Messages at Shangri-La

by Brian Berletic

During this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth laid out an alarming vision for the future of the Asia-Pacific region, a vision that includes the same type of U.S. military encroachment and confrontation that has turned Europe, North Africa and the Middle East into devastated battlegrounds over the past two decades.

Messages at Shangri-La (archived)

Pentagon Appointee Opposes ‘Belligerent Military Initiatives’ Aimed at China

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

Ukraine: MFA welcomes Kellogg’s nomination for special envoy for Ukraine and Russia

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has welcomed the nomination of Keith Kellogg for the position of Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia and expressed its readiness to cooperate.

MFA welcomes Kellogg’s nomination for special envoy for Ukraine and Russia

Related:

America First, Russia, & Ukraine by Lt. General (Ret.) Keith Kellogg & Fred Fleitz

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US Navy Aircraft Transits Taiwan Strait, China Responds (+the U.S. is not obligated to defend Taiwan)

US Navy Aircraft Transits Taiwan Strait, China Responds

The U.S. Navy’s 7th fleet said a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft transited the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday.

Around once a month, U.S. military ships or aircraft pass through or above the waterway that separates democratically governed Taiwan from China – missions that always anger Beijing. China claims sovereignty over the island of Taiwan and says it has jurisdiction over the strait. Taiwan and the United States dispute that, saying the strait is an international waterway.

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Trumpism, NATO and the Ukraine war

Trumpism, NATO and the Ukraine war (original)

“Two years ago, General Mark A. Milley, then President Biden’s chief military adviser, suggested that neither Russia nor Ukraine could win the war. A negotiated solution, he argued, was the only path to peace. His comments caused a furor among senior officials. But President-elect Donald J. Trump’s victory is making General Milley’s prediction come true,” wrote The New York Times in an article published last week, part of a growing line of arguments by those who fear that the arrival of the new Republican administration will mean leaving Ukraine to its own devices. These articles, present in all major American and European media, take literally Trump’s desire to end the war and his lack of interest in the situation in Ukraine. This has also been helped by the words of JD Vance, who, from his ignorance of the conflict, has proposed a plan that can only satisfy Russia, or the exalted response of Donald Trump Jr. after the confirmation of the American permission to use Western missiles against targets on the territory of mainland Russia. Sometimes, think-tankers and experts also add Trump’s disdain for NATO or his desire not to rescue member countries that do not meet the minimum investment required by the Alliance in the event of a Russian attack.

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[Anonymous] US official accuses Russia and China of blocking Asia leaders’ statement

Full video

US official accuses Russia and China of blocking Asia leaders’ statement

WASHINGTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) – Russia and China blocked a proposed consensus statement for the East Asia Summit drafted by Southeast Asian countries, mainly over objections to language on the contested South China Sea, a U.S. official told Reuters on Saturday.

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