News Story: India to step up defense ties with Belarus

NEW DELHI, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- India said on Monday that it will bolster bilateral ties, including in defence and security, with Belarus during the visit by the east European nation's President A.G. Lukashenko.

President Lukashenko will arrive in the Indian capital on Monday night on a two-day state visit, which coincides with the two countries celebrating the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, the External Affairs Ministry said.

During his stay in Delhi, President Lukashenko will meet Indian President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, and hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will also call on him, the ministry said.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Report: Security Threats Against CSTO States Aimed Against Russia as Well – Deputy PM

Security threats against CSTO member states are also considered to be threats against Russia, Russian Deputy Prime Minister said on Thursday.

BISHKEK (Sputnik) — Security threats against Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and other member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) are also considered threats against Russia, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Thursday.

"We understand clearly that threats to Kyrgyzstan’s security, threats to Tajikistan’s security, to other CSTO member states are also threats aimed against Russia. They are at various reaches: far reaches, medium reaches, close reaches. That is why the issue of our cooperation, of our mutual commitments, collective actions and increase of military efficiency – both of Russian military units and bases and of national military forces of CSTO member states – is an issue of a collective response to threats that, as we can see, have no tendency to reduce," Rogozin said at the meeting of the Interstate Commission of military-economic cooperation in Bishkek.

News Story: International defense show concludes in Karachi

ISLAMABAD, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- The 9th International Defense Exhibition and Seminar 2016 (IDEAS) concluded in Pakistani city Karachi on Friday. The four-day show witnessed bigger-than-ever participation by Chinese, Russian, and Turkish companies.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif inaugurated the event on Tuesday. The strategic show was organized by the Defense Export and Promotion Organization.

The theme for this year's exhibit was "Arms for Peace" which was spelled out by PM Sharif on the inaugural day.

Chinese, Turkish and Russian companies made their presence felt with an enormous participation. The number of Russian defense manufacturers increased to three this year including the state-controlled arms import and export company Russia Rosoboron export.

Nine Chinese companies including China Aerospace Long-March International, China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation and Poly Technologies Inc. took part in the exhibition.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Vietnam, Belarus boost military technology cooperation

Hanoi (VNA) – Defence Deputy Minister Be Xuan Truong met with Smolsky Gennady Aleksandrovich, Vice Chairman of the State Military-Industrial Committee of the Republic of Belarus, in Hanoi on November 15. 

At the meeting, both sides affirmed their willingness to boost all-round cooperation between Vietnam and Belarus, particularly in defence. 

Truong spoke highly of the two countries’ partnership in military technology on the basis of mutual benefits over the year.

Read the full story at VietnamPlus

News Story: Top Pakistani official visits Belarus, Kazakhstan to seek NSG support

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- A top Pakistani official Tuesday started a five-day visit to Belarus and Kazakhstan to seek support for the country's move to seek membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), officials said Tuesday.

The Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Syed Tariq Fatemi, is undertaking the Aug. 23-27 visits as Special Envoy of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

"The objective of the visits is to seek the two friendly countries' support for Pakistan's membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG)," the Foreign Ministry said.

The Nuclear Suppliers Group is a group of nuclear supplier countries that seek to contribute to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons through the implementation of two sets of guidelines for nuclear exports and nuclear-related exports, the NSG website says.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Uzbek foreign ministry holds press conference about 16th SCO summit

TASHKENT, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The Uzbek Foreign Ministry held a press conference here Monday about the 16th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit, saying a series of documents will be signed and tasks completed during the meeting.

Deputy Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan Anvar Nasirov said according to the agenda, the heads of SCO member states will discuss issues of further deepening multifaceted and mutually beneficial cooperation within the SCO framework and exchange views on important regional and international issues.

In addition, they will address strengthening stability and security in Central Asia, expanding the SCO's contacts with other international organizations and states, as well as involving SCO observer states and dialogue partners more deeply in practical cooperation within the organization.

