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CNN —US troops in Niger have been restricted to the American military base in Agadez, Niger, as the Biden administration works to restore democratically-elected President Mohamed Bazoum to power. A US military official said the approximately 1,000 troops were “retrograded” back to the base last week, shortly after Bazoum was seized by members of the presidential guard on Wednesday. “We’re working really, really hard to see if we can turn this around,” said a senior State Department official on Monday. But the Pentagon is engaging in “strategic patience as we monitor the situation and see how it resolves itself,” the military official said. The US has had troops in Niger for around a decade, mostly advising and training Nigerien forces on counterterrorism efforts.

Persons: Biden, Mohamed Bazoum, Bazoum, ”, Mark Milley, Dave Butler, “ There’s, Abdourahamane Tiani, they’ve, “, Wagner, Yevgeny, Prigozhin Organizations: CNN, Nigerien, State Department, US Joint Chiefs, Staff Locations: Niger, Agadez, ”, Bazoum

CNN —Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger met in Beijing with Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu, according to the Chinese Ministry of Defense. Kissinger met with Li, who is under US sanction, in his capacity as a private citizen, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. Kissinger played a key role in the US rapprochement with China while serving as national security adviser under the Nixon administration. Miller, the State Department spokesperson, indicated that Secretary of State Antony Blinken found out about the meeting from his own meetings with Chinese officials in Beijing last month. “We were aware that Henry Kissinger was traveling to China,” Miller said at a State Department briefing.

Persons: Henry Kissinger, Li Shangfu, Kissinger, Li, Matthew Miller, Nixon, Lloyd Austin, Miller, Antony Blinken, ” Miller, Blinken, ”, “, it’s Organizations: CNN, Former, Chinese Defense, Chinese Ministry of Defense, State, US, Beijing “, State Department Locations: Beijing, China, United States, Singapore

CNN —US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to meet with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi on Thursday – the latest in a series of increased high-level interactions between Washington and Beijing. Their meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Jakarta comes less than a month after the two met in Beijing, holding what the top US diplomat called a “candid and constructive” conversation. The Biden administration feels that the US and China are “getting back to normal in the sense of pace of diplomacy,” a senior administration official told CNN this week. Both Blinken and Yellen claimed they had made some progress in efforts to re-establish bilateral communications aimed at responsibly managing the relationship. But right now that is “not being actively considered,” the senior administration official said.

Persons: Antony Blinken, Wang Yi, Qin Gang, Biden, ”, Janet Yellen, John Kerry, Yellen, ” Blinken, “ We’re, –, ” Yellen, they’ve, Blinken’s, Matthew Miller, Miller Organizations: CNN, Chinese Communist Party, China’s, Qin, Reuters, ASEAN, Microsoft, State Department Locations: Washington, Beijing, Jakarta, United States, China, Fiji, Mexico

CNN —The US State Department on Friday released its long-awaited Afghanistan After Action Review report, which found that both the Trump and Biden administrations’ decisions to pull all US troops from Afghanistan had detrimental consequences, and details damning shortcomings by the current administration that led to the deadly and chaotic US withdrawal from that country after nearly two decades on the ground. Sharper criticism of Biden admin actions than earlier White House documentThe State Department’s report contains much sharper criticism around the Biden administration’s actions than the White House summary document released in April. That added significantly to the challenges the Department and DoD faced during the evacuation,” the report said. The report noted that in the chaos, the State Department received an “overwhelming volume of incoming calls and messages to the Department from other government agencies, Congress, and the public inquiring about individual cases mostly with regard to at-risk Afghans,” which created an immense challenge. The report detailed 11 recommendations, mostly related to the Department’s crisis response and preparedness.

Persons: Donald, Trump, Joe, Biden, ”, Afghanistan “, “, Hamid, State Department “, ” “, Antony Blinken, I’ll, ” Blinken Organizations: CNN, US State Department, Trump, Biden, State Department, White, Department, Bagram Air Base, Hamid Karzai International Airport, US, “, DoD, United States, Task Force Locations: Afghanistan, United, United States, Kabul, Washington

“I’m not doing that good,” Lt. Ridge Alkonis wrote in a letter dated April 30, which was shared with CNN. “The walls and bars seem to be making my cell even smaller as of late.”“I feel closer to an animal than a human being now,” Ridge Alkonis wrote. “That was the most dejected I’ve ever heard him,” his wife, Brittany Alkonis, told CNN on Thursday. As such, despite her hope for positive movement coming out the G7 trip to Hirsoshima, Brittany Alkonis said she does not have high expectations of a resolution. But based on Japan’s response, it doesn’t seem that they do think it’s a big deal,” Brittany Alkonis said.

CNN —For Yulia Laputina, Ukraine’s Minister of Veterans Affairs, a visit to Arlington National Cemetery was a deeply moving experience. On Thursday, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, announced that the city council had “started the procedure for establishing the National Military Memorial Cemetery,” and had allocated land for its creation. Ukrainian Minister of Veterans Affairs Yulia Laputina visits Arlington National Cemetery in April 2023. Lawmakers made the case that personal connections to Americans across the country could “increase the level of support of practical support” for Ukraine, Laputina said. Yulia Laputina, Minister of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine at the International Rehabilitation Forum in Lviv, Ukraine, on April 12.

CNN —The situation on the ground in Sudan on Wednesday remained too volatile to get diplomatic staff from the US Embassy in Khartoum out of the country, a top State Department official told congressional staffers. Another US official told CNN that State Department officials are in contact with Pentagon officials in Djibouti where the US has military assets to determine the best evacuation operation. Officials told staffers Wednesday that there are an estimated 16,000 American citizens in Sudan, most of whom are dual nationals, and roughly 500 had contacted the US Embassy since the outbreak of fighting. “Within Sudan, the Department of Defense’s mission is primarily focused on providing security at the US Embassy. While operational security prevents us from going into detail, the Department of Defense, through the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group, provides ongoing security for diplomatic facilities worldwide,” he said.

CNN —The United States is in “deep” talks with India over its reliance on Russian arms and energy, a US State Department official said Tuesday, in a development that could further isolate Moscow on the international stage. “India is heavily, heavily dependent on Russia, and that’s something that they did to themselves over some 40 years: first their military and then their energy dependence,” the official said. The State Department official’s comments came hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin announced an escalation of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, calling for the immediate “partial mobilization” of Russian citizens. Annual India-US trade is more than $110 billion, compared to about $8 billion for India’s trade with Russia. India is also a member of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue alongside the US, Japan and Australia.

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