U.S., Japan, India to hold major naval drill in Western Pacific

[LETHALFORCE]

U.S., Japan, India to hold major naval drill in Western Pacific


http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-japan-india-idUSKCN0YT177

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) destroyer Kurama (L), which is carrying Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, leads the JMSDF fleet during its fleet review at Sagami Bay, off Yokosuka, south of Tokyo October 18, 2015.
REUTERS/TORU HANAI

A fleet of U.S., Japanese and Indian warships will hold a large-scale joint naval exercise over eight days from Friday in the Western Pacific, close to a Japanese island chain, part of which China claims.

As China pushes its territorial claims in the neighboring South China Sea, Tokyo and Washington worry it will look to extend its influence into the Western Pacific, with a growing fleet of submarines and surface vessels to ply distant oceans.

The drill, dubbed Malabar, is an annual event between the U.S. and India, and Japan is joining it this year for the first time since 2007, Japan's Ministry of Defense said in a statement.


Among the Japanese warships, which will practice submarine hunting and anti-aircraft defense, will be the Hyuga, one of the country's three new helicopter carriers. Last year, the drill was held in the Bay of Bengal near India.

Japan's southwestern island chain, which hosts the biggest concentration of U.S. military personnel in Asia, blocks China's east coast access to the Western Pacific. Japan's military is reinforcing the islands with radar stations and anti-ship missile batteries.

Lying around 220 km (137 miles) west of Taiwan are a group of uninhabited isles, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, which are controlled by Tokyo and claimed by Beijing.

On Tuesday, China told the United States it should play a constructive role in safeguarding peace in the disputed South China Sea, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called for talks and a peaceful resolution.

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims, as well as close military ties with the United States.



(Reporting by Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

 

[LETHALFORCE]

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/th...ia-japan-headed-towards-south-china-sea-16485

America, China, India and Japan: Headed Towards a South China Sea Showdown?

 

[Compersion]

Our chaps ought to refuel and recharge batteries in Taiwan on way home ... Cheers

 

[Indx TechStyle]

@LETHALFORCE Why do you write everything in large size and bold?

 

[LETHALFORCE]

@LETHALFORCE Why do you write everything in large size and bold?

The headline was bold and the software also put the whole article in bold. It is not intentional . I try to fix when I can

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[LETHALFORCE]

http://pakobserver.net/2016/06/08/pak-considers-moving-resolution-in-unga/

Pakistan considers moving resolution in UNGA


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sorcerer]

Europeans Gang Up Against China in the South China Sea

France has thrown its hat into the acrimonious South China Sea debate, calling for more European naval patrols in a contested waterway that is at the center of a growing dispute between China and the United States and its Asian allies.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, speaking Sunday at a three-day security conference in Singapore, called on European navies to have a “regular and visible” presence in the region to uphold the law of the sea and freedom of navigation.
“If we want to contain the risk of conflict, we must defend this right and defend it ourselves,” he said.

Although the French defense minister did not explicitly call out China, his remarks amounted to thinly veiled criticism of Beijing, which has aggressively pursued its territorial claims in the South China Sea with vast dredging work and construction of military facilities on artificial islands.
“If the law of the sea is not respected today in the China seas, it will be threatened tomorrow in the Arctic, in the Mediterranean, or elsewhere,” Le Drian told the security conference, known as the Shangri-La Dialogue and hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

France’s stance marked the latest international pushback against China’s tough tactics in the strategic waterway, where more than $5 trillion worth of goods pass through annually.
The Singapore conference gathered top defense officials and diplomats from the region and beyond to hash through the security challenges facing Asia, especially the increasingly bitter spat over China’s claims to nearly the entire South China Sea. Beijing defended its policy at the forum and accused Washington of meddling in the region. But China was the target for indirect criticism from other countries, and U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter issued a stark warning to Beijing in a speech at the conference.

China would face unspecified U.S. “actions” if it tried to reclaim land at the disputed Scarborough Shoal off the coast of the Philippines, Carter said Saturday.
And on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking ahead of a major summit this week with Beijing on economic and security issues, urged China to avoid declaring an air-defense identification zone over the South China Sea. Doing so, he said, would be a “provocative and destabilizing act.”

Since it started pressing its claims to little reefs and rocks, and feuding with other countries over fishing rights, Beijing has sought to keep the argument from being “internationalized,” preferring to deal with its smaller neighbors on a one-to-one basis. China has regularly worked to keep the South China Sea disputes off the agenda at biannual meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes many of the countries with which Beijing is butting heads, especially the Philippines and Vietnam.

