News Report: India's Naval Drills With US, Japan Point to Rivalry With China in Asia-Pacific

India is seeking to assert itself as a long-term rival of China in the Asia-Pacific region, by conducting a joint naval exercise with the United States and Japan, amid escalating border dispute with its eastern neighbor, experts told Sputnik.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Tommy Yang — India kicked off its annual trilateral joint naval exercise, known as Malabar 2017, with the United States and Japan in the Indian Ocean on Monday. The military drills came as an intense standoff at the border region between India and China showed no sign of cooling off, after clashes between troops of the two Asian countries started in mid-June.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi started to introduce an assertive foreign policy to challenge China’s growing dominance in the Asia-Pacific region, after taking office in May 2014. The current sequence of escalating tensions between to two Asian nations is just continuation of the intensifying India-China rivalry, international relations experts told Sputnik.

News Story: N. Korea, Trump's Asia policy to top agenda in Shanggri-La Dialogue

By Lee Chi-dong

SINGAPORE June 2 (Yonhap) -- Singapore prepared Friday to greet top defense officials from South Korea, the United States and two dozen other countries for Asia's most high-profile security forum.

The three-day Asia Security Summit, also known as the Shanggri-La Dialogue, is slated to kick off at night with a special address by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Security guards, armed with rifles, were deployed around the venue, the Shangri-La Hotel in this city state.

This year's session comes amid North Korea's unrelenting provocations highlighted by a series of ballistic missile launches.

"The North Korea issue is traditionally a top agenda item of the annual conference," South Korea's Ambassador to Singapore Lee Sang-deok said, although the communist country has been absent from the forum launched in 2002.

Keen attention will also be paid to the Donald Trump administration's policy on Asia.

Read the full story at YonhapNews

News Report: Vietnam Takes Asia Lead in Figuring Out Trump Policy on South China Sea

Ralph Jennings

TAIPEI — Vietnam's prime minister will be hoping for answers for Southeast Asia about the future role of the United States in helping the region resist Chinese expansion in a widely disputed sea.

Next week Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc is expected to become the first Southeast Asian leader to visit the White House since Trump took office in January. Trade and maritime claims in the disputed South China Sea are expected to be high on the agenda.

Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines claim parts of the South China Sea, while China and Taiwan claim all of it.

Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, who ran a much-hyped “pivot to Asia” policy, had helped Southeast Asian countries with defense against Beijing. But it is not yet clear what direction the Trump administration will take.

“Being the first Southeast Asian leader to visit Washington, the Vietnamese prime minister will want to explore U.S. plans and goals for engagement with the larger Southeast Asian region,” said Murray Hiebert, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.

News Report: New Survey Paints Bleak Picture of Southeast Asian Views on Trump Administration

US President Donald Trump

Joe Freeman

YANGON — Despite a fresh push by President Donald Trump's administration to reach out to Southeast Asia, a new poll suggests that confidence in the relationship is at a low point.

Titled “How do Southeast Asians view the Trump administration?” the online survey was compiled by the Singapore-based ASEAN Studies Centre at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. The center received more than 300 responses last month from a variety of government officials, civil society members, business leaders, academics and journalists in ASEAN.

Roughly 43 percent of respondents said the Trump administration was “not interested” in Southeast Asia, compared to 37 percent who said it was interested. Similar numbers (around 43 percent) said they expected U.S. engagement with the region to decrease and that the U.S. was “undependable” as an ally compared to four months ago.

News Story: Analysts refute claim that Aquino admin triggered sea row

By Patricia Lourdes Viray

MANILA, Philippines — The arbitration case that the Philippines filed before an international tribunal might have affected China's actions in the South China Sea but did it did not trigger the island-building.

The camp of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has claimed that the arbitration case filed by the Aquino administration pushed Beijing to build artificial islands in the contested waters.

Estelito Mendoza, a Marcos-era solicitor general and Arroyo's lawyer, even claimed that it was relatively quiet and peaceful in the South China Sea during the Arroyo administration.

Several experts have agreed that China had been planning the militarization of the South China Sea even before the Philippines filed an arbitration case before a United Nations-backed tribunal in 2013.

De La Salle University Professor Renato De Castro said that China's actions in the South China Sea were not directed against the Philippines or the Aquino administration in particular.

