Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from July, 2015

Leaked Report Reveals China Is Building New Aircraft Carrier ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Zachary Keck)

Chinese carrier Liaoning ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons) Source- The National Interest Author- Zachary Keck China has all but confirmed that it is building an indigenous aircraft carrier, and that it may even be a nuclear-powered one. On Thursday, huanqiu.com, the Chinese-language version of the state-run Global Times, published an internal document of the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, one of China’s two largest shipbuilding companies. CSIC is a state-owned company. The report lists building nuclear submarines and an aircraft carrier as the company’s “priority missions.” It also states that progress on these projects has been smooth. "The priority missions of building the aircraft carrier and nuclear-submarines have been carried out smoothly and with outstanding achievements," the document states, according to a translation provided by Taiwanese media outlets. The same Taiwanese reports go on to say that the document suggests that Chin

Agni VI ICBM with range of 8000 km - 10000 km | Future Missile of India

BARAK 8: INDO-ISRAEL DEFENSE UMBRELLA : TOP 5 FACTS

Top 10 Future Missiles of India | Future Missile of India by 2020

Top 10 Most Powerful Weapons of India may use in Case of War | All Weapo...

KNOW DASSAULT RAFALE and WHY Indian Air Force choose Rafale ?

RAF Typhoon and Indian Air Force SU30 MKI Flanker in Airpower Exercise

Japan’s Strategy for Central Asia ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Samuel Ramani)

Image Credits- Reuters / Shizuo Kambayashi Source- The Diplomat  Author- Samuel Ramani Last week, Japanese government officials announced that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would visit five Central Asian countries in October. Abe’s trip aims to strengthen economic links with the energy-rich region. This announcement is the latest step in a trend that is seeing Japan pay more attention to Central Asia. Indicators of deepening ties between Japan and Central Asia have ranged from the declaration of the need for economic cooperation with Uzbekistan to increased investment in Turkmenistan’s natural gas industry and Caspian Sea port construction project. Japan’s expanded diplomatic overtures can be explained in two main ways. First, they could be seen as a means of balancing against China. If true, this would effectively be a form of unwitting indirect assistance to Russia, whose own traditional hegemony in Eurasia is being seriously challenged by China’s growing trade ties and

Will China Have a Mini US Navy By 2020? ( Source - The Diplomat / Author- Prashanth Parameswaran)

PLAN Warships ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons) Source- The Diplomat  Author- Prashanth Parameswaran Much has been written about China’s ongoing efforts to become what President Xi Jinping called a “great maritime power” and how the United States should respond. In light of this, it is useful to think about the future trajectory of the of the increasingly modern and powerful People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), which has been charged with both defending China’s sovereignty in ‘near seas’ (eg. Taiwan) and protecting Chinese interests in the ‘far seas’. Rear Admiral Michael McDevitt, now a senior fellow at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), has attempted to do exactly that. In a recent paper delivered at a two-day CNA conference on Chinese maritime power, seen by The Diplomat, McDevitt projects what China’s ‘far seas’ navy will look like in 2020 and how it would rank alongside the United States and other players – Britain, France, Japan, India and Russia. Getting a

This Is What Could Start a War between India and China ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Palmo Tenzin)

INS Jalashwa underway ( Image credits- Indian Navy) Source- The National Interest Author- Palmo Tenzin While everyone’s anxiously watching and analyzing the events unraveling in the South China Sea, there’s another resource conflict involving China that also deserves attention. In the Himalayas, China and India are competing for valuable hydropower and water resources on the Yarlung Tsangpo–Brahmaputra River. The dispute offers some important lessons for regional cooperation (on more than just water), and highlights what’s at stake if China and India mismanage their resource conflict. The Yarlung Tsangpo–Brahmaputra River is a 2,880km transboundary river that originates in Tibet, China as the Yarlung Tsangpo, before flowing through northeast India as the Brahmaputra River and Bangladesh as the Jamuna River. The resource conflict began on June 11, 2000, after a natural dam-burst in Tibet caused a flash flood that resulted in 30 deaths and serious damage to infrastr

Beware China’s ‘Basing’ Strategy: Former US Navy Chief ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Prashanth Parameswaran)

Image credits- USNI Source- The Diplomat Author- Prashanth Parameswaran China is developing a widening network of strategic ‘bases’ that further heightens the challenge it poses to the United States, a former U.S. naval chief told a conference Tuesday. Beijing has already sought to secure access and rights in strategic countries to boost its influence and support its naval forces as it deploys them further out for patrols in the Indian Ocean or anti-piracy operations in the Horn of Africa. These include ports in Oman, Pakistan and Djibouti. But Admiral Gary Roughead, the former Chief of Naval Operations, told a two-day conference at the Center for Naval Analyses that Beijing may be looking to expand its network of distributed, critical outposts across regions for various functions including projecting power, establishing necessary supporting infrastructure and gathering intelligence. New nodes, Roughead said, may include Greece to establish a foothold in the energ

