US Admiral Proposes 4-Nation Effort to Safeguard Freedom of Navigation in Asian Waters

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US Admiral Proposes 4-Nation Effort to Safeguard Freedom of Navigation in Asian Waters
By Patrick Goodenough | March 3, 2016 | 4:19 AM EST
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The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, India's fleet tanker INS Shakti, and Japan's destroyer JS Fuyuzuki take part in the joint Malabar exercise in the Indian Ocean in October 2015. (Photo: U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Chad Trudeau)
(CNSNews.com) – For the second time in ten days, a senior U.S. official has raised the prospect of joint U.S.-India naval patrols in a region where China’s expanding territorial and military ambitions have raised tensions, and this time the top U.S. military commander in the Pacific suggested widening the proposed cooperation to include Japan and Australia as well.

Addressing a geopolitics forum in New Delhi, U.S. Pacific Command chief Adm. Harry Harris referred Wednesday to “quadrilateral” U.S.-India-Japan-Australia cooperation. A strategic dialogue initiative involving the four countries caused waves with Beijing when first attempted during the Bush administration in 2007.

Harris recalled that India, Japan and Australia last year held a first, high-level, three-way dialogue, which addressed topics including maritime security and “freedom of navigation patrols.”

“An idea to consider is perhaps expanding this trilateral to a quadrilateral venue between India-Japan-Australia and the United States,” he said. “We are all united in supporting the international rules-based order that has kept the peace and is essential to all of us.”

After noting other recent interaction between the countries concerned – including a meeting between the Japanese and Australian prime ministers “where both voiced opposition to coercive actions in the South and East China Seas” – Harris raised the prospect of naval cooperation among the four.

“By being ambitious, India, Japan, Australia, the United States and so many other like-minded nations can aspire to operate anywhere on the high seas and airspace above them,” he said.

“The idea of safeguarding freedom of the seas and access to international waters and airspace is not something new for us to ponder – this is a principle based upon the international, rules-based global order that has served this region so well.”

Harris said the U.S. Navy has conducted “freedom of navigation patrols” (FONOPS) for decades without incident, adding that “no nation” should perceive them as a threat. He also said, though without naming China, that “some countries seek to bully smaller nations through intimidation and coercion.”

His references to FONOPS and the “rules-based global order” have particular relevance to the situation in the South China Sea, where the U.S. Navy is carrying out such patrols near artificial islands built by China in support of its claims to territory contested by half a dozen other countries.

The last time “quad” navy cooperation in Indo-Pacific waters took place, it occurred in parallel to four-way security dialogue initiated by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during an earlier term in office.

In 2007, a long-running annual U.S.-Indian joint naval exercise was expanded for the first time to include Japanese, Australian and Singaporean warships. Twenty-eight ships, including two U.S. Navy carrier strike groups, 150 aircraft and more than 20,000 personnel were involved in the week-long Malabar exercise off India’s east coast.

But Australia under a subsequent Labor government backed away from the “quad” initiative, leery of its effect on Canberra’s relations with Beijing.

Subsequent Malabar exercises have been bilateral (India-U.S.) or trilateral (India-U.S.-Japan).

U.S. Pacific Command chief Adm. Harry Harris addresses the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi on Wednesday, March 2, 2016. (Photo: PACOM/Twitter)
‘Stunning’ progress in US-India ties

Although India denied a recent report claiming that it was considering joint patrols in the South China Sea with the U.S. Navy, U.S. officials continue to allude to the possibility.

Harris’ comments Wednesday came several days after U.S. Ambassador to India Richard Verma in a speech voiced the “hope that in the not too distant future United States and Indian Navy vessels steaming together will become a common and welcome sight throughout Indo-Pacific waters.”

Despite Indian concerns about China – a close partner of India’s rival, Pakistan – Delhi has not rushed into strategic alliances in the region. Under the former ruling Congress party in particular, it was wary of both the U.S. and China, while enjoying close relations with Moscow.

