Secretary Clinton in the News

In addition to what I posted below, here are a few round-up of of today’s news coverage of Secretary Clinton.

First, we have this nonsense from Fox News:

When the president travels out of country, his secretary of state customarily follows.

Not so with Hillary Clinton.

More and more, President Obama is ditching his top diplomat when he travels abroad. By the time Obama returns from Ghana on Sunday, the last stop on his latest three-country tour, he will have visited nine countries without Clinton.

That’s highly unusual for a new secretary of state. Though Clinton has accompanied Obama on several key international visits this year, including Egypt and Trinidad and Tobago, Obama has spent far more time than his predecessors without his foreign policy point person.

Some analysts say this could be a product of Obama’s acute interest in diplomacy and international affairs, or perhaps his wariness to promote on the world stage a former rival whose star power could detract from his.

The article gives only a passing mention to the fact that the Secretary had elbow surgery and apparently requires intensive physical therapy at this relatively early post-op stage. I couldn’t help myself and added my two cents in the comment section over at Fox.

Then there was this news out of Venezuela. Methinks Hugo Chavez is acting out a bit ala Kim Jong Il, because he isn’t getting enough headline-grabbing attention these days so he’s going to, well, grab a headline:

El Universal: Venezuela’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs described as “clumsy and aggressive” the statements on Venezuela issued by the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and demanded a “rectification” for the sake of the relations between the two countries.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry issued a statement questioning the good intentions of the United States to “repair” bilateral relations, given Clinton’s remarks during an interview broadcast on Tuesday by private TV news channel Globovisien, Efe reported. ”It’s difficult to believe that the intentions to repair bilateral relations are sincere when such unfriendly actions are taken (…) The concepts issued (…) represent a clumsy and aggressive signal from the government of the United States to Venezuela, Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Then there are several news stories ahead of Secretary Clinton’s all-important upcoming trip to India:

[...]

But when she gets to India, Clinton will be expected to spell out the future of the landmark Indo-U.S. civilian nuclear agreement which was seen in China as part of the ‘containment’ strategy. Beijing had therefore opposed the special waiver sought by the U.S. from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to enable India to resume nuclear commerce.

Clinton will also be asked to explain the AfPak policy of jointly dealing with Afghanistan and Pakistan to contain terrorism with the focus on providing Pakistan more economic and military aid – though there have been complaints that it was being funnelled into militancy in Indian-ruled Kashmir.

“At a time of deep economic crisis and when the spectre of terrorism looms large over the world, India can only be supportive of the U.S. initiatives in engaging China and Pakistan,” says Prof. Sujit Dutta, an expert on India-China relations and currently attached to the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution in New Delhi.

“On the other hand,” Dutta told IPS, “engaging with China must not lead to a reversal to the time during the late 1990s when the U.S. was beginning to look favourably at parcelling out hegemony over Asia to Beijing.”

Dutta pointed to the dramatic revelation by the U.S. Pacific Command chief Admiral Timothy J. Keating during his visit to India on May 14 that a top-ranking Chinese naval official had sounded him out on a proposal to split control over the world’s seas between the navies of the two countries.

And this with respect to Clinton’s meeting yesterday with select members of Congress:

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has sought to take top Congressional leadership into confidence in her endeavor to take the Indo-US relationship to a new level, which she fondly says is 3.0.

Less than a fortnight left for her first trip to India as the Secretary of State, Clinton had a breakfast meeting with more than a dozen top Congressional leaders from both Democratic and Republican parties
yesterday, coming from both the chambers of the Congress – the House of Representative and the Senate.

“I appreciate the Administration’s determination to strengthen our strategic partnership with India in security, trade, and many other issues of mutual interest,” John Cornyn, the Republican Senator from Texas, said after the meeting.

Cornyn is founder and co-chair of Senate India Caucus. Clinton herself was its co-chair last year from the Democratic side.

The statement coming from Cornyn, a critic of the Obama Administration reflects the bipartisan support the Indo-US relationship has gained in the last one decade. Clinton, aware of this fact, wants to build on it to, what she says, “deepen” the strategic partnership with India…

And the ongoing crisis in Honduras:

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, is mediating negotiations between Zelaya and interim leader Roberto Micheletti at the request of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton – a move some consider to be the Obama administration’s first big test in Latin America.

Micheletti’s aides said he does not plan any face-to-face meetings with the former ally he and other Honduran politicians ordered into exile at gunpoint on June 28. They also accused Zelaya’s followers of gathering in San Jose to “create tension” during the talks.

But Micheletti, a congressional leader named president by legislators following the coup, said on arrival that he is committed “trying to solve my country’s internal differences in a peaceful way.”

“We will work ceaselessly to find a successful solution to the present situation,” Micheletti said. “We are fully confident that we will find the solution in the framework of our constitution,” the document he accuses Zelaya of having violated by insisting on holding a referendum many say was meant to extend his term in office.

It is still a stretch: Zelaya insists he must return, while Micheletti says he cannot.

…