China’s Rise And Assertive Behavior: What It Means For India – Analysis ( Source- Eurasia Review / Author- Biren Nanda / South Asian Monitor)

Image credits- Flickr / Indian PMO Source- Eurasia Review Author- Biren Nanda / South Asian Monitor China’s economic boom and military modernization have brought it to the forefront of the strategic stakes in the Asia Pacific region. In economic terms China is the number one trading partner of many countries in the Asia Pacific, including India and Australia. On the other hand China’s military aggressiveness in the East and South China Seas and the “US pivot” to Asia have raised the prospects of tensions between China and the United States in the future. There seems to be a gap between China’s local bullying behavior and her overall strategy and pronouncements, which seem to advocate a more reasoned rise. This begs the question as to whether China’s aggressiveness is based on the premise that US’ power is on the decline and that it can deter the US at least in the region? Does China believe that US pronouncements notwithstanding, the US will not move to contain China?

Beijing’s South China Sea Rhetoric Is Fooling No One ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- David Volodzko)

Image credits- stripes.com Source- The Diplomat Author- David Volodzko Last week Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying commented on the passage of the controversial Legislation for Peace and Security by the lower house of the National Diet, urging Japan to “draw hard lessons from history […] respect the major security concerns of its Asian neighbors, and refrain from […] crippling regional peace and stability.” This last accusation in particular has been picked up by The Japan Times, The New York Times, France24, The Telegraph and others, and it deserves critical public reflection. China’s sermons on history are undermined by the aggressive repression of its own historical truths, such as the Tiananmen massacre, just as the call to respect neighbors’ security concerns are undermined by Beijing’s flagrant disrespect for such concerns in the South China Sea. Let’s consider these two points independently. As for historical grievances, Beijing isn’t likel

Asia’s New Geopolitics Takes Shape Around India, Japan, and Australia ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Harsh V. Pant)

Malabar series of exercises ( Image credits- Indian Navy) Source- The Diplomat Author- Harsh V. Pant New configurations in Asian geopolitics are emerging thick and fast. Last month saw the initiative of a new trilateral involving India, Japan, and Australia when Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar met his Australian counterpart and the Japanese vice foreign minister. Japan will also be a part of bilateral India-U.S. annual naval exercises–the Malabar–slated to be held over the next few months. Though Japan has participated in these exercises in the past as well, this will be only the second time when Japan will join these exercises in the geostrategically critical Indian Ocean region. There is a growing convergence in the region now that the strategic framework of the Indo-Pacific remains the best way forward to manage the rapidly shifting contours of Asia. Proposed first by Japan and adopted with enthusiasm by Australia under the Tony Abbott government, in particu

A tribute to the legend

A TRIBUTE:    Please do read it: There were about 70 scientists working on a very hectic project. All of them were really frustrated due to the pressure of work and the demands of their boss but every one was loyal to him and did not think of quitting the job. One day, one scientist came to his boss and told him-"Sir I have promised to my children that I will take him to the exhibition going on in our township. So I want to leave the office at 5.30 pm".His boss replied "OK, you' re p ermitted to leave the office early today". The scientist started working. He continued his work after lunch. As usual he got involved to such an extent that he looked at his watch when he felt he was close to complexion. The time was 8.30 pm. Suddenly he remembered of the promise he had given to his children. He looked for his boss. He was not there. Having told him in the morning itself, he closed everything and left for home. Deep within himself, he was

Keeping the South China Sea a Peaceful Part of the Global Commons ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Andrew S. Erickson)

PLAN Destroyer Shenzhen ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Credits- United States Navy) Source- The National Interest Author- Andrew S. Erickson In what follows, I offer my assessment of the current situation in the South China Sea, how the U.S. government should understand the situation, and how it may best address the situation. A major Chinese narrative regarding the South China Sea is one of reciprocated restraint. But Chinese leaders have clearly had an ambitious long-term vision of some sort, backed by years of island seizures, themselves based on longstanding claims encapsulated in an ambiguous “nine-dash line” enclosing virtually all of the South China Sea. In 2014, China greatly accelerated what had long been a very modest process of “island building,” developing land features in the Spratlys and Paracels with a scale and sophistication that its neighbors simply cannot match, even collectively over time. But it’s what China’s constructing atop these