But relations with the U.S. have deepened since Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party took office in 2014. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter will soon visit – his second trip to the country in the space of a year – and Chief of U.S. Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson visited last month.

Last December, Carter’s Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar paid a visit to Washington and Hawaii during which the two militaries agreed on several joint naval exercises this year.

Harris on Wednesday called the progress “stunning.”

“We went from rarely talking only a few years ago to not only talking together, but doing together,” he said. “Skepticism, suspicion, and doubt on both sides have been replaced by cooperation, dialogue, and trust.”

At a Pentagon press conference last week, Harris said his goal was to improve the U.S.-India military relationship “dramatically.”

“I think that two countries like India and the United States, the world’s two largest democracies, we share values and we share interests and we share concerns,” he said.

China’s Communist Party-affiliated Global Times published an op-ed last week in which a Chinese scholar warned that navy patrols in the South China sea by any country not party to claims there would signal that the country is taking sides and provoking China.

India would be better off remaining neutral, wrote Long Xingchun.

“Conducting joint naval patrols with Washington in the South China Sea will do nothing but showing its hostility against Beijing and devastate their strategic mutual trust, which will also compel the Chinese government to adopt changes in its India policy,” he wrote.

“In economy, politics and security, China is far more capable of making trouble for India than the reverse.”

But Indian strategic affairs analyst Dr. Subhash Kapila of the South Asia Analysis Group said it was in India’s national interests to cooperate with the U.S. and other regional navies “to checkmate China’s military adventurism and brinkmanship in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.”

“India does not have to be apologetic on Indian Navy Task Forces operating in the South China Sea as much as China operating nuclear submarines on patrol in the Indian Ocean under the guise of anti-piracy naval operations,” Kapila said.


US Admiral Proposes 4-Nation Effort to Safeguard Freedom of Navigation in Asian Waters

 

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China testing Obama as it expands its influence in Southeast Asia


David Nakamura and Dan Lamothe March 1
The Obama administration has been forcefully trying for nearly six years to prod China to abide by the usual international rules and to curb Beijing’s controversial claims of Chinese sovereignty over a maritime corridor in Southeast Asia.

But new evidence is emerging that China has been playing a familiar game of ignoring U.S. warnings or concerns, this time by installing radar, missiles and jet fighters on a series of reefs and atolls over which it has asserted control in the South China Sea. The long-simmering dispute in this far-flung spot on the globe represents yet another test for President Obama’s foreign policy in this final year of his presidency.

The disclosure of China’s maneuvers — coming a week after Obama declared that the United States “will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows” — prompted the top U.S. military commander in the Pacific to warn Congress that China’s ultimate goal is to achieve “hegemony” in Asia. Foreign policy analysts in Washington cautioned that Beijing is on the verge of tilting the security and economic dynamics along the South China Sea in its favor.


Obama’s strategy abroad has been to focus on building partnerships in hopes of slowly turning the global order to U.S. advantage, but China favors a more confrontational approach and is pursuing tactical victories that are adding up to a competitive edge.

Some U.S. military planners fear that edge is coming into clearer view. Over the past year, China’s military operations have expanded in size, complexity, duration and geographic location, Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday. He testified that China has specifically developed capabilities that counter U.S. strengths, including ballistic and cruise missiles that would help protect against U.S. aircraft.

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter warns China against what he calls "aggressive" actions in the South China Sea region. (Reuters)
“China’s rapid military modernization is quickly closing the gap with U.S. military capabilities and is eroding the joint force’s competitive military advantages,” Dunford said. “China’s military forces can constrain U.S. military operations in the Western Pacific and hold key U.S. infrastructure and facilities at risk. Its strategic capabilities are improving and present an increasing risk to the U.S. homeland and our allies.”

White House officials played down the severity of Beijing’s latest moves and emphasized that the administration will continue to pursue a diplomatic resolution to the dispute, which has embroiled China’s neighbors, including Vietnam, the Philippines and Taiwan.