Moreover, the discussion is expected to include maintaining inter-state dialogue, achieving the SCO's common objectives in strengthening peace, stability and security, ensuring sustainable development of the SCO member states and joint efforts to combat terrorism, separatism and extremism, as well as deepening cooperation in economic and cultural areas.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Vietnam To Receive the Last ‘Classic’ Flankers

Vietnam Su-30MK2

by Vladimir Karnozov

The imminent delivery of from Russia of two Sukhoi Su-30MK2 twin-seat versions to Vietnam will make the end of production for the “classic” version of the Flanker multirole fighter. But production of advanced “generation 4++” versions—the Su-30SM, Su-34 and Su-35—featuring markedly different airframes and more powerful engines will continue through at least 2020.

Vietnam previously took delivery of 30 out of the 32 Su-30MK2s that it ordered in three batches during 2009, 2012 and 2013. Delivery of the final pair will bring its total fleet to 48, including Su-27SKs, Su-27UBKs as well as Su-30MK2s. Indonesia and Uganda were also recent customers for the Su-30MK2, receiving six each in 2012-13.

Read the full story at AINonline

Editorial: Vietnam Reveals New Drone for Patrolling the South China Sea

By Franz-Stefan Gady

The drone prototype will conduct flight tests over the South China Sea in 2016.

Vietnam revealed its largest indigenous high-altitude long endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) this December, IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly reports. According to local media reports, the prototype was completed at the beginning of November and will commence test flights over the South China Sea in the summer of 2016.

The prototype is a joint project of Vietnam’s Academy of Science and Industry and the Ministry of Public Security. The new UAV, designated HS-6L, will perform both civilian and military tasks, judging from the aircraft’s design features.

Vietnamese media reports that the unarmed UAV prototype sports a Rotax 914 engine and a 22-meter wingspan. It has a range of up to 4,000 kilometers as well as an endurance of up to 35 hours. It will be equipped with unspecified optical and radar surveillance systems.

IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly notes that the Vietnam may have received design assistance from Belarus, given that the unveiling of the aircraft coincided with the visit of the chairman of the Belarus Academy of Science.

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Editorial: CSTO Says Fighting Islamic State Is a Top Priority

By Catherine Putz

The group called for forming a broad coalition “without politicizing and preconditions.”

At a gathering in Moscow, the presidents of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member countries laid out the group’s top priorities. In a surprise to none, combating the Islamic State and other extremist groups topped the list. The regional military alliance includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.

The group of leaders last gathered in September in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, where they focused the discussion on the Islamic State and fragility in Afghanistan. The insecurity in Afghanistan is often linked by Central Asian governments to an impending threat from the Islamic State. Of the CSTO members, however, only Tajikistan borders Afghanistan.

A joint statement from the group Monday said, “We see as a priority task the decisive fight against the ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — former name of IS) terrorist group that has unleashed cruel bloodshed in many countries and presents a threat to the entire humanity.” The statement went on to note “the growth of security threats in Central Asia connected with activities of ISIL, the Taliban movement, Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations on the territory of Afghanistan which leads to escalation of tensions on CSTO’s southern borders, directly threatening with destabilization of the situation in the area of its (CSTO’s) responsibility.”

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Editorial: India and Russia - A Course Correction

INS Vikramaditya (formerly the Russian Admiral Gorshkov)

By Kabir Taneja

An upcoming visit by Indian PM Narendra Modi may lend some needed momentum to ties.

Over the past six months, Russia has made its presence felt in the global realpolitik scene with gusto. With the Kremlin militarily intervening in Syria, reportedly bombing ISIS and in effect protecting Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus, while juggling a yet unresolved Ukraine crisis and dealing with Western sanctions… Moscow has its hands full.

Most aspects of India-Russia bilateral ties are quite institutionalized, and work in an automated manner irrespective of who is in power in New Delhi or Moscow. Russia could perhaps be seen as India’s only definitive “strategic” partner in its truest form, and this unique relationship has developed over decades.

