|
|
Post by macnz on May 15, 2015 11:26:33 GMT 12
|
|
|
|
Post by lesterpk on May 15, 2015 14:38:01 GMT 12
|
|
|
|
Post by macnz on May 15, 2015 18:03:09 GMT 12
Yep AU Govt (too) quickly denying. Suspect because AU Budget is so dependent on Chinese investment in property bubble and most of their new revenue initiatives for the 2015 budget are in part subsidized by increase in fees for properties, and higher business investment criteria ($5m) if Chinese want AU residency. Just takes the Chinese Govt to prohibit their citizens and AU economy loses steam. Plus lets not forget where most of Australia's mining goes - China. The base in NT is really generating new services activity for that part of the outback - so shame for them. ...will be interesting - if this was a back-step - how this gets smoothed over with the US behind the scenes. Source: www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/us-official-misspoke-on-b1-bombers-being-based-in-australia-tony-abbott-20150515-gh28ox.html |
|
|
|
Post by macnz on May 15, 2015 18:50:05 GMT 12
Being reported Australia's force posture agreement with the US does permit "enhanced aircraft cooperation initiatives ..including visits for exercises and training". B-52s already did so in Dec 2014 so Bones 'visiting' Australia only a matter of time. PM is hastily denying 'basing' and adamant Dept of State confirms US Defense official misspoke at congressional hearing.
Plenty of wiggle room there (especially when you watch the video of Assistant US defence secretary David Shear's testimony where he makes the statement).
|
|
otr1
Sergeant
Posts: 14 
|
Post by otr1 on May 16, 2015 5:32:37 GMT 12
The story is utter rubbish.
An idiot spoke crap before a US congressional committee, that's all.
Nothing to see here, everyone move along.................
|
|
|
|
Post by macnz on May 17, 2015 12:27:36 GMT 12
re: idiot spoke crap
He may have spoken prematurely but not sure he was speaking crap or an idiot: Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs with responsibility for defense and security policy in the Asia and Pacific region. Served 32 years in the Foreign Service. United States Ambassador to Vietnam. Also served in Sapporo, Beijing, Tokyo, and Kuala Lumpur. Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs. Awarded State Department’s Superior Honor Award and the Defense Department’s Civilian Meritorious Service Award for his work in U.S.-Japan defense relations. Rusk Fellow at Georgetown University’s institute for the Study of Diplomacy.
re: Story utter rubbish ...move along
With China's reclamation efforts among the Spratly Islands increasing (so it can assert its territorial claim over the South China Sea), its destablizing the region and amping defense spending and posturing to unprecedented scales among all ASEAN countries. Means stories like these will continue to trend as newsworthy.
" Pentagon officials last week revealed that China is building artificial islands on top of coral reefs at an unprecedented pace. The rapid construction comes to 2,000 acres (800 hectares), with 75 percent of the total just in the last five months. At four reclamation sites, China has moved from dredging to infrastructure work that could include harbors for larger ships, communications systems and at least one airfield, a Defense Department report said. ...The disputed waters are home to vital global shipping lanes and are believed to be rich in oil and gas."
Aus Fin Review further reported on Saturday:
"The Defence Department spokesperson insisted that military cooperation between Australia and the United States is not directed at any one country.
However the spokesperson did not dispute the report that the US plans to deploy B-1 bombers and surveillance aircraft to Australia and declined to answer specific questions about any such deployments. The specifics of the future force posture cooperation are yet to be finalised, the spokesperson said. Details are subject to continuing discussions between Australia and the United States. A range of different US aircraft already visits Australia for exercises and training. Increased cooperation will build on these activities."
Everyone's choice whether to follow or not.
|
|
|
|
Post by macnz on May 18, 2015 8:53:11 GMT 12
Sorry for cut & paste - from a subscription. Here is part of a long article reported AFR Mon 18.
"Beijing ups the pressure" By John Kehoe.