Instead of backing down, however, China embarked on a massive land reclamation project to build up tiny reefs and atolls in the Spratly Islands by dredging sand from the ocean floor. Beijing said the costly project was benign, but U.S. officials charged that the construction of jet-plane landing strips on the virtually deserted islands meant that China was readying the parcels for military use.

China’s declaration of sovereignty over the Spratlys outraged the Philippine government, which took the case to an international tribunal at the Hague. Obama administration officials view that ruling, expected later this year, as a potential turning point, even though Beijing does not recognize the Hague’s authority on the matter.

In the meantime, the U.S. Navy has conducted two “freedom of navigation” maneuvers, sending warships within 12 nautical miles of several disputed islands.

“The administration is waiting for the Hague’s legal decision in the Philippines challenge before taking another strong step,” said retired Navy Capt. Jerry Hendrix, a defense analyst at the Center for a New American Security. “There’s a strong emphasis on the legal mechanisms to constrain China, and a desire not to muddy the water before the Hague’s decision.”

But Hendrix cautioned that “every day that goes by without a really significant challenge on China’s claims on the island is a lost opportunity. They are building a precedent that this is the new status quo, and then reversing it is difficult.”

In the White House, China is considered a major rival to the United States — but also a crucial global partner. Obama has enlisted Beijing’s support on issues such as the Iran nuclear deal and a major pact to reduce carbon emissions. Last week, China joined the United States in support of a U.N. Security Council resolution to enact new economic sanctions against North Korea because of its nuclear test in January.

Inside the West Wing, aides have been divided over how hard to push Beijing on areas of disagreement, including cybersecurity, human rights and the South China Sea, for fear of damaging the cooperation on other matters.

Last fall, during a state visit to the White House, Chinese President Xi Jinping stood next to Obama in the Rose Garden and vowed that China would not militarize the Spratly Islands. But last week, the CSIS think tank published satellite images that analysts said showed that China was installing a powerful radar system in the Spratlys.

Separately, U.S. officials said China had deployed surface-to-air missiles and jet fighters on Woody Island, which is closer to China and has been under its control for decades.

Foreign policy analysts in Washington said the Chinese have mastered the ability to take incremental steps that fall just short of provoking a major international incident — a process known as “salami-slicing,” or taking territory piece by piece until everything is gone.

Administration officials point out that China’s intimidation has pushed several neighbors into greater partnerships with the United States. Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei are members of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact led by the Obama administration. In 2012, Obama restored formal U.S. diplomatic relations with Burma, also known as Myanmar, after 50 years of estrangement, and he will become the first U.S. president to visit Laos in the fall.

Whether any of it matters is still unknown.

“People in the Obama administration will tell you that China is creating its own enemies and that they are unpopular,” said Michael Green, who served as senior Asia director in the George W. Bush administration. “That may be true, but that’s not doing anything to slow them down. They do not care as much about reputation as we do.”



David Nakamura covers the White House. He has previously covered sports, education and city government and reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Japan.

Dan Lamothe covers national security for The Washington Post and anchors its military blog, Checkpoint.


China testing Obama as it expands its influence in Southeast Asia - The Washington Post

U.S. Proposes Reviving Naval Coalition to Balance China’s Expansion
By ELLEN BARRYMARCH 2, 2016

Inside
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An Indian naval vessel near Visakhapatnam last month. India has not, to date, shown interest in carrying out joint patrols with the United States, even under the more neutral auspices of counterpiracy operations. Credit Saurabh Das/Associated Press


NEW DELHI — The chief of the United States Pacific Command, Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., on Wednesday proposed reviving an informal strategic coalition made up of the navies of Japan, Australia, India and the United States, an experiment that collapsed a decade ago because of diplomatic protests from China.

