Last year, 17,600 troops from the Philippines took part in Balikatan, a record for an annual military exercise between the Americans and the Tagalogs.  According to Manila’s statement, the interaction between the US, Philippine and Australian Armed Forces will be even bigger in 2024. What’s more, this year’s joint military exercise will take place in the Philippines’ northern islands, which are just 150 kilometres (93 nautical miles) from Taiwan. Already this weekend, military officials from the three countries will travel to the uninhabited…

On 26 January, the people of India celebrated the main bank holidays, Republic Day, which commemorates the adoption of the Constitution and the country’s transition from being a British colony to a sovereign democratic state. It is a very important holiday for the people of India – a day off when schools, institutes, government organisations and most businesses are closed. In New Delhi and state capitals there are festive processions and grand military parades with the participation of all branches of the armed forces. On the main avenue of the Indian capital, where the main parade took place…

As early as February this year, Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, will hold a presidential election. Based on a poll of the archipelago’s population, there are three main candidates – Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto (35% support), representative of the ruling Indonesian Struggle Party Ganjara Pranowo (30% support) and Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan (22% support). At the moment, the result is unpredictable, but it is already known for sure that the political climate in the whole Southeast Asia depends…

This is especially notable when combined with the rise to power in Taiwan of staunch separatist Lai Ching-te, who has taken a hardline stance on the island’s independence from the PRC. While the world is anxiously following the intricacies of the US election race, US political scientists and international relations experts predict that any outcome of the campaign does not bode well for China, the world’s second largest economy and the Americans’ main rival. Anti-China sentiments are so deeply rooted and spread throughout the political establishment of the United States…

The election of a candidate from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which supports Taipei’s independence and closer ties with the United States, may result in increased tensions with Beijing. The situation regarding the conflict around Taiwan is becoming increasingly complex. On January 13 of this year, international experts were making preliminary forecasts for the general elections on the island and possible developments…

Apart from spending enormous sums on the military and weapons for allies, the National Defense Authorization Act extends the surveillance authority that allows the FBI to spy on foreigners and U.S. citizens without a warrant. Before plunging into the intricacies of the US budget policy, I would like to recall the statement made by US President Joe Biden in the fall of 2021 at the UN General Assembly, when he tried to convince the world community that the US infatuation with war had ended. “Going forward, the United States will no longer treat military power as an answer…

Washington continues to methodically build up the military capabilities of its most promising Asian “small geometry” alliance, AUKUS, which includes its most trusted allies, the UK and Australia, in an attempt to maintain military dominance over the PRC. On 1 December, the Defense Ministers of the three countries met at the headquarters of the Defense Innovation unit in California, where they were given a visual showcase of the U.S. progress in developing promising weapons. The choice of location and the stunning showcase were intended to provide an additional…

Japan sees itself as “Poland for Ukraine” in the event of escalation, and the United States is actively ramping up its production of the latest weapons. A little more than a month is left until the presidential elections in Taiwan, scheduled for January 13, 2024. In the run-up to elections, the candidate from Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is currently leading in the polls, leaving his contenders from the opposition Kuomintang and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) behind. The lack of agreement between…

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s policy of rapprochement with the United States is destroying Philippine-Chinese relations. To date, the level of interaction between countries has dropped to its lowest level over the past decade. The cause of the discord was a new round of escalation of the territorial dispute over a number of islands of the Spratly (Nansha) archipelago in the South China Sea…

In this March, at the meeting of the AUKUS block leaders, the leaders of the USA, UK and Australia in their joint statement declared the plan for the further development of the alliance within the framework of which three American NPS, Virginia type, nuclear-powered, will be sold to Canberra. This may become the first case in history when a non-nuclear state will reinforce its fleet with submarines of this type, thereby creating an international precedent. Before this, such submarines have been in service only with five members of the so-called nuclear club: the USA, Russia, UK, France and China…

On September 8, 2023, Stratfor issued an article in which a group of authors forecasts a dismal future for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It specifically states that ASEAN’s inaction on critical problems at its most recent summit will erode the value of the Association to its members and eventually push them to align themselves with China or the US, effectively ending ASEAN’s existence. According to Stratfor, the ASEAN conference failed to achieve real progress on matters critical to ASEAN as a whole. This “failure” is allegedly so serious that the Association’s member states are forced to seek new allies.  The American think tank attributes it to the crisis in Myanmar and ASEAN…

France began withdrawing its military contingent from another African country – Niger, which it traditionally considered one of its completely controlled “departments”. Previously, the French were asked from Mali and Burkina Faso. Without exaggeration, the departure of one and a half thousand French troops from Niger can be called significant. Here it is enough to mention only two factors that are significant for Paris: the important geopolitical position of Niger in terms of control over the strategically important Sahara-Sahel zone, and also the fact that Niger…