"They already had it in mind that's why the purpose, of course, of having control of those features in the South China Sea is to transform them into artificial islands that could be facilities wherein they could conduct reconnaissance," De Castro said in a forum organized by the Stratbase ADR Institute on Tuesday.

De Castro added that China's plan of installing surface-to-air missiles in the South China Sea might have been planned as early as the mid-1990s in the aftermath of the Taiwan Strait crisis, when China test-fired missiles in waters surrounding Taiwan.

The US responded by sending two carrier battle groups and an amphibious assault ship to the region. The USS Nimitz and her escorts as well as the amphibious assault ship USS Belleau Wood sailed across the Taiwan Strait.

Read the full story at PhilStar

News Story: US underscores freedom of navigation in South China Sea as Pence tours Asia

US Vice President Mike Pence

By Patricia Lourdes Viray

MANILA, Philippines — United States (US) Vice President Mike Pence stressed Washington's stand on the South China Sea dispute during his visit to Indonesia on Thursday.

"The United States will uphold the fundamental freedoms of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea and throughout the Asia Pacific," Pence said during his joint press conference with Indonesia President Joko Widodo.

Pence also said that the US will ensure the flow of trade in the region amid issues of global concern.

The disputed South China Sea carries $5 trillion in trade annually and contains an estimated 11 billion barrels of oil, 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 12 percent of the global fish catch.

"We'll ensure the unimpeded flow of lawful commerce and promote peaceful diplomatic dialogue to address issues of regional and global concern," Pence said.

Read the full story at PhilStar

News Story: Marine commander in Australia says US remains committed to Asia pivot

By: Tom Westbrook

DARWIN, Australia — U.S. Marines deployed to Australia's northern city of Darwin reflect President Trump's continued commitment to a security "pivot" to Asia at a time of heightened tensions, the Marines' commander said on Wednesday. 

Some 1,250 Marines began arriving in Darwin by plane on Tuesday for joint training maneuvers under a 25-year program started by former U.S. President Obama in 2011 as a part of his "pivot" to Asia policy.

Trump's early rhetoric demanding Asian allies carry a fair share of the security burden in the region had seen a cloud over the U.S military "pivot," but he has since committed to defend Asian allies in the face of recent North Korean threats.

"The deployment of a Marine Air Ground Taskforce to Australia certainly continues to communicate a sustained commitment to the region, I believe that's why we continue to see the growth and the evolution of the (taskforce)," the Marines' commander Lt. Col. Brian Middleton told Reuters in an interview in Darwin.

"I'm well aware of all the tensions, certainly, there's no lack of activity and things to keep either Australian or American attention in the Pacific area of influence here." 

Read the full story at Marine Corps Times

News Story: Analyst - Trump in Manila could do more harm than good

By Patricia Lourdes Viray

MANILA, Philippines — The attendance of United States (US) President Donald Trump on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Manila on November might do more harm than good, an analyst said.

Aaron Connelly, a research fellow in the East Asia Program at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, said that it would be difficult to imagine Trump listening to a plenary session that might last until four hours.

"It is difficult to imagine Trump patiently listening to the General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party hold forth on sustainable development, or responding in a constructive manner should Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte blast century-old US human rights abuses, as he did last year," Connelly said in his article titled "Don't waste time trying to get Trump to Manila."

Connelly noted that it is unclear whether Trump will attend the summits as he is not fond of spending more than a couple days on the road.

The APEC and ASEAN summits are scheduled back-to-back in November and would require at least six days, including flights to and from the region.

Read the full story at PhilStar

News Story: 'Pivot to the Pacific' is over, senior U.S. diplomat says

By: Aaron Mehta

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s Pacific rebalance effort — also known as the Pivot to the Pacific — effort is officially dead, according to a top State Department official. 

Asked by reporters about the future of the rebalance, Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton said Monday that the new administration has its own plan for the region, even if that plan has yet to take shape. 

“Pivot, rebalance, etcetera — that was a word that was used to describe the Asia policy in the last administration. I think you can probably expect that this administration will have its own formulation. We haven’t really seen in detail, kind of, what that formulation will be or if there even will be a formulation,” she said 

However, Thornton — speaking on the eve of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s first visit to the Asia-Pacific region — stressed that the new administration remains committed to the region, even if the flavor of that commitment may change. 