And officials have said that the United States is close, after 10 years of demurral from the Indian side, to concluding a logistics agreement that would allow the two countries’ militaries to easily use each other’s resources for refueling and repairs.

Continue reading the main story
Interactive Feature
What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea
China has been feverishly piling sand onto reefs in the South China Sea for the past year, creating seven new islets in the region. It is straining geopolitical tensions that were already taut.


OPEN Interactive Feature
Though he did not specifically mention China on Wednesday, Admiral Harris said powerful countries were seeking to “bully smaller nations through intimidation and coercion,” and made the case that a broad naval collaboration was the best way to avert it.

“Exercising together will lead to operating together,” he said, before meetings with his Indian counterpart. “By being ambitious, India, Japan, Australia and the United States and so many like-minded nations can aspire to operate anywhere in the high seas and the airspace above it.”

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office, India has ramped up naval cooperation with the United States. It reacted angrily in 2014 when a Chinese People’s Liberation Army submarine docked in the Sri Lankan port of Colombo, and has warily watched the expansion of one of President Xi Jinping’s priority projects, a maritime “silk road” with major ports in Gwadar, Pakistan, and Chittagong, Bangladesh. When President Obama visited India last year, the two countries issued a joint statement on “the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean region,” something India had refused to do in the past.

Still, some of the American proposals smack of wishful thinking. India has not, to date, shown interest in carrying out joint patrols with the United States, even under the more neutral auspices of counterpiracy operations.

Officials here rebutted a Reuters report last month in which a United States official suggested India might participate in joint patrols in the South China Sea, something not even treaty allies like Australia or Japan have agreed to.


“The last thing India wants to do is accidentally make itself into a front-line player in the South China Sea,” said Nitin A. Gokhale, a security analyst, adding that “the best U.S.-aligned players can expect” is for India to remain active in regional forums, and shore up smaller navies like those of Vietnam and the Philippines.

“I don’t think India will be a front-line state,” he said.

Admiral Harris’s proposal of a quadrilateral security grouping, given at a forum hosted by the Observer Research Foundation, is certain to capture Beijing’s attention. It did the same in 2007, when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan introduced the idea.

But Chinese analysts viewed the grouping as hostile; one called it a “mini-NATO.” Even before the four countries convened for their first joint meeting, China had sent formal diplomatic protests to Washington, New Delhi, Canberra and Tokyo. At a summit meeting with China less than two years later, Australia announced that it was withdrawing from the quadrilateral arrangement.

Under Mr. Modi, India’s navy has embarked on the creation of a web of bilateral and trilateral agreements, which serve the same purpose but are less likely to be “caricatured” by China as a containment strategy, said Rory Medcalf, the head of the National Security College at the Australian National University. He added, however, that growing cooperation with the United States had forced China to take India more seriously.

Shen Dingli, a professor of international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai, dismissed the idea that the grouping could be revived, and said that India would not join such a network for fear of Chinese retaliation.

“China actually has many ways to hurt India,” he said. “China could send an aircraft carrier to the Gwadar port in Pakistan. China had turned down the Pakistan offer to have military stationed in the country. If India forces China to do that, of course we can put a navy at your doorstep.”

Yufan Huang contributed research.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/w...l-coalition-balance-china-expansion.html?_r=0

The U.S. and India are deepening military ties — and China is watching



Harris said, speaking at the Raisina Dialogue, a conference in New Delhi focused on geopolitics and geo-economics. “It ensures the vision of our country’s leaders by strengthening military-to-military collaboration and in the process, it will improve the security and prosperity of the entire region.”

Harris’s comments also came as the Obama administration’s ability to curb China’s ambitions have been called into question by analysts. China has installed military radar, HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles and fighter jets on several atolls in the South China Sea in recent months. Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and other U.S. officials have said repeatedly that China’s rise is not a problem, but the way it is exercising its power can be.

