May 25/09.  MOSCOW — Russia intends to become the leader of Turkey's program to generate electricity from nuclear power.

Officials said the Kremlin has lobbied for an award for a Russian-led consortium, the only competitor in Turkey's nuclear power tender. Russia's Atomstroyexport has led Turkish and Russian partners in the bid to construct a nuclear energy reactor along the Black Sea coast.

"We are speaking about possible participation of our companies in building four large [nuclear] units," Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said.

Moscow has also offered to sell missile defense systems and attack helicopters to Turkey. Russia has presented its S-400 missile defense system, touted as superior to the U.S.-origin PAC-3.

Putin discussed Ankara's nuclear energy tender during his meeting with Prime Minister Recep Erdogan on May 16. Putin said Turkey's nuclear program marked a major component of Moscow's relations with Ankara.

During the talks, Erdogan and Putin were also said to have agreed to expand other energy projects. Putin said Ankara and Moscow would hold talks to extend a natural gas supply contract scheduled to expire in 2011.

Under the Blue Stream pipeline project, Turkey received 23.8 billion cubic meters of gas from Russian and Central Asian suppliers in 2008. Officials said the gas flow would significantly increase over the next year.

http://www.geostrategy-direct.com/geostrategy-direct/

June 4/09. I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement. Together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. I am grateful for your hospitality, and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. I am also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum.

We meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world - tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The relationship between Islam and the west includes centuries of co-existence and co-operation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a cold war in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the west as hostile to the traditions of Islam.

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