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: Lawmakers’ Letters Endorse McCain Plan To Reinforce Pacific, Assist Asian Allies

By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR.

A bipartisan group of Senators and Representatives is urging Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to budget $1.5 billion a year to reinforce US forces in the Pacific to better support Asian allies, stiffening their spines against Chinese intimidation. Known as the Asia-Pacific Stability Initiative and endorsed by the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, it’s a proposal first put forward by Senate Armed Services chairman John McCain. You can read the different letters from the House and Senate below.

Both documents warn against the rising power of China. The Senators also cite the threat of North Korea and of Russian forces in the Pacific. For its part, the more detailed House letter explicitly likens the McCain plan to the European Reassurance Initiative, created after the Russian conquest of Crimea to reassure US allies in the region. The representatives add the initiative could fund expanded international exercises, investments in infrastructure and munitions, and increased presence of US forces.

Read the full story at Breaking Defense

News Story: Cobra Gold tests Thai-US relations

WRITER: KORNCHANOK RAKSASERI

ANALYSIS: Observers hope this year's exercise will provide signs on how future ties will evolve

As Cobra Gold, the biggest annual multilateral military exercise in the Asia-Pacific kicks off Tuesday, what the US Pacific Commander Admiral Harry B Harris Jr has to say during his visit to Thailand will be interesting.

Although the exercise is about Thai-US military cooperation, there might be some signals sent about US-Thai relations as a whole.

Admiral Harris is the highest ranking American official to visit Thailand since the military coup in 2014.

On Tuesday, he will meet the Chief of Defence Forces Gen Surapong Suwana-adth, before they launch the 36th Cobra Gold exercise in Sattahip, Chon Buri.

Later he will meet Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwon at the Ministry of Defence before calling on Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha at Government House.

Nobody can be sure what will result from the meetings.

But at least, if cooperation for this year's regional exercise is used as a barometer for Thai-US relations, the atmosphere now is much better than it was two years ago.

Read the full story at BangkokPost

News Report: Trump’s Response to North Korea’s Missile Launch Raises Concerns

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe & US President Donald Trump

Brian Padden

SEOUL — President Donald Trump’s carefully worded and measured condemnation of North Korea’s missile test on Sunday leaves unclear what new policies he may pursue to halt the Kim Jong Un government’s advancing nuclear program.

Standing alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who called North Korea’s missile launch "absolutely intolerable," Trump said, “The United States of America is behind Japan, our great ally, 100 percent."

During their weekend summit, in which the two leaders played golf at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Abe sought and for the most part received reassurances from Trump that the U.S. will maintain its longstanding military alliance with Japan.

With its missile test, analysts said, Pyongyang wanted to send the new American president a message of defiance.

“I think the message is that, ‘we will not be coerced; or any use of force against us, any attack against us, will have consequences. We have ways to deliver reprisals and punishment against the U.S. and its allies in the region,’” said Daniel Pinkston, a lecturer in international relations with Troy University in Seoul.

Since taking office President Trump and his Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis have emphasized America’s continued commitment to support its allies in Asia against the growing North Korean nuclear threat. Mattis' first trip abroad was to Asia.

News Story: New Zealand pushes TPP without US

Hanoi (VNA) – New Zealand Trade Minister Todd McClay called on the 11 remaining member countries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement to discuss the next step for the trade deal after the US pulled out.

The New Zealand trade chief made the statement in Tokyo on February 8 during his visit to Japan to hear the views of other TPP members regarding the future of the pact.

During an interview with Japan’s Kyodo News in Tokyo, he said a meeting of ministers from the TPP member countries could take place in Chile in March, adding that "It's too soon for us to give up on that achievement after nine years of negotiation," describing the deal as a "high quality" agreement.

According to McClay, there are a range of views among the countries but one option could be going ahead with the trade deal even without the US.

Read the full story at VietnamPlus

News Story: Meddling in (Senkaku/)Diaoyu Islands issue doomed to be bad deal for Washington

BEIJING, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Three days after U.S. defense chief James Mattis' remarks on the (Senkaku/)Diaoyu Islands in Tokyo, China conducted a new round of regular patrol in the territorial waters of the (Senkaku/)Diaoyu Islands on Monday, showing the world its firm will and determination to safeguard its national sovereignty.