However, over the past year the Moscow-Delhi dynamic seems to have lost some of its previous momentum. This may now be about to change, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi preparing to make his first visit to Moscow early next month.

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Editorial: Understanding China’s Eurasian Pivot

By Michael Clarke

The “One Belt, One Road” strategy provides a guide to the future of China in Eurasia.

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Eurasian frontiers have once more emerged as major factor in Beijing’s foreign policy. Indeed, President Xi Jinping’s recent enunciation of China’s “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) strategy, comprising an initiative to enhance Eurasian economic connectivity through the construction of a Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and a Maritime Silk Road (MSR), has placed Eurasia “front and center” in China’s contemporary foreign policy. This has led some to argue that Beijing is in the process of its own “pivot” to Asia that will have far-reaching strategic consequences.

Matthew Burrows and Robert Manning recently argued that this “pivot west to Eurasia seeks to turn its vulnerability – a border with fourteen nations – into a strategic asset. Together they seek to realize Mackinder’s vision of a Eurasian heartland unopposed.” The success of this Eurasian pivot may well prove to be a “nightmare” for the United States as Beijing’s economic and strategic heft attracts a weakened Russia into a partnership to stabilize and modernize Eurasia on the basis of “authoritarian state-centric capitalism.” In contrast, Jeffrey Payne responds that such fears “should be pushed aside,” as Beijing will not only have to confront a region of unpredictable and uncontrollable political forces but also latent, and mutual, Sino-Russian suspicion.

Read the full story at The Diplomat

News Story: V-J Day parade shows China reviving South-South cooperation

The list of countries represented at Beijing's Sept. 3 military parade in Tiananmen Square to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II reflects how much China needs the help of developing countries to dismantle America's global dominance, says Duowei News, a US-based Chinese political news outlet.

Authorities have confirmed that a total of 31 countries plan to send high-level military delegations to the Sept. 3 parade. Around a total of 1,000 soldiers from 17 nations will march with around 12,000 PLA troops. Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Pakistan, Serbia, Tajikistan and Russia are sending the largest contingents of about 75 troops each, while Cambodia, Fiji, Laos, Vanuatu and Venezuela will contribute smaller teams of around seven people each.

Read the full story at Want China Times

Editorial: Vietnam, Belarus Ink New Military Pact

By Prashanth Parameswaran

Fresh accord boosts defense ties between the two nations

Last week, Vietnam and Belarus signed a new military technology accord in another boost to their defense relationship.

According to the Vietnamese army newspaper, the conclusion of the military technical cooperation agreement came on July 9 during the meeting of the existing Vietnam-Belarus inter-governmental joint committee on military technology cooperation.

While the exact contents of the pact are not publicly known, sources indicate that the focus is on telecommunications for the Vietnam People’s Army (PAVN). According toIHS Jane’s, it will also emphasize training PAVN technicians and engineers attached to the PAVN-run military industrial complex at state-owned Belarus defense industrial facilities.

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Editorial: Eurasian Silk Road Union - Towards a Russia-China Consensus?

By Alexander Gabuev

The recent summit has gone a long way to confirming the Russia-China rapprochement.

More than a year after the annexation of Crimea triggered a major rupture in the relationship between the West and Russia, Moscow’s attempts to build new partnerships in Asia are no longer surprising. Since the announcement of a $400 billion gas deal with China in May 2014, the Kremlin has tried to portray an emerging partnership with the world’s number two global economic powerhouse as an antidote to Western sanctions.

Grand summits between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, with dozens of agreements and triumphant declarations, have been met with skepticism in Western capitals. Russia-China rapprochement is frequently brushed off as spin doctoring, which both an isolated Russian regime and an assertive Chinese party-state try to sell for domestic consumption. It is widely believed that the two countries remain deeply suspicious of each other, and internal rifts will prevent them from forming a meaningful partnership.

