Tag: security pacts

Macron rejects ‘confrontation’ as he relaunches Asia strategy

Ms. Cat

Macron rejects ‘confrontation’ as he relaunches Asia strategy

“We don’t believe in hegemony, we don’t believe in confrontation, we believe in stability,” Macron said.

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Macron said a coordinated response was needed to tackle the overlapping crises facing the international community — from climate change to economic turmoil triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“Our Indo-Pacific strategy is how to provide dynamic balance in this environment,” he said.

“How to provide precisely a sort of stability and equilibrium which could not be the hegemony of one of those, could not be the confrontation of the two major powers.”

The Indo-Pacific Strategy doesn’t sound as innocent as Macron makes it out to be:

The new US Indo-Pacific Strategy document released in February has two interesting components, one overt and one covert. The document overtly declares the US is an “Indo-Pacific power.” Covertly, its aim is to “tighten the noose around China.” Arguably, minus the military might, China’s nearly a decade-long “Belt and Road Initiative” cannot be perceived as a grand national strategy aimed at controlling Eurasia or the Asia Pacific or any region for that matter. Yet the BRI is mythologized into such a geostrategic game-changer that it has rattled the US and its allies in the Asia Pacific. The BRI, at best, is nothing more than a mere geopolitical overland and maritime “chessboard” based on trade and investment.

BRI and the ‘Indo-Pacific’ Strategy: Geopolitical vs. Geostrategic

Dunderheaded Diplomacy: Australia’s Funding Offer to the Solomon Islands

Ms. Cat1 Comment

What is it about Australian diplomacy that makes it so clumsy and dunderheaded? Is it the harsh delivery, the tactless expression, or the inability to do things with subtle reflection? On September 6, Australian diplomacy gave another display of such form with Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s remarks about the Solomon Islands elections.

Dunderheaded Diplomacy: Australia’s Funding Offer to the Solomon Islands

Previously:

Solomon Islands votes to delay election as opposition cries foul

Is the Solomon Islands an Australian colony?

“Partnership in Blue Pacific” to Turn Pacific Islands into Anti-China War Zone

Ms. Cat

Jun 30, 2022 The US has announced yet another anti-China alliance. This one is called, “Partners in Blue Pacific,” and either includes or soon will include both the UK and France as well as Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.

This is about countering China – but if China is attempting to trade, develop, and raise the entire region with its own rise upon the global stage – it means the US and its allies are attempting to counter development and progress for these Pacific island nations.

Many of these nations are approaching China in the first place specifically because of the impoverished, destabilized state they’ve been left in by the US and its allies.

“Partnership in Blue Pacific” to Turn Pacific Islands into Anti-China War Zone (Odysee) via The New Atlas

References:

US and allies launch initiative to help Pacific Island nations

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Myanmar Violence: a Slow Burn US Proxy War

Ms. Cat

The ongoing violence in Myanmar may have faded into the background of global media coverage as much more intense conflict shapes up within and along Ukraine’s borders in Eastern Europe and as Washington raises the prospect of direct conflict with China in Asia. However, Myanmar’s conflict serves as a point of destabilization which may impact the wider stability of Southeast Asia and thus undermine China in a more indirect but still significant manner.

Myanmar Violence: a Slow Burn US Proxy War

The misbegotten notion that the South Pacific is a US sphere of influence

Ms. Cat

The misbegotten notion that the South Pacific is a US sphere of influence

For its part, the U.S. has neglected the Solomon Islands and taken the country for granted for many years, and it is only when it seems to be drifting towards Beijing’s orbit that our government can be bothered to pay close attention. There hadn’t been a U.S. embassy in Honiara for almost 30 years until it announced it was being reopened earlier this year, and even that was justified as an anti-Chinese move. Washington says that it believes that small states should be able to decide for themselves about how to make their security arrangements and decide their foreign policy orientation, but it doesn’t adhere to that line when a government builds closer ties with China.

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Many Western analysts grossly exaggerated the size and importance of an agreement between China and Iran last year with references to an “axis” or an “alliance” that doesn’t exist. More recently, the Pentagon has been sounding the alarm over a possible Chinese naval base in Equatorial Guinea that isn’t being built and wouldn’t pose much of a threat if it did exist.

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The U.S. cannot neglect small nations and then expect them to fall in line when U.S. officials finally show up to complain about their relations with other states. If the U.S. wants to cultivate stronger ties with Pacific and Asian nations, it will have to make a consistent effort to work with these governments on issues of common interest. Insofar as the U.S. treats these states primarily as pawns in a rivalry with China, our government should not be surprised when some of them opt to cooperate more closely with China.

Related:

China Announces Signing of Security Pact With Solomon Islands Amid Biden’s Attempt to Sabotage Deal

China Announces Signing of Security Pact With Solomon Islands Amid Biden’s Attempt to Sabotage Deal

Ms. Cat

Australia and the US have tried to persuade the Solomon Islands to reconsider signing a security agreement with China. A high-level delegation is scheduled to arrive in Honiara this week as Washington sought to prevent the island nation from forging a security pact with Beijing.

China Announces Signing of Security Pact With Solomon Islands Amid Biden’s Attempt to Sabotage Deal

Related:

U.S. team is off to Solomon Islands amid concern over draft security pact with China

Solomon Islands: A Risky Move Out From Under Western Control

New cold war neocolonialism: West threatens Solomon Islands over China alliance