Cuban Flag Goes Up at State Department on Monday

The State Department will hang the Cuban flag in the lobby of the State Department building on Monday in recognition of the imminent reopening of the communist nation's embassy in Washington. The AP's Matt Lee reports:

Cuban flag to be hung alongside those of other nations in @StateDept lobby Monday AM before Cuba reopens embassy in DC, per @statedeptspox

— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) July 17, 2015

Flag of #Cuba will be hung in alphabetical order with others in @statedept lobby, which should put it between #Croatia and #Cyprus.

— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) July 17, 2015

President Eisenhower had the Cuban embassy closed in January 1961 and severed diplomatic relations with the communist government of Fidel Castro. President Obama announced in December 2014 that he is setting a "new course" with Cuba. The reopening of the embassy is just the latest step in that new course.

Via: Weekly Standard

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Russia Seeks Access to Bases in Eight Countries for Its Ships and Bombers

(CNSNews.com) – At a time of escalated tensions with the West over Ukraine, Russia says it is negotiating with eight governments around the world for access to military facilities, to enable it to extend its long-range naval and strategic bomber capabilities.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday the military was engaged in talks with Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Algeria, Cyprus, the Seychelles, Vietnam and Singapore.

“We need bases for refueling near the equator, and in other places,” ITAR-Tass quoted him as saying.

Russia is not looking to establish bases in those locations, but to reach agreement to use facilities there when required.

The countries are all strategically located – in three leftist-ruled countries close to the U.S.; towards either end of the Mediterranean; in the Indian Ocean south of the Gulf of Aden; and near some of the world’s most important shipping lanes in the Malacca Strait and South China Sea.

Access to the new locations would extend the Russian military’s potential reach well beyond its existing extraterritorial bases, at the Syrian port of Tartus and in former Soviet states – Ukraine’s Sevastopol, Armenia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and the occupied Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Shoigu said Russia was also beefing up its existing military presence in the post-Soviet region, doubling its troop numbers in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and deploying a regiment of troops to Belarus where it already has fighter aircraft stationed.

Via: CNS News
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