Posted on 09/01/2020 8:28:14 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Washington aims to formalise its closer Indo-Pacific defence relations with India, Japan and Australia – also known as “the quad” – into something more closely resembling the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), a senior US State Department official said on Monday.
The US government’s goal is to get the grouping of four countries and others in the region to work together as a bulwark against “a potential challenge from China” and “to create a critical mass around shared values and interests of those parties in a manner that attracts more countries in the Indo-Pacific and even from around the world … ultimately to align in a more structured manner”, said Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun.
“The Indo-Pacific region is actually lacking in strong multilateral structures,” he said. “They don‘t have anything of the fortitude of NATO or the European Union. The strongest institutions in Asia oftentimes are not, I think, not inclusive enough and so … there is certainly an invitation there at some point to formalise a structure like this.”
“Remember even NATO started with relatively modest expectations and a number of countries [initially] chose neutrality over NATO membership,” Biegun added. Biegun cautioned that Washington would keep its ambitions for a Pacific NATO “checked”, saying that such a formal alliance “only will happen if the other countries are as committed as the United States”.
Speaking with former US ambassador to India, Richard Verma, in an online discussion organised by the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, Biegun also said the group of four nations were expected to meet in Delhi sometime this autumn and cited Australia’s possible participation in India’s Malabar naval exercise as an example of progress towards a more formal defence bloc.
India is “clearly indicating an intention to invite Australia to participate in the Malabar naval exercises,
(Excerpt) Read more at scmp.com ...
That would be very strategic. China could be squeezed from multiple sides. I'm pretty sure we developed some good relationships with the "stans" (excluding Afghanistan) after 9/11. That's some pressure from the west for what it's worth. BTW, I'm not a war monger. However, it is important to project power to avoid war. I was all in on invading Iraq after 9/11, but i did not want the nation building crap. I wanted to squeeze Iran from multiple sides. To their east, close to the border we built an airbase in Afghanistan. We made friends with Turkmenistan to the north. The Turks were/are sort of allies to the NE of Iran. But we got side tracked building the green zone and other money holes. We should have been content to just hold air bases west of Baghdad but still only a short distance from Iran.
Hopefully Trump is thinking along the same lines with China. I guarantee Biden, Romney, McCain and Obozo never had these thoughts cross their minds. It's no mystery. Just read Sun Tzu. I'm willing to bet Trump has, and had used Sun Tzu in business for decades.
You’re confusing foreign policy and domestic policy. Military actions are not domestic - this alliance is to maintain peace and restrain China’s unchecked expansionist goals. Right now, WE are the only thing holding them back.
Federalism. Remember our form of government??? National law enforcement is supposed to handle domestic terrorism.
The Philippines has almost no military, but they have wonderful naval facilities that we built - base the alliance at Subic Bay, thereby keeping that nation safe. This helps fence the PLAN into the South China Sea.
Without the Philippines in place, China is into the Pacific easily.
We are currently fully, hugely invested in China.
That needs to stop.
Now. That is the problem.
Low yield nuclear weapons have been put into our forces as anti missile weapons - to defeat hypersonic weapons. No need to hit a bullet with a bullet when you can generate and intense pressure wave across a wide area.
“Japan could assemble a nuke warhead in 1 week, or less.”
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And mass produce them in short order. There’s a reason that Japan is disengaging economically from China even faster than Trump’s USA.
About time.
Would be nice to pull in Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, and Philippines. Even Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia is tired of China's crap.
Perhaps we can have different tiers to the alliance. Some countries can contribute strategic ports and bases with minimal troop contributions.
Taiwan is the elephant in the room. Nobody wants to talk about it, but the alliance should include them.
I’m not sure about the Philippines. If we get too re-invested in Subic Bay then Duterte is liable to threaten to tilt toward China unless we pay up, regardless of how much we might have already promised/invested. I’m just not sure he can be trusted. It’s just such a shame that Subic Bay is so perfectly positioned for the current situation, but is controlled by someone so untrustworthy.
Vietnam is an interesting potential partner also. It’s government might be more likely to keep its word, but can we really have a mutual defense pact with a communist state?
The rest of the quad plus South Korea and New Zealand are both democracies and reliable, but less well positioned for conflict in the South China Sea,
This has been on the drawing board for some time...the logical alliance against Communist China.
IPTO
Indo Pacific Treaty Organization
i would envision australia, new zealand, taiwan, south korea, japan, malaysia, singapore, india, possibly even vietnam
maybe even include panama
Forming a security alliance is a lot different than an unprovoked invasion of another country. A security alliance actually *reduces* the likelihood of conflict. Bush wasn't looking to reduce conflict the way Trump does by strengthening the military and forming alliances. Bush had already made up his mind to start a war. He was needed something to justify it to the American people.
was needed = just needed
Wise. Very wise.
Shinzo Abe’s likely replacement and current defense minister, Shigeru Ishiba, is a big time military hawk. He is all for nuking up.
Our former bases at Subic and Clark are full of commercial activity now. Would be difficult for military to use.
Bookmark
“Even Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia is tired of China’s crap.”
These are the lower-cost competitors that are getting business the West used to send to Red China; that is the source of much tension there.
Replacing Red China with India as a lower-cost factory and source of white-collar replacement population does nothing for the average American; India made a point of heading the non-aligned nations during the Cold War, and has nothing in common culturally with us.
Let them fight it out with Red China - alone.
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