BalochHouse

If all the aid showered by the West on Pakistan for decades has not stabilised Pakistan and ended its terrorist affiliations, it is unclear how CPEC — which is a project sponsored by the Pakistani military — will serve India’s needs.  ...Former Diplomat Kapil Sibal

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/are-we-truly-ready-for-the-consequences-of-a-war-with-china-20170420-gvod4b.html

Nick XenophonApr 20, 2017

The South China Sea explainedWe are faced today with a question that has never before arisen in our history. From January 1788, when the First Fleet sailed into Botany Bay, to 2008, during the Global Financial Crisis, we've had first Britain and then the USA as both trading partner and strategic ally.But now China is our largest two-way trading partner in goods and services ($150 billion), our largest export market ($86 billion) and our largest source of imports ($64 billion). And the integrated East Asian economic zone is the world's fastest growing.
So, how do we negotiate the tension between our major security partner and our major trading partner?China sees as vital to its security the string of archipelagos from northern Borneo to the Kuril Islands north-east of Japan. It has piled sand onto reefs in the South China Sea, creating seven new …

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN17R0KH

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with the chairman of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party's General Council Toshihiro Nikai during the China-Japan friendship exchange meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, May 23, 2015.REUTERS/KIM KYUNG-HOONXBy Linda Sieg and Tetsushi Kajimoto | TOKYOThe secretary-general of Japan's ruling party said on Tuesday he will attend China's New Silk Road summit in May, a sign Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to improve ties with Beijing amid tensions over North Korea's missile and nuclear programs.But an adviser to Abe said Tokyo remained cautious about the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), created at least in part as a way to fund the Silk Road plan."Given the international situation starting with North Korea, mutual understanding between Japan and China is vital," Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai …

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/anzus-war-powers-killing-chicken-scare-monkey/


24 Apr 2017|Nick XenophonFuture historians might well consider that this current period is a turning point in Australian strategic history.Last month, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop pointed out that ‘[many] of our assumptions founded on the international rules-based order that evolved after World War II, now appear less certain.’ She called on the United States to ‘play an even greater role as the indispensable strategic power in the Indo-Pacific,’ a call she had made earlier in the year in Los Angeles, at the US-Australia Dialogue on Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. On that occasion, she said that ‘[most] nations wish to see more United States leadership, not less, and have no desire to see powers other than the US, calling the shots.’Clearly, while other challenges exist, the question of China looms large. There is no doubt in my mind that the ANZUS alliance is the most important strategic alliance we hav…