Carter and Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, are expected to visit India next month as the two countries continue to deeper relations. It will mark Carter’s second trip to India in a year, and comes after the Navy’s top officer, Adm. John Richardson, visited last month along with the heads of other navies, including China’s, Russia’s and Iran’s.

Harris did not mention China directly in his latest remarks, but clearly seemed to call the country out.

“While some countries seek to bully smaller nations through intimidation and coercion, I note with admiration India’s example of peaceful resolution of disputes with your neighbors in the waters of the Indian Ocean,” Harris said. “India, indeed, stands like a beacon on a hill, building a future on the power of ideas… not on castles of sand that threaten the rules-based architecture that has served us all so very well.”

U.S. Navy to China: We’ll sail our ships past your man-made islands anytime we want]

Adm. Scott Swift, the senior officer for the Navy’s Pacific Fleet, said in a phone interview Friday that China’s direction has created a “general sense of angst” among other nations in the Pacific region. But he added that it isn’t just the South China Sea where concerns are being raised.

“That behavior and activity can be described as an arc,” Swift said. “We’re not sure where that arc is going to terminate… but there is a strategic plan that is being implemented.”

The United States has sought to counter that arc by deploying ships, aircraft in and troops in new locations and by strengthening ties with countries in the region. While many of the partnerships Washington has relied on there are decades old, the relationship with India — formerly a non-aligned power in the Cold War that had warm relations with the Soviet Union — has changed significantly in the last few years. Carter and Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar reached an agreement late last that calls for a series of joint military exercises this year.

“This kind of progress is, frankly, stunning,” Harris said Wednesday. “We went from rarely talking only a few years ago to not only talking together, but doing together. Skepticism, suspicion, and doubt on both sides have been replaced by cooperation, dialogue, and trust.”

Swift said there is also a desire to increase the number of amphibious ships he has in the region by one or two, which would allow Marines and sailors to train more with other nations in the region. They’d likely transport Marines who are based in Darwin, Australia, where they have been based on a rotational basis since 2013. The deployment prompted China to accuse the United States of escalating military tensions.


India also is expected to participate in the Navy’s biannual Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise in and around Hawaii beginning in June. China was invited for the first time in 2014, and is expected to participate again this year again with more than dozen other countries.

Swift said there are benefits to having China involved, and that he and Richardson, the Navy’s chief of naval operations, remain advocate of its participation.

“I think it’s so easy to judge because it’s so hard to understand what we get out of RIMPAC is a much deeper understanding not just of operating together, but an understanding of… that sense of angst that is here in the theater because of a lack of transparency,” Swift said. “I think we have a much higher probability of understanding what Chinese goals are by interacting with their sailors on a regular basis as we do throughout RIMPAC.”


Dan Lamothe covers national security for The Washington Post and anchors its military blog, Checkpoint.


The U.S. and India are deepening military ties — and China is watching - The Washington Post

Asean Powerless to Stop China's Sea Incursions, Mahathir Says

Haslinda Amin haslindatv

March 2, 2016 — 5:00 PM EST

A member of the Malaysian Navy makes a call as their ship approaches a Chinese Coast Guard ship during an exchange of communication in the South China Sea.

Photographer: Rahman Roslan/Getty Images


“It’s going to be the most powerful country in this world, more powerful than the U.S.,” Mahathir said of China. He led Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, during which he made regular trips to China -- in part to limit reliance on western nations -- and trade ties accelerated. Under his leadership Malaysia advocated a pragmatic relationship with China and promoted what he called “Asian values”.


MH370 Tension
China is Malaysia’s largest trading partner and was its fourth-biggest foreign investor in 2015. A Chinese company is paying 9.83 billion ringgit ($2.3 billion) for the energy assets of a troubled Malaysian state investment company, while others are bidding for rail projects in the Southeast Asian nation.

Ties between China and Malaysia were briefly strained after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March 2014 with more than 150 Chinese nationals on board. The two countries along with Australia are still searching for the plane. Premier Li Keqiang said in November that China wants to enhance maritime and defense cooperation with Malaysia.

