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Obama and Xi discuss Ukraine
by Staff Writers
The Hague (AFP) March 24, 2014


Russian defence minister Shoigu visits Crimea
Moscow (AFP) March 24, 2014 - Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Monday inspected troops and military facilities in Crimea, the first senior Russian official to travel to the Black Sea peninsula since Moscow absorbed the region into its territory, state television said.

Shoigu, one of the closest allies of President Vladimir Putin in the Russian cabinet, inspected the Russian Black Sea Fleet based in the port of Sevastopol and also met Crimea's pro-Moscow prime minister Sergei Aksyonov.

The minister is by far the most important Russian official to visit Crimea since Moscow declared the region part of Russia, in defiance of the stance of the international community that it will always be part of Ukraine.

State television showed Shoigu meeting Russian military forces in Crimea and also with former members of the Ukrainian armed forces who have elected to serve for Russia now the peninsula is under Russian control.

Shoigu assured the former Ukrainian troops that they would be able to serve anywhere in Russia and would have exactly the same benefits as other Russia servicemen.

He also made clear that it was a major priority for Russia to ensure that all military hardware on the peninsula was secured after the Russian takeover.

"In the last days, a group of officers has been checking and making sure there is no interim stage or anarchy, making sure that the military hardware does not fall into not the best hands," he said in comments broadcast on state television.

His visit came after a pro-Moscow official declared that all troops loyal to Ukraine have left their bases on the Crimea peninsula and acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov ordered troops to withdraw from the region.

Russian troops on Monday seized control of a new Ukrainian military base in Crimea in the eastern Crimean town of Feodosia, helping ensure its total military control of the peninsula.

President Barack Obama said Monday that the United States and China can help ensure "respect for the sovereignty of nations" as he held talks on Ukraine with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Obama said his first meeting with Xi this year, held on the sidelines of a major summit on nuclear security here, would deal with "a wide range of issues of mutual interest", including "the situation in Ukraine."

"I believe ultimately that by working together, China and the United States can help strengthen international law, respect for the sovereignty of nations and establish the kind of rules, internationally, that allow all people to thrive," said the US leader.

The United States and the EU, which have imposed sanctions on Russian officials, argue that Russia violated Ukraine's sovereignty by backing an independence referendum in Crimea that led to the Black Sea peninsula's annexation by Moscow.

Sitting alongside Obama, Xi did not address the subject of Ukraine specifically but said there was "greater space where China and the United States are cooperating" and agreed with the US president that Beijing and Washington should forge a new "major power relationship."

Analysts say Xi is unlikely to spell out China's position on the Ukraine crisis on his European trip but Chinese officials have reiterated calls for "calm and restraint".

Xi's four-country trip comes after China lodged a rare abstention on a Western-backed UN Security Council resolution condemning Crimea's referendum on joining Russia, rather than vetoing it alongside Moscow.

The two leaders are in the Hague for a meeting of the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS), ostensibly to push forward efforts to prevent dangerous nuclear material getting into the wrong hands, but overshadowed by the Ukraine crisis.

Obama has called an emergency meeting of the group of seven (G7) top industrial nations to discuss the unrest in Crimea, which has plunged relations between Russia and the West to lows not seen since the end of the Cold War.

The meeting was expected to take place later Monday and could see Russia expelled from the wider G8 as a punishment for its annexation of Crimea.

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