Eighteen months. That's the timeframe Beijing has to test how much territory it can claim in disputed Asian waters, before a more uncompromising United States commander in chief takes over from a perceived militarily-passive President Barack Obama. "The Chinese calculation is 'run hard now'," says Ernest Bower, a senior adviser for south-east Asia at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.The view from Washington is that US credibility in the Asia Pacific region, an area of major economic and strategic importance to Australia, is on the line as China pushes the boundaries. The drumbeats for a more muscular US defence posture, combined with the ticking clock on the Obama presidency, are an important explanation for the surprise public revelation by a US Assistant Secretary of Defence last week.
Under heated questioning from Senators worried about Chinese territorial reclamations in the South China Sea, David Shear let slip that the US will place extra air force assets including B-1 bombers and surveillance aircraft in Australia to deter "China's destabilising effect" on the region.
The remarks were the latest evidence of Australia being stranded in the middle of an intensifying military rivalry between its most important economic and strategic partners; China and the US.
Within minutes, Chinese government officials were on the telephone to Canberra demanding an explanation and publicly dressing down the Americans.
The Pentagon now says Shear – an Asia policy expert but relatively new to the defence portfolio – "misspoke". Yet under new Defence Secretary Ashton Carter, who is perceived to be taking a harder line against Chinese aggression, the Pentagon was hardly backing down.
"We will be operating a mix of additional air force assets in Australia on a rotational basis, including fighter, bomber, and tanker aircraft," the Pentagon said in a clarifying statement. In nuanced defence speak, a B-1 bomber, as opposed to a more general bomber, sparks alarm because "you're implying that you're expecting a pretty hot war," says John Lee, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington.
"The B-1 is a very heavy, hot piece of war asset that you would use in a fairly major conflict."
"The Department of Defense clarification statement [still] intends to signal the Americans are ready for all contingencies."
What surprised the Australians probably was not that the US was interested in possibly deploying B-1 assets. Rather, that Canberra should be caught off guard by such a public declaration, even if it was later described as a misspeak at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. As part of its "rebalance" to Asia, the US already has several thousand marines stationed in Darwin and airforce and navy assets in other parts of Australia and broader Asia.
China, Australia's largest trading partner and major buyer of iron ore, coal and natural gas, is suspicious of the US-Australia security alliance.
The Chinese "are very worried that the marines based in Darwin 8000 miles from Beijing are pointed like a dagger into the heart of China," former US assistant secretary of state, Kurt Campbell, said in a speech in Washington in September 2014.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott seemed caught on the back foot on Friday, trying to placate Beijing by saying the US-Australia alliance "is not aimed at anyone". Yet defence experts in Canberra and Washington say it is virtually certain the US and Australia have privately broached the B-1 idea among a range of military options. Shear would undoubtedly have been aware of such discussions, and in the heat of the moment perhaps strayed from his formal pre-briefing notes and been more specific than intended. A person intimately familiar with preparations for Congressional committee hearings, says "these guys are so well prepared and briefed to the hilt and everything is so scripted". Shear's apparent faux pas came as Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Beijing to discuss, among other things, concern at China's land reclamation program at the Spratly Islands, in the middle of a high-pressured Senate committee hearing on the South China Sea. Shear possibly wanted to project strength, not only to the Senators, but also the Chinese.
"Beijing thinks it has 18 months remaining of Obama to move aggressively with its reclamation efforts," Bower says.
"The Chinese are correctly assessing that whoever is the next president of the United States, unless it is [anti-war Republican candidate] Rand Paul, they're going to have a much stronger and decisive America to deal with. What's clear to the Americans is that the Chinese are not going to stop until they find where the line is."
The Pentagon has signalled it is considering more assertive options, including via an auspiciously-timed leak to the Wall Street Journal a day before the Senate hearing last week. It was reported the US military may send naval and air patrols near reefs and islands where China is reclaiming land.
Additionally, the appointment of the tough-minded Harry Harris as head of the United States Pacific Command has increased perceptions that the Pentagon is becoming bolder towards countering China. Harris, born in Japan, was formerly Pacific Fleet commander and has firsthand experience of China's hard line behaviour in disputed waters.
|
|
|
|
Post by macnz on May 22, 2015 19:14:47 GMT 12
|
|