China in February sparked new questions about its intentions in the South China Sea after it deployed surface-to-air missiles to a contested island, a move that came just months after President Xi Jinping promised not to militarize the disputed atolls. Under Xi, China has reclaimed land to bolster its claims to more than 80 percent of the waterway that hosts $5 trillion of international shipping a year, adding airstrips and lighthouses.

QuickTake map shows overlapping territorial claims of Brunei, China, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam. {NSN O2OSHZ1ANZG8}
At least four Asean members also claim portions of the South China Sea. China has reclaimed 3,000 acres of land over two years, warned U.S. military planes and ships from going near areas it controls and its vessels have regularly clashed with Vietnamese and Philippine fishing boats.

QuickTakeTerritorial Disputes

While the Philippines and Vietnam have protested, other Asean states have been more willing to accommodate China and its economic muscle. In November, Asean defense ministers failed to release a communique from their meeting amid reports of Chinese opposition to language on the disputes. There was a similar failure at a leaders’ summit in Cambodia in 2012.

Satellite imagery of Woody Island
Source: DigitalGlobe via Getty Images
Malaysia has avoided overtly challenging China over its maritime claims. Chinese coast guard ships were spotted off the coast of Sarawak last month, sparking worries among people there, official news agency Bernama reported. Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein was quick to dispel any concerns, saying the situation was under control and that he’d arrange a meeting between the Chinese ambassador and the Sarawak chief minister to resolve any misunderstanding, the report said.

"If you are thinking of having military capability to fight China, you can forget about it," Mahathir said. “We have a problem with China, we’ll sit down and talk to them about the problem. We don’t confront.”

“We don’t believe in wars, we believe in trying to negotiate and to find some peaceful situation to the problem.”

Asean Powerless to Stop China's Sea Incursions, Mahathir Says - Bloomberg Business

US general: China's airpower will overtake the US Air Force by 2030

By Jeremy Bender 4 hours ago

(Chinese Military Review)
A prototype of China's J-20 fifth-generation aircraft.

In a stark assessment, the US Air Force chief-of-staff warned that China's People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) will be poised to overtake the US Air Force by 2030.

On March 2, General Mark Welsh told the House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee that currently it is estimated that the US has a "couple thousand more aircraft" than China, The National Interest reports.
The PLAAF is larger than the US Air Force in terms of personnel, and that size will be represented by the number of aircraft China has in the coming years.

“At the rate they’re building, the models they’re fielding, by 2030 they will have fielded—they will have made up that 2,000 aircraft gap and they will be at least as big—if not bigger—than our air forces," Welsh told the subcommittee.

More importantly than just the number of aircraft and personnel in the PLAAF, though, is Beijing's trend of acquiring and successfully fielding more and more advanced weapons systems. This drive by the PLAAF will also shrink the commanding technological advantage that the US currently holds over China.

“We are not keeping up with that kind of technology development,” Welsh said. “We are still in a position of—we will have the best technology in the battlespace especially if we can continue with our current big three modernization programs.”

Welsh also went on to warn that China "will have a lot of technology that’s better than the stuff we’ve had before."

China is currently constructing prototypes for two different fifth-generation fighters that are specifically tailored to different mission sets. It's J-20 is thought to be making quick development progress, while it's J-31 is believed to be the equal of the F-35 due to espionage and Chinese theft of trade secrets.

Additionally, China is also developing a stealth drone as well as seeking to buy Russia's highly capable Su-35S fighter aircraft.

All these measures taken together will cumulatively make China a significantly more capable military force that could project its will against US protest across East Asia.


US general: China's airpower will overtake the US Air Force by 2030 - Yahoo Finance

 

[dadeechi]

For Policing South China Sea, US Wants India As Buddy Cop
All India | Written by Sudhi Ranjan Sen | Updated: March 03, 2016 18:35 IST
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China claims most of the South China Sea while Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.

