Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

America entering into a defence cooperation agreement with Singapore, 2015 ( Image credits- DOD, USA) Source- The Diplomat Author- Shannon Tiezzi As my colleague Prashanth Parameswaran noted yesterday, the United States and Singapore just signed an enhanced defense cooperation agreement. The agreement covered a wide range of areas, including expanded defense dialogues and increased cooperation on cybersecurity and counterterrorism. However, the announcement that garnered the most attention was the news that Singapore will allow U.S. surveillance aircraft to operate from the city-state.  A U.S. P-8 Poseidon aircraft will be deployed in Singapore from December 7 to 14 – and it is widely expected to be used in part to keep tabs on China’s activities in the South China Sea. China was none too happy with the agreement. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters that “the overall situation in the South China Sea is peaceful and stable,” just as regional count

United States Navy Boeing P-8A Poseidon ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Greg L. Davis) Source- Eurasian Review Author- PANARMENIAN China’s military is paying “close attention” to an agreement between the United States and Singapore to deploy the U.S. P8 Poseidon spy plane to the city state and hopes the move does not harm regional stability, the defense ministry said, according to Reuters. “We are paying close attention to how the relevant situation develops, and hope bilateral defense cooperation between the relevant countries is beneficial to regional peace and stability and not the opposite,” the ministry said in a brief statement late on Tuesday. The foreign ministry of China, which is at odds with Washington over the South China Sea, said on Tuesday the move was aimed at militarizing the region. In a joint statement after a meeting in Washington on Monday, December 7, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen welcome

USS Lassen ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States Navy) Source- The National Interest Author- Michael Mazza President Obama will land in Manila this week at a crucial time in the Philippines’ quest for security in the South China Sea. Following on the heels of U.S. freedom of navigation operations in the Spratly islands, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled that it had jurisdiction in a case brought by Manila against Beijing regarding the latter’s South China Sea claims and, a few days later, word leaked that the Philippine Supreme Court was set to uphold as constitutional the US-Philippines Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. The PCA case and the EDCA represent parallel tracks in Manila’s efforts to halt China’s creeping expansion in the South China Sea. Both tracks are likewise crucial to the United States’ own Asia strategy. The Supreme Court has unfortunately delayed issuing a ruling on the EDCA. If it ultimately rules in favor as expected,

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States Navy Source- The Diplomat Author- Bernard Fook Weng Loo and Koh Swee Lean Collin In October 2015, the U.S. Navy announced that it was preparing to send a surface combatant to sail within 12 nautical miles – what the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) recognizes as the territorial waters of littoral states – of the artificial islands that China has been constructing in the South China Sea. On October 27, the USS Lassen, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, patrolled within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef, in the Spratly Islands. As Ashton Carter, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, said, “Make no mistake, the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, as we do around the world, and the South China Sea will not be an exception.” The move has potentially serious consequences for the security and stability of the South China Sea and Southeast Asia, especially

USS Lassen  ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ United States Navy) Source- Want China Times President Xi Jinping of China is faced with a dilemma on how to respond to a US Navy vessel's patrol close to two reefs controlled by China in the disputed South China Sea, Ding Shuh-fan, director of the Institute of International Relations of National Chengchi University in Taipei said Tuesday. The USS Lassen sailed to waters within the 12 nautical mile territorial limit claimed by China around the artificial islands China has built on Subi and Mischief reefs earlier in the day in a challenge to China's territorial claims to uphold freedom of navigation. Ding said both China and the US will maintain their "fight without breaking" strategy, meaning exercising self-constraint to avoid further escalation of tensions while continuing to compete with each other. Ding said the US is fully justified in its action based on legal principles as the United Nations C

Source- The Diplomat Author- Ankit Panda USS Lassen, DDG-82 ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States Navy) Early Tuesday morning, the U.S. Navy confirmed that the USS Lassen, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, had completed the first in a series of planned freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea. The operation is the strongest assertion yet by the U.S. Navy that it rejects any maritime claims for Chinese features that were submerged at low-tide in their original, pre-land reclamation state. The FONOP does not, as some reporting has suggested, directly challenge or contest the sovereignty of specific maritime features in the South China Sea. The United States continues to take no position on the actual sovereignty of various disputed maritime features in the South China Sea. Based on the reports available at the time of this writing, the U.S. Navy has not specified the exact location or duration of the Lassen‘s passage

South China sea ( Image credits- VOA) Source- Want China Times China-US relations appear to be heading down the wrong path after American military officials recently indicated that US ships and aircraft would be sent to disputed waters in the South China Sea notwithstanding China's territorial claims in the region, says Duowei News, a US-based Chinese political news outlet. "Make no mistake, we will fly, sail and operate wherever international law permits," said US defense secretary Ash Carter on Oct. 13, in response to a question about China's aggressive land reclamation activities in the South China Sea, where it is engaged in territorial disputes with countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines. "We will do that in the time and place of our choosing," he added. Carter's statements came a day after the New York Times reported that the US plans to conduct naval patrols within 12 nautical miles of China's man-made islands in t

USS Freedom ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / United States Navy) Source- The National Interest Author- Mercedes Page Last week’s revelation that the Pentagon had been briefing Asian allies that U.S. Navy warships would soon conduct freedom of navigation patrols in the South China Sea has ramped up tensions in the world’s most hotly contested body of water. Expected to take place within the next few days, the patrols would see U.S. naval ships come within 12 nautical miles of at least one of China’s controversial features in the South China Sea for the first time since 2012. China has responded to the news about the impending patrols by stating that it will “not permit any country to infringe on China’s territorial waters and airspace in the Spratly Islands in the name of ‘protecting freedom of navigation and over flight.’” However on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter, reinforced the U.S.’s more muscular stance in the region, declaring that the U.S. “wi

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ United States Navy Source- The Diplomat Author- Shannon Tiezzi U.S. military officials are signaling that the navy is poised to send a ship within 12 nautical miles of China’s artificial islands. Both the Navy Times and the Financial Times reported that the operation was imminent, citing unnamed U.S. officials. Financial Times’ source said that the freedom of navigation operations was expected to start within two weeks. Navy Times’ sources indicated that the operation “could take place within days but awaits final approval from the Obama administration.” The Navy officials said they believed that approval was coming soon. Despite some genuine progress made in other areas during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the U.S. in late September, there was little consensus on the South China Sea issue. And since Xi returned to China, U.S. officials have only ramped up their rhetoric on the question of freedom of navigation in the

Image credits- Flickr/ United States Navy Source- The Diplomat Author- James Kraska Since 2009, when China asked the secretary-general of the United Nations to circulate its nine-dashed line claim to the community of nations, the world has stood in bewilderment at Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea. Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines have the most to lose over China’s gambit, and the disparity in power between them and China leaves them confounded and stunned – and privately, apoplectic. China’s policies have created a dangerous mess in the South China Sea. The irony is palpably bitter on nine distinct levels. Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines hold the key to the best chance to fix the mess. The first irony is that during negotiations for the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the developing states reluctantly ceded freedom of navigation through straits and in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) for exclusive offshore resource rights. Malaysia