One of the realms where Moscow and Beijing are strategic competitors is Central Asia. China’s economic and political clout in this resource-rich region is growing, sometimes at Russia’s expense. Many see China’s “Silk Road Economic Belt” initiative, first unveiled by Xi on a 2013 trip to Kazakhstan, as an attempt to drive Russia out of the region, where Moscow is trying to promote its own integration project, the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). It’s widely believed that it’s just a matter of time before clashes occur between the two integration projects.

Read the full story at The Diplomat

News Story: Russia Flexes Central Asia Military Might

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan — Russia has deployed hundreds of troops for drills in Central Asia with its ex-Soviet allies in a show of force as anxiety grows over a surge in fighting in neighboring Afghanistan.

Around 2,500 personnel from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) are taking part in joint exercises due to run to Wednesday in Tajikistan. The move is seen as re-enforcing Moscow's role as the main guarantor of the fragile region's security after US troops leave Afghanistan.

The Russian deployment of about 500 troops for the drills started last week, bolstered by soldiers from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Belarus.

Tajikistan is in a strategic spot, bordering Afghanistan's Kunduz province where over 200 people have died and 10,000 been displaced by a militant offensive.

Russia's foreign ministry says it is "particularly concerned" by the violence, which Afghan local authorities claim has seen the Taliban link up with jihadists from the Islamic State group battling in Syria and Iraq.

The uptick in Afghan fighting has rattled Moscow's ex-Soviet allies in Central Asia, and some have looked towards Russia for reassurance.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

Editorial: China's Xi Prepares to Visit Russia

By Shannon Tiezzi

Xi will seek to further cement China-Russia ties as he attends Victory Day celebrations in Moscow.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to Russia this week to attend celebrations marking the 70 anniversary of Victory Day (the end of the World War II in the European theater). According to China’s Foreign Ministry, Xi will visit Kazakhstan on May 7 then spend May 8-10 in Russia. He will end his trip with a state visit to Belarus from May 10-12. With this trip, Xi will have visited Russia every year since being officially named president in 2013.

Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin have long had plans to attend each other’s commemoration ceremonies, a point of particular importance as many Western countries are not expected to attend either China or Russia’s events due to existing tensions. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping told reporters on Monday that Xi will attend the military parade to be held in Moscow’s Red Square, lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and attend a welcome banquet.

Cheng emphasized that China and Russia “made huge sacrifice and great contribution to the victory of the WWII [sic].” Both China and Russia have also laid claim to being the true protectors of the post-war international order, accusing the West (and, in China’s case, Japan) of seeking to undermine the post-war achievements.

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Editorial: China and Russia - Two Approaches to Integration

By Marcin Kaczmarski

The Eurasian Economic Union and the New Silk Road represent two very different approaches in Central Asia.

The Eurasian Economic Union and the New Silk Road are two major foreign policy projects which Russia and China, respectively, have been pursuing since the early 2010s. The initiatives are the pet projects of the two states’ leaders.

Vladimir Putin proposed the Eurasian integration in October 2011, while running for his third presidential term. In an article published in Izvestia, Putin sketched out his ambitious vision of a Russian-led political-economic bloc in the post-Soviet space. Russia convinced Belarus and Kazakhstan to sign up to the project the following month but it took another three years to sign the treaty establishing the Eurasian Economic Union. 2015 marked the official inauguration of the union, which was almost immediately enlarged to include Armenia.

Xi Jinping put forward the idea of renewing the Silk Road two years after Putin’s initial declaration of Eurasian integration. During a visit to Kazakhstan in September 2013, the Chinese leader vowed to create a “Silk Road Economic Belt” as the first step in the process of connecting China to Europe via Central Asia. Several weeks later, during his trip to Indonesia, Xi presented a parallel initiative, the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The idea of reviving the ancient Silk Road quickly became popular in the Chinese media and expert circles. “One Belt, One Road” became a popular slogan describing the project. 

