Austin Keeps U.S. Aircraft Carrier in Mediterranean

With the series of Russian meetings with the U.S., NATO and the OSCE coming up over the next two weeks, which are expected to take up Russia’s demands for treaty guarantees regarding Russia’s security, U.S. Secretary of Defense Austin Lloyd has reportedly ordered the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier strike group to delay its planned transition from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea and on to the waters around the Arabian Peninsula for an unspecified amount of time. It is currently in the Ionian Sea between Greece and Italy. The schedule change is “to reassure European allies” of U.S. commitment to regional security, one official told U.S. Naval Institute News.