New Delhi: The United States needs India to ensure security in the Asia- Pacific, Admiral Harry Harris, Chief US Pacific Command, told a gathering in New Delhi.

"We need you I'm clear eyed - and perhaps a bit moonstruck - by the opportunities a strategic partnership with India presents," the Admiral said at the Observer Research Foundation, inviting India to be part of a four-nation group along with Australia, Japan and the US to police the disputed waters of South China Sea.

China and six countries have overlapping claims to the East and South China Seas, rich in hydrocarbons and natural gas. Besides, global trade worth $5.3 trillion flows through these disputed waters annually.


The US wants to curb China's attempts at asserting its sovereignty in the South China Sea, where Bejing has been building air strips, lighthouses, a possible radar system and ports on an island.

A satellite image shows construction of possible radar tower facilities in the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea.

"A free sea for everyone" remains the "fundamental right of all nations," Admiral Harris said, adding that some "countries seek to bully smaller countries through intimidation and coercion".

India, like several other nations, has insisted on navigational freedom through the South China Sea, but has so far stayed away from multi-lateral groupings - reminiscent of the World War era. It has sought to pursue its national interest through bilateral exchanges rather than through such groups.

Trying to break down India's reluctance, the US admiral pushed for "a quadilateral security dialogue between India-Japan-Australia and the United States."

Adding the US to such a dialogue can amplify the message that "India and US are together for an international rules-based system," Admiral Harris said.

As India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi executes an "Act East Policy," he said, the United States is also changing its focus "to the Indo-Asia- Pacific.

"Chalein saath saath," the Admiral said in Hindi, also translating, "Forward, together we go."
Story First Published:March 03, 2016 18:35 IST

For Policing South China Sea, US Wants India As Buddy Cop

Cooperation between nations should not target 3rd party: China

With US pitching for a quadrilateral security dialogue with India, Japan and Australia, a wary China today said it has no objection to "normal cooperation" between the countries but it should not be aimed at a "third party".



"We have no objection to relevant countries normal cooperation, but we believe that relevant cooperation should not be targeted against third party," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters here without directly mentioning China.

He was responding to a question on remarks made by Admiral Harry B Harris, Jr Commander, US Pacific Command, in New Delhi, proposing a quadrilateral cooperation between the US, India, Japan and Australia.



"One idea to consider is initiating a Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between India-Japan-Australia and the United States. Adding the US into this dialogue can amplify the message that we are united behind the international rules-based order that has kept the peace and is essential to all of us," he had said.

Though he did not specifically mention China, Admiral Harris said powerful countries were seeking to "bully smaller nations through intimidation and coercion" and made the case that a broad naval collaboration was the best way to avert it, media reports said.

He also hoped for a joint patrol in the Asia Pacific region in future.

Hong also gave a similar reply to a question on Malabar exercises held in December last in which Japan was invited to take part along with the US and India.

"We hope that cooperation among relevant countries will be conducive to regional peace and stability as well as security instead of harming interests of a third party," he said.

Hong's remarks come in the backdrop of two articles in the last few days in state-run Global Times which lashed out US' attempts to rope in India for joint patrols in the disputed South China Sea.

While one article said India cannot afford to loose China's support by joining US patrols, another article on February 26 in the same daily said, "any move by India to join the US navy for jointly patrolling the disputed South China Sea will be against its national interest and it would divide Asian countries and further escalate regional tensions.

Cooperation between nations should not target 3rd party: China | Business Standard News

 

[randomradio]

“China actually has many ways to hurt India,” he said. “China could send an aircraft carrier to the Gwadar port in Pakistan. China had turned down the Pakistan offer to have military stationed in the country. If India forces China to do that, of course we can put a navy at your doorstep.”

And India can send an an aircraft carrier to Vietnam, right next to Hainan. And the difference is, India actually has an operational carrier.