But China’s intransigence on sovereignty and territorial issues, coupled with an increasingly aggressive deployment of muscled-up coast guard ships, a rapidly modernizing navy, and a building spree on reclaimed reefs, has driven many of those Southeast Asian countries closer to the United States. Washington, for example, just ended a ban on the sale of U.S. weapons to Vietnam and has redoubled defense ties with the Philippines.
Other Asian countries are also worried about China’s activities. Japan last year said it would consider carrying out naval patrols in the South China Sea, even though Tokyo and Beijing have their own heated dispute in the East China Sea. This year, India has become increasingly vocal about the challenge China poses to free navigation in the Western Pacific.
And now, with France’s comments, even European nations are advocating a more muscular response to Chinese encroachment. For France and Europe, said Le Drian, it’s not just about protecting economic and trade interests in the region. It’s also about upholding the international order and rule of law.
Le Drian said he would soon provide more details on his proposal for regular patrols by European navies.

The timing of the French defense minister’s remarks was no accident. An international court in The Hague is due to rule this month on a long-running dispute between China and the Philippines, and Beijing has rejected the tribunal’s authority while lobbying other governments to back its view. The Permanent Court of Arbitration is expected to rule against China, and Washington has been calling on Beijing to abide by the results of the decision.
“More EU involvement in the South China Sea is something the United States has hoped to see for quite a while now,” Mira Rapp-Hooper, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told Foreign Policy.

“The timing of the French call may also mean that we see European Union governments come out in vocal support of the Hague decision in a few weeks,” she said.

France’s involvement in the Asia-Pacific region hasn’t been purely theoretical. It inked a $40 billion deal this year to sell advanced submarines to Australia, citing increased fears over the region’s security, and called for a greater French presence around its colonial possessions in the Southern Pacific.

Le Drian’s words over the weekend also offer a reminder that while China is trying to parlay its growing economic might in Europe into diplomatic dividends, some European heavyweights are still ready to push back against Beijing.
Chinese leaders want to overcome what they call a “century of humiliation,” which started with European naval imperialism in the Opium Wars of the 19th century and lasted through the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. But, ironically, their actions appear to be forcing European gunboats to again steam for the South China Sea.
Source>>

 

[LETHALFORCE]

http://m.timesofindia.com/india/As-...se-with-eye-on-China/articleshow/52642995.cms

As Modi meets Obama India US Japan hold Malabar naval exercise with eye on China


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tsunami]

Modi is no mood to take support of China on NSG

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Modi is no mood to take support of China on NSG

Asif China will support us even if we rule these exercises out?

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Asif China will support us even if we rule these exercises out?

Did they support before the exercises? They were busy giving nukes to pak and still giving today


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tsunami]

Asif China will support us even if we rule these exercises out?

Does china have a veto on it? Or all 48 countries have it?

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Does china have a veto on it? Or all 48 countries have it?

No matter for rest of 47.
But China alone will veto it, appease them or not.
They no very well to keep India on check.

 

[tsunami]

No matter for rest of 47.
But China alone will veto it, appease them or not.
They no very well to keep India on check.

But how voting procedure works in NSG?

 

[tsunami]

http://www.idsa.in/issuebrief/IndiaandNSG_gbalachandran_230513

There has been substantial nuclear cooperation - in both civil and strategic nuclear areas - between China and Pakistan. In respect of civil nuclear cooperation, about which is already well known, it was in violation of the the NSG Guidelines. At the time China joined the NSG as a member in 2004, there was only one agreement between China and Pakistan for the supply of two 300 MWe reactors. The NSG Guidelines prohibit nuclear commerce between NSG members and countries that do not have IAEA fullscope safeguards. Nevertheless China concluded an agreement with Pakistan to supply two 340 MWe reactors to Pakistan in late 2008. At that time it was reported that China had given an assurance to NSG members in 2004 of its admission to the NSG that it had no agreement with Pakistan to supply any reactors other than the two that were contracted before its admission to NSG. According to PAEC (Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission) documents, at the time of the agreement for Chashma 3 and 4, the PAEC had felt that this project “will help to unshackle the Nuclear Supplier Group's embargos on Pakistan in a very short time frame, and prompt other NPP suppliers to follow suit”. This did not happen.

Now there are reports that new nuclear reactor supply agreement has been signed between China and Pakistan. There is no reason to doubt such reports. However, contrary to these reports this agreement is not for the supply of additional reactors at Chashma but for new 1000 MWe reactors at Karachi.

