Category: India

US focusing on PH over rest of Southeast Asia – expert

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

US focusing on PH over rest of Southeast Asia – expert

Speaking at a Stratbase Forum in Makati City, Gregory Poling, senior fellow and director of the Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said the collaboration extends to Japan trilateral and bilateral partnerships.

Poling noted the exemption of military aid for the Philippines, along with Taiwan and Ukraine.

“The Philippines is the only country in Asia that explicitly had its military assistance unlocked as a result of Secretary [Enrique] Manalo’s meeting with Secretary [Marco] Rubio. That’s a pretty good sign.

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[02-10-2025] Bangladesh launches ‘Operation Devil Hunt’ against Hasina loyalists

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, head of the interior ministry in the interim government that took over after Hasina was ousted in the August 2024 student-led revolution, has dubbed it “Operation Devil Hunt”.

“It will continue until we uproot the devils,” Chowdhury told reporters. The sweeping security operations come after days of unrest.

On Wednesday, six months to the day since Hasina fled as crowds stormed her palace in Dhaka, protesters smashed down buildings connected to her family using excavators.

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Pentagon Appointee Opposes ‘Belligerent Military Initiatives’ Aimed at China

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The Pentagon official tasked with overseeing U.S. defense policy toward Southeast Asia recently advised against pursuing hawkish defense policies and a major trade war against China, a marked contrast with top Trump appointees.

John Andrew Byers, a longtime history professor who oversaw the Charles Koch philanthropic network’s grants promoting libertarian foreign policy stances at universities, was sworn in this week as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia — a role that immediately thrusts him to the center of America’s response to China’s ongoing military pressure campaign targeting the Philippines, with which Washington holds a mutual defense treaty.

Pentagon Appointee Opposes ‘Belligerent Military Initiatives’ Aimed at China

Related:

Lowy Institute: Trump’s grand bargain? The Philippines caught between US and China by Richard Heydarian

CGS non-resident fellow Andrew Byers co-authors article with The American Conservative

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia: Andrew Byers

Rant 02-10-2025: Doveryai, No Proveryai

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Pascal did it again! He keeps bringing on David Pyne, without disclosing that he’s a member of the hawkish group, Committee on the Present Danger: China. Pyne is far from neutral on the issue of China!

Related:

The US Scare Campaign Against China (History of the Committee on the Present Danger)

The following statistics are from the Cato Institute, which is affiliated with the Atlas Network via the Koch Network.

Cato Scholar Debunks Trump’s Fentanyl Figures amid Tariff Talk

Decades of drug war tactics have failed, merely shifting production of fentanyl precursors from China to India, Myanmar, other parts of Southeast Asia, and even Canada. Canadian authorities report “superlabs” are shipping fentanyl to drug dealers in Australia and New Zealand and, to a lesser amount, to the US.

Canadian-made fentanyl is an international problem, RCMP says

Fentanyl Trafficking 2023

86.4% were United States citizens

U.S. Citizens Were 89% of Convicted Fentanyl Traffickers in 2022

Fentanyl Is Smuggled for U.S. Citizens By U.S. Citizens, Not Asylum Seekers

The Dark Alliance (PDF)

The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (PDF)

Internet Archive: Barry & ‘the boys’ : the CIA, the Mob and America’s secret history

US moves Typhon missile launchers to new strategic site in Philippines

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Reuters

The Typhon launchers, which carry Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of reaching targets in China and Russia from the Philippines, also house SM-6 missiles, which can strike air or sea targets more than 200 km away.

The US military has relocated its Typhon missile launchers—capable of firing multipurpose missiles over thousands of kilometers—from Laoag Airfield in the Philippines to another location on Luzon island, a senior Philippine government source revealed, as reported by Reuters.

US moves Typhon missile launchers to new strategic site in Philippines

Previously:

‘It’s a win’: Philippines, China uphold South China Sea deal on resupply missions

Philippine Army acquiring US missile system

What’s Really Going On In the South China Sea Between the Philippines and China