During his first Asia-Pacific debut as defense chief, the former four-star general of the U.S. Marine Corps said Friday that the U.S.-Japan mutual defense treaty applies to the (Senkaku/)Diaoyu Islands, which was criticized by the Chinese Foreign Ministry as "wrong remarks."

Washington has long used the (Senkaku/)Diaoyu Islands as a fulcrum for an "off-shore balance," i.e., maneuvering Japan while pressuring China in East Asia, particularly under the administration of former U.S. President Barack Obama, who zealously promoted a "Pivot to Asia" strategy during the last eight years.

However, the decaying U.S. credibility in East Asia as well as the rising tensions in the region should make it clear to the new president, Donald Trump, that his predecessor's "Pivot to Asia" strategy is a deal with no winners and meddling in the waters around the uninhabited islands for so-called "offshore balance" will never pay off.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Mattis's Asia visit adds uncertainty to regional stability

US SecDef James Mattis

BEIJING, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis' reiteration of America's defense commitments to its allies in Asia during his maiden visit to the region over the weekend has added uncertainty to regional stability.

By reaffirming U.S. engagement, the new Pentagon chief's visit to South Korea and Japan seems to have raised more uncertainties in the Asia-Pacific instead of bringing stability as he claimed.

STABILIZER OR STIMULATOR?

During his three-day visit ending Saturday, Mattis offered most key security reassurances that Tokyo and Seoul, the two key U.S. allies in Asia, have long been eager to hear after remarks made by U.S. President Donald Trump in his campaign trail.

In a series of meetings with senior Japanese officials, Mattis reiterated his country's mutual defense commitment to Japan, saying that their alliance remained a "cornerstone" of regional stability.

Mattis's praise of Japan as "a model" of burden-sharing downplayed the accusation of "free-rider" on security that Trump made in his presidential campaign.

The hawkish former four-star general also claimed that the Diaoyu Islands, an inherent part of the Chinese territory, fell under Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan security treaty, a statement sparking criticism from China.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said later that the so-called U.S.-Japan treaty was a product of the Cold War, and should not impair China's territorial sovereignty and legitimate rights.

Read the full story at Xinhua

USA: E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft arrive in Japan

From Naval Forces Japan Public Affairs

Five E2-D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft with Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 125 taxi the runway after arriving at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni. (U.S. Navy/MC1 Gabriel S. Weber) >>

IWAKUNI, Japan - Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 125 arrived at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Iwakuni, Feb. 2.

The "Tigertails" of VAW-125 are relieving the "Liberty Bells" of VAW-115 as the early-warning squadron of the U.S. Navy's Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5, supporting the Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) Carrier Strike Group.

"We are excited to join the forward-deployed naval forces at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in the amazing city of Iwakuni," said Cmdr. Daniel Prochazka, VAW-125's commanding officer. "I would like to thank the city for its hospitality and for warmly welcoming us to this incredible place. This is my second time in the forward-deployed naval forces. My fond memories make me personally very thrilled to be back."

News Story: Why Mattis Headed East - Time For China Strategy

By ANDREW KREPINEVICH

Why is newly confirmed Defense Secretary Jim Mattis making his first overseas trip to the Western Pacific to confer with two of America’s key allies, Japan and South Korea?

After all, both Mattis and Gen. Joe Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have declared Russia poses the greatest danger to the United States. But actions, they say, speak louder than words, and for good reason. From a military perspective, the need to make the Western Pacific our top priority is clear. It follows from examining key planning factors that the military uses to help it set priorities. In every case the analysis finds that China, not Russia, poses the principal threat. 

The first focuses on “military potential,” or a country’s ability to generate military power. Over the past dozen years China’s defense budget has experienced double-digit growth, increasing by nearly 200 percent. It now stands at over three times that of Russia’s and second only to our own. Given China’s continued economic growth and Russia’s stagnation, the spending gap between these two revisionist powers is destined to widen over time.

