Photos from Warsaw

At the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw with Betsy Dorman Taylor (right) from South Portland and Linda White Szczedanska from Caribou (left), who are stationed there:


With Deputy Head of Poland's National Security Bureau, Witold Waszczykowski:

Blog update: Leaving Russia

Blog update from Senator Collins in Russia:
A fascinating day of meetings with the Foreign Minister and his deputy for two hours (far longer than usual for a meeting of this sort), with the chairman of the International Relations Committee of the Duma (Russian Parliament,) and with a human rights activist who spent years in a Soviet prison and gave an impassioned speech on the lack of true political freedom in Russia. In addition, we spent considerable time with our ambassador, an impressive career diplomat.

I was struck again today by how much the Russians seem to want a better relationship with us, yet how much a sense of resentment and loss of power shapes their views. They are convinced that the proposed missile defense installations in Poland and the Czech Republic are directed at them rather than Iran, even as they concede that our assessment of the growing Iranian missile capability was more accurate than theirs was.
After the meetings, we took a quick tour of Red Square with its famed onion-domed Orthodox Russian cathedral, St. Basil.

One other observation as I leave Russia: the air pollution and traffic in Moscow are truly horrendous, and people smoke everywhere or so it seems. The average Russian male lives to only age 59.

Photos from Russia

Meeting with human rights activist Sergei Kovalev :

Meeting at US Embassy with Ambassador John Beyrle:


With Foreign Minister Lavrov and Ambassador Beyrle:

Senator Collins: Blog update from Moscow

Senator Collins will be blogging during her fact-finding mission to Russia, Poland, and the Czech Republic with Senator Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee:

The American Ambassador hosted our Senate Delegation and four Russians for dinner tonight at the historic Spaso House, the ornate residence of American ambassadors since the establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries in 1933.

The Russian guests included two foreign policy and security experts, a newspaper editor, and a nuclear physicist who is an expert on nonproliferation. This was our opportunity to talk with Russians who are not part of the government yet know a great deal about foreign and defense policy.

Although they personally seemed to be pro-American, they described a troubling surge of anti-Americanism which they blamed on a host of issues ranging from the proposed expansion of NATO to include Ukraine and Georgia to the American reaction favoring Georgia in the war with Russia to the Bush Administration's plan for ballistic missile defense installations in Poland and the Czech Republic.

At the heart of this long list of grievances, however, seems to be Russia's resentment that it no longer has the special superpower relationship with the United States that it once had.

Collins Heads to Europe for Talks With Russians

from MPBN:

Maine Sen. Susan Collins is headed to Europe for meetings in Russia, Poland and the Czech Republic. Collins is making the trip with other members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Collins says she was invited by Committee Chair Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan to be on the trip, which will include several meetings with high ranking officials in all three countries. She says the meetings with Russian leaders are very important. "I agree with President Obama that we need to 'reset' -- as he puts it -- our relationship with the Russians and that we need to try to have a better, more productive relationship wtih the Russians," Collins told Capitol News Service. "Of course that requires the Russians to want to have a better relationship." On the agenda for the meetings is a European missile defense system to protect it from so-called rogue states like Iran. Collins says one of her goals is to convince the Russians to cooperate with such a move.

Senator Collins welcomes Coast Guard Commandant to Maine

Senator Collins welcomed USCG Commandant Admiral Thad W. Allen to Maine on Tuesday. They toured Bath Iron Works, Hodgon Defense Composites in Boothbay, and the Coast Guard Station in Rockland.
The video below is from their departure at Knox County Regional Airport in Owls Head, in a Coast Guard HH60J Jayhawk helicopter.

President's budget calls on BIW to build all three DDG-1000s

Senator Collins urged Administration to fully fund third DDG-1000 to have steady work for BIW

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Armed Services and Appropriations Committees, today announced that Bath Iron Works is slated to build all three DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyers according to the FY 2010 Department of Defense budget announced today by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

“This is incredibly welcome news for Maine and is a testament to the highly skilled, hard-working men and women at Bath Iron Works,” said Senator Collins. “My goal has always been to help ensure a steady work flow at BIW and a strong industrial base for shipbuilding. That is why I worked hard to convince the President and the Navy to include full funding for a third DDG-1000 in the budget, and I am delighted that they have agreed. The Pentagon's preference to have BIW build all three of the DDG-1000’s demonstrates confidence in BIW and should also stabilize production costs for the Navy.”

"While this strategy depends on the completion of negotiations between BIW and Northrop Grumman as well as congressional approval, this budget is a giant step toward a stable workload for BIW," said Sen. Collins.

As a result of Senator Collins’ work, the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee demonstrated strong support for the procurement of the third DDG-1000. However, as the result of a lack of support on the House Armed Services Committee, the FY 09 Department of Defense Appropriations Act only provided partial funding for the third ship. Just last month, Senator Collins wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates reiterating her strong support for full funding of the third DDG-1000.

In addition to advocating for a strong Navy and a stable workload at Bath Iron Works, Senator Collins will be touring BIW with Admiral Thad Allen, Commandant of the United States Coast Guard tomorrow, Tuesday, April 7.

Admiral Patrick Walsh, Vice Chief of Naval Operations called Senator Collins this afternoon to personally discuss the announcement.