by Joel Gehrke, Foreign Affairs Reporter |
| September 29, 2021 07:00 AM
President Joe Biden should not position U.S. troops at Russian bases, his congressional allies warned following a report that a top Pentagon official discussed such an idea with his Russian counterpart.
“You can't trust them,” House Foreign Affairs Chairman Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat, told the Washington Examiner. “I can't see utilizing a base.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin floated the idea during the Geneva summit with Biden, and White House National Security Council officials requested more information on the offer, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, broached the subject in a recent meeting with Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
“President Putin offered to provide assistance,” Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday. “I can assure you that we are not seeking Russia's permission to do anything ... [Milley] asked for clarification on what that offer was.”
PENTAGON BRASS REVEAL BIDEN IGNORED TROOP RECOMMENDATIONS ON AFGHANISTAN
A senior U.S. diplomat in the region demurred Tuesday when asked about the report.
"We do not have specific plans in this field so far," said U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan, William Moser, per Russian state media.
The Taliban’s rapid overthrow of the U.S-backed central government, and the emergence of a terrorist with an FBI bounty as the new head of Taliban security forces in Afghanistan, has stoked international misgivings that the war-torn country could again provide a refuge for terrorist organizations.
“Outcomes in a war like this, an outcome that is a strategic failure — the enemy is in charge in Kabul, there's no way else to describe that — that is a cumulative effect of 20 years,” Milley acknowledged Tuesday to lawmakers.
Biden’s team has touted the prospect of “over-the-horizon” counterterrorism operations to target nascent terrorist operations before they can strike the United States or another foreign target. However, Putin put public pressure on Afghanistan’s neighbors not to allow the U.S. military to operate in the region.
“We cautioned them against such steps, and we also have had a frank talk on the subject with our Central Asian allies, neighbors, and friends and also other countries in the region that would be directly affected,” Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said after the Biden-Putin summit in July.
Rep. Tom Malinowski, a New Jersey Democrat who held a senior State Department position during Barack Obama’s presidency, likewise cautioned against allowing the Russians to turn that recalcitrance into an advantage.
“I don't think Russia does anything anywhere except with the objective of undermining U.S. interests,” he told the Washington Examiner. “I wouldn't want any aspect of our security in that region to be dependent on Russia hosting us.”
(https://www.washingtonexaminer.com)
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