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Editorial: China’s Growing Presence in Russia’s Backyard

Emblem of the Eurasian Economic Union
(Image: Wiki Commons)

By Neil Thompson

Russia’s traditional dominance of Central Asia is being tested by China’s economic appeal.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin famously described the collapse of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century. A conservative Russian nationalist, Putin has lamented the break-up of the old Soviet Union, not because he regretted the disappearance of communism, but because of the severing of the numerous and deep economic, linguistic, social, and cultural connections that linked most of the fifteen constituent republics of the old USSR. It is these ties he is keen to recreate, albeit in a looser supranational union than the old federal structure which bound the fifteen national-homelands into one communist “state.”

This vision, if not exactly shared by a majority of the peoples living in the lands of the former Soviet Union, was received with some sympathy – at least until Ukraine’s easternmost Russian-speaking regions were roused to revolt by Russian intelligence operatives. For example, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev pushed hard for a customs union encompassing all of Soviet space for almost two decades without any Russian pressure to do so. His efforts recently culminated in the official launch in January of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), with Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia as the founding members and ex-Soviet states such as Armenia being enticed to follow.

The three countries presently in the EEU are home to 173 million people and have a combined GDP of $2.4 trillion. But they all have high levels of corruption and state interference in the economy. With their inefficient bureaucracies and brittle authoritarian regimes it is an open question whether their squabbling governments can integrate Eurasia into a rules-based market economy. The organization is already suffering from a credibility gap in Europe, with Georgia, Ukraine and the Baltic States having already tilted towards the West, while Azerbaijan treads warily between the EU and Russia. Perhaps more surprisingly in view of their lower levels of economic development and greater geographic distance from the lucrative markets of the West, most of the Central Asian republics have held back as well. This leaves the EEU unlikely to attract many other ex-Soviet states, except for Kyrgyzstan and Armenia.

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Editorial: Cambodia’s Foreign Policy Grand Strategy

By Heng Sarith

Cambodia needs to step up its foreign policy, if it is to play a more active role in the region.

The glory days of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century, and Angkor Wat are the pride of Cambodia. The Khmer Empire was in its time a major power in Southeast Asia in terms of military might, diplomacy and trade. Unfortunately, it did not last. The collapse of the empire combined with internal conflict signaled the beginning of the Dark Ages of Cambodia, colonization, and conflict..

Today, Cambodia is perceived as a war-torn country, one plagued by civil war, landmines, and foreign intervention. Nevertheless, with civil war at an end, the country has the potential to start of a promising new chapter, one in which it pursues its core national interests, most notably stability, sovereignty, economic development, and image building. After successful national reconciliation and regional integration, Cambodia is now well on its way to becoming a lower middle-income country with annual GDP growth of around 7 percent.

However, as the international landscape changes, for instance with the rise of China and the U.S. “rebalancing” to Asia, new regional challenges are emerging. If it is to deal successfully with these challenges and become a relevant player within the region, Cambodia must have a grand strategy for its foreign policy. According to Hal Brands, a grand strategy can be an integrated set of principles and priorities that helps a country navigate a complex and dangerous international environment to achieve its national interests.

In looking at what the Cambodian government has done with its foreign policy to date, it appears that Cambodia’s grand strategy rests on three pillars. 

Read the full story at The Diplomat

News Story: Russia may sell Iskander-E missile system to China

Iskander (Wiki Info - Image: Wiki Commons)

After the Russian delegation attending the Seventh International Exhibition of Weapons and Military Equipment held in the Belarus capital of Minsk between July 9-12, the nation is ready to export the Iskander-E short-range ballistic missile and Vasily Kashin from the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies told the Voice of Russia that it's likely that the missile will be sold to China.

Kashin said that Russia is currently discussing the sale of the S-400 surface-to-air missile with China and Belarus. Russia will likely sell the Iskander-E together with the S-400 to both nations if the deals are successful. The Iskander-E was designed to replace the SS-21 Scarab-B Tochka-U tactical missile commissioned by the Soviet military back in 1989.

Read the full story at Want China Times