraft manufacturer EADS formally dropped out of the bidding for a U.S. Air Force tanker contract that it already won in 2008, only to see the deal returned to a tender following an appeal by U.S. competitor Boeing. EADS complained of new specifications that favored the U.S. defense contractor, and the entire maneuver is being viewed on the continent as a protectionist trade measure driven by nativist defense contracting concerns.
- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is poised to leave office with a 73 percent approval rating.
- Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan took what appear to be his first steps toward seriously securing his grip on power by firing the country's national security adviser, a loyalist to ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua. Among other things, the former NSA was in a position to block the release of Yar'Adua's medical records, which might now see the light of day.
Researched by Kari Lipschutz.