There is also the matter of geostrategic risk. This refers to the ability of allies and partners to defend themselves. Again, we find the situation far more precarious in the Western Pacific than in Europe. The populations of France, Germany and Great Britain together exceed that of Russia. Each alone has a GDP twice the size of Russia’s, and a more advanced industrial base. Our NATO allies clearly have the ability to offset the Russian threat, should they choose to do so.

This is not the case in the Western Pacific, where China’s GDP is over twice that of Japan’s, and its population over ten times greater. Thanks to technology that it has developed, bought or stolen, Beijing’s industrial base is rapidly closing the gap with Japan, America’s only great power ally in the region. And unlike in Europe, where our allies are bound together within NATO, no such regional alliance exists in Asia. Again, here is where U.S. military capability is needed most. 

Read the full story at Breaking Defense

News Story: Washington needs new thinking on Asia policy as Pentagon chief makes maiden tour

by Xinhua writer Liu Chang

BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- As James Mattis kicks off on Thursday his maiden visit to Asia as U.S. defense chief, what the new U.S. government is offering to the region seems to be a dangerous first-meeting gift.

The hawkish former four-star general is also the first cabinet secretary of the Trump administration ever to make a foreign tour since the new president's inauguration earlier last month. That offers a clue to how strategically significant Asia-Pacific is to the new leader in Washington.

Though it is still too early to judge the Trump White House's overall Asia policy, yet warning shots have been fired that the billionaire-turned-politician is likely to follow a playbook that has been tested ineffective and provocative.

One day before Mattis departed for Seoul, he spoke with his South Korean counterpart Han Min-koo over the phone that the two sides are going to go ahead with the planned deployment of THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense), a missile defense shield.

Since the very beginning, Beijing has made it utterly clear that the installment of such a missile system poses a severe threat to its own security interests as the THAAD system has a 2,000-km-detection range in forward-based mode. Once the system is completed and starts to function, the United States would be able to peer deep into the Chinese and Russian territory conveniently. The two countries have promised concertedly that they will not sit idle and watch the missile system being installed at their doorstep.

Though Washington and Seoul argue that the THAAD batteries are placed to counter a missile threat from the Democratic People' s Republic of Korea(DPRK), meeting an arms threat with a threat of arms is by no means to unravel the nuclear issue in the Korean Peninsula. On the contrary, such a move would further alienate Pyongyang, and encourage the country to be even more adventurous, building more bombs and testing more missiles, a prelude to destructive arms race in the region.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Thailand bound to take cautious foreign policy in face of Trump administration, says expert

BANGKOK, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Thailand is bound to adopt "cautious, scrupulous" foreign policy in the face of newly sworn-in U.S. President Donald Trump, said a Thai expert on Friday.

Chulalongkorn University's political scientist Surachart Bamrungsuk suggested that the Thai government under Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha apply foreign policy in "cautious, scrupulous" manner while dealing with the U.S. government under maverick and outspoken Trump.

Though it would be too soon at the moment to say whether the new U.S. administration might take any measure in favor of the ASEAN countries in general and Thailand in particular, Prayut's government is strongly advised to get prepared for possibilities of radical changes in the U.S. foreign policy as a whole, Surachart said during an interview with Xinhua.

"While we have to wait and see how Trump's foreign policy will turn out, particularly regarding the ASEAN region, our government is bound to take cautious, scrupulous steps to deal with it," the Chulalongkorn expert commented.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Report: Asia Looking to Alternative Trade Pacts After US Quits TPP

Ron Corben

BANGKOK — Governments and business in Asia are preparing to place greater focus on regional trade and economic prospects, following the U.S. decision to withdraw from the 12 nation Trans Pacific Partnership agreement or TPP.

Analysts say alternative multilateral trade pacts including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which includes China, may fill the ‘vacuum’ left by the absence of TPP.

The decision, which President Donald Trump called a “great thing for the American worker” – had been anticipated by the region as it had been a key pledge by Trump during his election campaign last year.

The trade deal, covering nearly 40 percent of the global economy and about a third of global trade, was initiated by countries within Asia before the U.S. joined in the talks that began in 2009.

The TPP was a hallmark of former President Barack Obama’s tenure as part of a policy pledge to pivot the U.S. towards Asia to counter China’s growing regional influence.