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
Read More »US Navy Aircraft Transits Taiwan Strait, China Responds
Read More »The U.S. Navy’s 7th fleet said a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft transited the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday.
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Around once a month, U.S. military ships or aircraft pass through or above the waterway that separates
democratically governedTaiwan 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.
Has anyone realized that by disclosing the existence of “US Task Force Ayungin,” Biden admin implicitly recognized Philippines’ sovereignty over a disputed SCS feature?
Washington has never taken a position on SCS territories(but it has in ECS). This is a clear signal to China.*
South China Sea: US troop aid may reassure Philippines but will prod China, analysts say (archived)
The Philippines has said the US task force only offered support – in the form of intelligence and surveillance – and did not directly take part in its resupply missions to BRP Sierra Madre, the retired warship, but analysts suggested that China’s leadership could see it in a different light.
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Zheng said the revelation about the American task force meant the US was likely to be more engaged in the drawn-out maritime conflicts in the region, even suggesting that Washington would “be the first to take part in the command and planning of Philippine maritime activities”.
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Ding Duo, deputy director of the Centre for Oceans Law and Policy at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies in Hainan, said the presence of a special task force showed that Washington and Manila had long cooperated on resupply operations to Second Thomas Shoal.
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“Such support emboldens the Philippines and is not conducive to China and the Philippines managing their differences,” Ding said. “The US involvement has also squeezed the political space for internal coordination and decision-making within the Philippines.”
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He said it was also possible that American troops could be on Philippine ships and involved in front-line action “using a covert or concealed identity to participate in Philippine maritime operations” in future.
He said the US could “only intervene [in South China Sea disputes] in a covert manner and so it took the form of a task force”.
Related:
Read More »‘Kill’ plot vs Marcos ‘maliciously taken out of context’ —VP Sara (archived)
BBM seems to be taking out his opponents from what I’ve been observing. The next presidential election is in 2028. I wonder how involved the CIA is?
Related:
Sara Duterte Exposes House Panel’s Off-Cam Confession: It’s All About Election Funds
“After that meeting with the Makabayan bloc and Martin Romualdez, they started destroying my name, pummeling me in the media with the multi million PR campaign. They even insulted me by lying that I was a traitor, a corrupt, an abusive person. Your motherfucker, who is corrupt?” she said during an online press briefing early Saturday.
“Those congressmen who are holding hearings, what do they say when the hearing is over, when the mic is off, when the media is gone- ‘Excuse me, we need money because the election is coming up. Please tell Sara, I don’t like what I’m doing,’” she said.
The country’s veep then directed her fury at Manila Rep. Joel Chua, head of the House panel probing the confidential funds use, accusing him of hypocrisy.
“You motherfucker, you don’t like what you’re doing, why are you ruining my name, Joel Chua?”
Protracted wars in the Middle East and Ukraine are draining the US arsenal of interceptor missiles. The problem is especially severe in Palestine and in the Red Sea, where dozens of missiles are launched monthly against incoming rockets and drones.
Read More »
The implementation of yet another U.S. initiative may allow it to interfere in the information policy of ASEAN and control the cyberspace of all of Southeast Asia.
Related:
This reminds me of the tech camps that were held in Ukraine before the Euromaidan. Anyone who has been following me for a while knows where that led to. Except, replace China with Russia.
Read More »
For Taiwan, Trump’s ‘protection’ money may mean new and early big ticket arms deals
“Watch for Taiwan on the defence side to try and start engaging them on a big arms package – to do something significant, very large,” Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council which helps broker defence exchanges between Washington and Taipei, told Reuters, adding it could come in the first quarter of next year.
“But think of it as a down payment, an attention getter,” he said. “They’ll stack up several big platforms and big buys of munitions.”
The U.S. is already Taiwan’s most important arms supplier, although Taiwan has complained of an order backlog worth some $20 billion. A new order, almost $2 billion of missile systems, was announced last month.
Related:
Profile at BowerGroupAsia: Rupert Hammond-Chambers
The Financial Times reported that “Two of the ideas were laid out in Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s ‘victory plan’ with Trump specifically in mind”, with these being the proposal for Ukraine’s partners to extract its resource wealth and Ukraine’s offer to replace some US troops stationed in Europe. Trump probably really does appreciate these two points since they align with his interests. The first would help him recoup some of the US’ investment in Ukraine while the second could facilitate his “Pivot (back) to Asia”.
As a businessman, Trump doesn’t want his country to lose out on promising business opportunities in Ukraine after investing several hundred billion dollars there, hence why he’s unlikely to abandon his predecessor’s proxy war completely even though he’s much more likely to try to reach a deal. Senator Lindsey Graham estimated over the summer that Ukraine has $10-12 trillion worth of critical minerals under its soil. Even if it “only” has $1 trillion, then it’s still attractive enough to catch Trump’s attention.
Trump Probably Really Does Appreciate Two Points From Zelensky’s “Victory Plan”
So why does he want to risk business with China? 🤷🏼♀️
Read it at Antiwar.com or here with graphics. FYI, the “Ant” in Antonis is pronounced as 🐜.
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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