The Pakistan Energy Security Plan 2005 had planned for 600 MWe and 1000 MWe NPPs. But China, according to PAEC documents, had expressed its inability to supply either of these two NPPs at that time because of IPR factors and instead offered to build to additional 300 MWe NPPs. However, again according to PAEC documents, China had offered as early as 2007, supply of 4 (four) 300 MWe and 1000 MWe NPPs to Pakistan, to be built in Karachi. Now that the first of the four Chinese designed and built 1000 MWe reactors at Fujian Fuqing is ready to be commissioned, it is, quite likely that the new agreement will be for, at least two if not four, 1000 MWe reactors to built in Karachi.

In the absence of a NSG exemption, Pakistan’s only source for nuclear commerce is China. Now a 1 GWe plant operating at 85% load factor will re1quire about 200-250 MT of Natural Uranium (NU). And about 100,000 SWU for enrichment for a PWR. Pakistan is deficient in both natural uranium and enrichment capacity for fuelling a NPP. Hence China has not only to supply the NPPs but fuel as well. Already China had to supply about 10 refueling material to Pakistan for Chashma 1 and 2.

China has its own growing electrical power needs and has embarked on a major program of NPPs. And China, too, is deficient in indigenous uranium for all of its NPP needs. According to industry sources the gap between China’s production of natural uranium and needs was more than 2000 MT which was met by imports under safeguards and bilateral retransfer conditions. As its own NPP capacity grows it will need to import more natural uranium. And Pakistan’s needs for fueling the Chinese NPPs have to be met by China using its indigenous production of natural uranium since it cannot retransfer the imported uranium. In addition, since the Chinese NPPs supplied to Pakistan are all PWRs, China will also have to utilise its own enrichment capacity to accommodate Pakistan’s needs.

In short, China will face severe constraints in supplying Pakistan with both NPPs and fuel supply. It can help Pakistan with the NPP only if the latter can engage in global nuclear commerce to get its fuel for the lifecycle of the NPPs supplied by China.

Pakistan is constrained at this moment and hence it is imperative for China to get Pakistan admitted as a NSG member and will utilise the cover of the Indian application for NSG membership to counter objections later on.

It is to very much in Pakistan’s and China’s immediate and long term interests that India be admitted as a NSG member provided Pakistan is also admitted. Hence it will push for a criterion-based admission procedure.

India should, therefore, reconsider its membership on a criterion-based approach and insist that the membership be considered either on the basis of its fulfilling all the factors specified for membership in the Procedural Arrangement or as the US had proposed in NSG take a decision by consensus to admit “India based on India's support for the nuclear nonproliferation regime and its nonproliferation behavior.”

In the absence of such an attempt, India should indicate its unwillingness to become NSG member. If the Indian application/membership is not considered at the NSG then the whole issue of criterion-based membership may also be shelved for the moment, much to the discomfiture of China and Pakistan. But Indian admission to NSG should not be used by other interested parties as an excuse to give a free pass to China and Pakistan to carry on their nuclear transfers and legitimize the illegitimate – under the NSG Guidelines - and uncontrolled trade in nuclear reactors and nuclear material being carried out by China.

This will, however, not disrupt in any manner the clandestine manner in which China has been supplying Pakistan with unsafeguarded natural uranium for its plutonium production reactors and Khushab and hence the accelerated production of nuclear explosive devices by Pakistan, as reported by independent observers in US and elsewhere. This is in conformity with the intelligence reports that suggest that with domestic uranium exploration plans running behind schedule for financial and economic reasons, Pakistan has been importing such unsafeguarded uranium to fuel its Khushab reactors and its nuclear weapon programme.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

But how voting procedure works in NSG?

I guess same as that of UNSC.

 

[HariPrasad-1]

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/th...ia-japan-headed-towards-south-china-sea-16485

America, China, India and Japan: Headed Towards a South China Sea Showdown?

It is very necessary. The chinese must be cut to their size. I want Russians to be taken in that grand alliance.

 

[tsunami]

It is very necessary. The chinese must be cut to their size. I want Russians to be taken in that grand alliance.

You want Russians to participate with US and Japan for containing China

 

[LETHALFORCE]

It is very necessary. The chinese must be cut to their size. I want Russians to be taken in that grand alliance.

It is unlikely Russia would be ever included. Russia hopes for China to be an ally while China extracts benefits from Both
communist and capitalist world (all
Money from evil capitalist countries)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rishivashista13]

As I see ,China will not supporting India in NSG at any cost . And also we can't do anything for that , ofcourse Modi is trying his best for making international pressure on China .
It seems that India and China are not partners , they are tackling each other .

Sent from my Micromax Q380 using Tapatalk