Lithuania Plans To Build Fence Along Border With Russia's Kaliningrad
Lithuania says it will start construction on a 129-kilometer fence on its border with Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave bordering the NATO-member nation.
The interior minister for the Baltic state said on January 17 that the barrier will be 2.5 meters high and feature electronic surveillance systems and drones. The fence, at an estimated cost of $3.85 million, is scheduled to be completed by the end 2017.
The minister, Eimutis Misiunas, acknowledged that the fence would not provide much defense against a massive military assault but said it underscored his country’s concerns about an increasingly assertive Russia, which stations thousands of troops and military equipment in the oblast.
EU-member Lithuania also characterized the move as a way to reduce smuggling.
"We have to prevent smuggling and strengthen the external borders of the European Union. We understand well what is going on in the Russian exclave," Misiunas told AP.
Based on reporting by AP and Reuters
China Offers To Help Seek Resolution Of Ukraine Crisis
By RFE/RL
China is willing to play a constructive role in seeking a political resolution to the crisis in Ukraine, Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Ukrainian counterpart on January 17.
The first-time Chinese offer of aid to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on the sidelines of the Davos economic summit came in Switzerland comes at a time when the United States' role in mediating the Ukraine conflict appears set to diminish under a Donald Trump presidency that seeks to mend fences with Russia.
China has previously shown little interest in getting involved in diplomatic efforts to end the crisis spawned by Russia's illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and backing for militant separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Beijing has avoided taking sides in the conflict, saying it respects Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty but that Western powers should take into consideration Russia's legitimate security concerns.
Beijing in the past has avoided alienating Moscow, its ally on many international matters, by getting drawn into the struggle between Russia and the West over Ukraine's future.
But those concerns appeared to be set aside, at least temporarily, in Davos when Xi told Poroshenko that China would like to deepen cooperation with Ukraine under a long tradition of friendship between the countries.
"We genuinely hope that Ukraine maintains social stability and economic development and are willing to play a constructive role in promoting a political resolution to the crisis," Xi said, according to China's Foreign Ministry.
Poroshenko told Xi that Ukraine welcomed Chinese investment and that there was great potential for cooperation in areas like logistics, ports, steel, and agriculture, the ministry said.
Also at the Davos summit, Xi met with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who has been the Obama administration's point man on Ukraine and a strong supporter of Kyiv in its struggle with Russia.
Xi released a statement after the Biden meeting that did not address Ukraine but noted the record level of trade between the United States and China achieved under the Obama administration and called for a continuation of that trend.
"The basic interests of the people of both countries and the world need China and the United States to work hard, to form a long-term, stable cooperative relationship," Xi said.
Trump has vowed to aggressively confront China over trade and economic issues, even threatening to withdraw support for the decades-old "One China" policy, in a development that has been deeply unsettling to Beijing.
With reporting by Reuters and Xinhua
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Tuesday, January 17, 2017. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage. Thanks for reading and take care.
U.S. Ambassador To UN Says Russia 'Tearing Down' World Order
The outgoing U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has accused Russia of engaging in aggressive and destabilizing actions that she says are threatening the rules-based international order.
Samantha Power made the remarks on January 17 at the Washington-based Atlantic Council in her last major speech as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
She cited the illegal seizure by Russia of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and the Kremlin's intervention in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, support of the Syrian government in that country’s war, and efforts to influence elections in Western democracies through computer hacking and misinformation campaigns designed to influence public opinion.
Power said: "Russia's actions are not standing up a new world order. They are tearing down the one that exists."