“This kind of progress is, frankly, stunning,” Harris said Wednesday. “We went from rarely talking only a few years ago to not only talking together, but doing together. Skepticism, suspicion, and doubt on both sides have been replaced by cooperation, dialogue, and trust.”

That's true.

US general: China's airpower will overtake the US Air Force by 2030

This should be enough clue to people who are skeptical about India's plan to build a large number of aircraft over the next 10 years.

 

[dadeechi]

And India can send an an aircraft carrier to Vietnam, right next to Hainan. And the difference is, India actually has an operational carrier.



That's true.



This should be enough clue to people who are skeptical about India's plan to build a large number of aircraft over the next 10 years.

India does not need to send it's carrier. US is already there. US just needs moral support from India and Japan .

U.S. carrier group sails into waters claimed by China
USA Today Network David Larter, Navy Times 5:19 p.m. EST March 3, 2016
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The U.S. Navy has dispatched a small armada to the South China Sea.

The carrier John C. Stennis, two destroyers, two cruisers and the 7th Fleet flagship have sailed into the disputed waters in the last 24 hours, according to military officials. The carrier strike group is the latest show of force in the tense region, with the U.S. asserting that China is militarizing the region to guard its excessive territorial claims.

The Stennis deployed from Washington state on Jan. 15.

The stand-off has been heating up on both sides. After news in February that the Chinese had deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile battery to the Paracel Islands, U.S. Pacific Command head Adm. Harry Harris told lawmakers that China was militarizing the South China Sea.

"In my opinion China is clearly militarizing the South China Sea," Harris testified on Feb. 24. "You’d have to believe in a flat Earth to believe otherwise."


USA TODAY

Report: China deploys missiles to disputed island in South China Sea


A 7th Fleet spokesman downplayed the heavy U.S. presence in the region.

"Our ships and aircraft operate routinely throughout the Western Pacific — including the South China Sea — and have for decades," Cmdr. Clay Doss said in a statement. "In 2015 alone, Pacific Fleet ships sailed about 700 combined days in the South China Sea."

However, experts say sending Stennis and its air wing to the South China Sea is a clear signal to China and the region.

"Clearly the Navy and (Department of Defense) is demonstrating its full commitment to presence and freedom of navigation in the region,” said Jerry Hendrix, a retired Navy captain and analyst with the Center for a New American Security in Washington, D.C. “With the full carrier strike group and the command ship, the Navy is showing the scope of its interests and ability to project presence and power around world.”



USA TODAY

Navy challenges China, others in South China Sea


The destroyer Lassen's October patrol within the 12-mile limit of China's manmade South China Sea islands was the first challenge of China's sovereignty over the Spratly Islands since Chinese land-reclamation projects began there.

On Jan. 30, the destroyer Curtis Wilbur patrolled near Triton Island, part of the Paracel Islands chain China also claims.

Six nations in the region lay claim to parts or all of the disputed islands chains. The Spratly Islands, a collection of reefs, rocks and other natural features, have been the site of extensive Chinese land reclamation projects. In the last two years, China has begun constructing islands on top of reefs and claiming territorial seas around them to gain exclusive fishing and resource rights to most of the South China Sea.

These disputes have led to violence in the past. In 1974, a conflict between South Vietnam and China led to a shootout in the Paracel Islands, located between Vietnam and China's Hainan Island. That dispute continues.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...er-group-sails-waters-claimed-china/81283674/

 

[asad71]

and your country is a nukar if chamcha.

I wonder why u inferior breed make fun of India when u guys are nothing more than subhumans

Come to the subject which is the sate of affairs in IN. Wife swapping, eh!! Ships blowing up at dock!! Our ancestors did not do enough to civilize you banya pagan dhotis.

 

[asad71]

He aint a bengali he is an Urdu speaker, he is one of those so called stranded pakistanis . Na ghar ka na ghat ka Kyu A sad miya ?

Discuss the subject, not the discussant. Or you shall be REPORTED.