Briefing Skipper: Estonia, Mitchell, Awlaki, Armenia, China

In which we scour the transcript of the State Department’s daily presser so you don’t have to. These are the highlights of Thursday’s briefing by spokesman P.J. Crowley:

• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Tallinn, Estonia Thursday and met with Foreign Minister Urmas Paet ahead of the NATO ministerial meeting. "I think Estonia is one of those countries that, to use boxing terminology, within NATO definitely boxes well above its weight," Crowley said. Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves was in Washington earlier this month and his interview with The Cable can be found here. Thursday night, Clinton will attend a working dinner hosted by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, whose interview with The Cable can be found here.
• Special Envoy George Mitchell is back in the Middle East, trying to figure out what to do with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s counter offer toward restarting indirect talks with the Palestinians. Mitchell will meet with Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Friday and Clinton spokes with Abbas over the phone Thursday, Crowley said. State’s David Hale and the NSC’s Dan Shapiro had meetings Wednesday with both sides. What does Crowley think about Netanyahu’s latest comments? "I don’t think that they necessarily are new," he said.
• Deputy Secretary Jim Steinberg was in Dhaka, Banglaesh Thursday and met with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, opposition leader Khaleda Zia, and many others. Steinberg reportedly discussed a visit by Clinton there.
• Undersecretary Bill Burns arrived in South Africa Thursday evening after a full day in Angola, where he met with President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and other senior Angolan officials. He also signed a memorandum of understanding, with Minister of Transportation Augusto da Silva Tomas, that will serve as a first step towards establishing direct commercial air routes between the United States and Angola.
• State is portraying the announcement by Armenian President Serge Sarkissian to freeze the ratification process for the agreement his country signed with Turkey in October as a good thing. Sarkissian said he was only suspending ratification until the Turks are "ready to move forward," said Crowley, so "We applaud President Sarkissian’s decision to continue to work towards a vision of peace, stability and reconciliation."
• Crowley seemed to endorse the idea of stripping Islamic Cleric Anwar al Awlaki, whom President Obama is trying to assassinate, of his U.S. citizenship, as was proposed in a new Congressional resolution introduced this week. "Mr. Awlaki has aligned himself with al Qaeda. That has a number of consequences, perhaps including his citizenship," Crowley said.
• The new parts of the U.S.-India nuclear deal will go into effect within 30 days unless Congress objects, Crowley explained. He also explained the latest travel alert for India. "It was based on some further intelligence, very specific intelligence regarding a particular threat to markets," he said.
• The U.S. and China will hold a "human rights dialogue" May 13 and 14 in Washington. The U.S. delegation will be led by Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Mike Posner. The Chinese delegation will be headed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs director general for international organizations, Chen Xu.