Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast
Results 26 to 50 of 64
  1. #26
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,563
    Why don't you tweet him and ask him?

  2. #27
    Thailand Expat
    Klondyke's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Last Online
    26-09-2021 @ 10:28 PM
    Posts
    10,105
    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    Which "Rules" might they be?
    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    Why don't you tweet him and ask him?
    Surprise, 'arry usually would know the answer...

  3. #28
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Last Online
    Today @ 02:08 PM
    Location
    Where troubles melt like lemon drops
    Posts
    25,224
    Quote Originally Posted by Klondyke View Post
    Surprise, 'arry usually would know the answer...
    Unless of course he has no idea what the "rules" he continues to support consist of.

  4. #29
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,563
    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    Unless of course he has no idea what the "rules" he continues to support consist of.
    That would be the international ones that the chinkies cherry pick to suit their purpose and ignore when they don't.

  5. #30
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    48,105
    With Swarms of Ships, Beijing Tightens Its Grip on South China Sea

    The Chinese ships settled in like unwanted guests who wouldn’t leave.


    As the days passed, more appeared. They were simply fishing boats, China said, though they did not appear to be fishing. Dozens even lashed themselves together in neat rows, seeking shelter, it was claimed, from storms that never came.


    Not long ago, China asserted its claims on the South China Sea by building and fortifying artificial islands in waters also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. Its strategy now is to reinforce those outposts by swarming the disputed waters with vessels, effectively defying the other countries to expel them.


    The goal is to accomplish by overwhelming presence what it has been unable to do through diplomacy or international law. And to an extent, it appears to be working.


    “Beijing pretty clearly thinks that if it uses enough coercion and pressure over a long enough period of time, it will squeeze the Southeast Asians out,” said Greg Poling, the director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, which tracks developments in the South China Sea. “It’s insidious.”


    China’s actions reflect the country’s growing confidence under its leader, Xi Jinping. They could test the Biden administration, as well as Beijing’s neighbors in the South China Sea, who are increasingly dependent on China’s strong economy and supply of Covid-19 vaccines.


    The latest incident has unfolded in recent weeks around Whitsun Reef, a boomerang-shaped feature that emerges above water only at low tide. At one point in March, 220 Chinese ships were reported to be anchored around the reef, prompting protests from Vietnam and the Philippines, which both have claims there, and from the United States.


    The Philippine defense secretary, Delfin Lorenzana, called their presence “a clear provocation.” Vietnam’s foreign ministry accused China of violating the country’s sovereignty and demanded that the ships leave.


    By this past week, some had left but many remained, according to satellite photographs taken by Maxar Technologies, a company based in Colorado. Others moved to another reef only a few miles away, while a new swarm of 45 Chinese ships was spotted 100 miles northeast at another island controlled by the Philippines, Thitu, according to the satellite photos and Philippine officials.


    “The Chinese ambassador has a lot of explaining to do,” Mr. Lorenzana said in a statement on Saturday.


    The buildup has inflamed tensions in a region that, along with Taiwan, threatens to become another flash point in the intensifying confrontation between China and the United States.


    Although the United States has not taken a position on disputes in the South China Sea, it has criticized China’s aggressive tactics there, including the militarization of its bases. For years, the United States has sent Navy warships on routine patrols to challenge China’s asserted right to restrict any military activity there — three times just since President Biden took office in January.


    Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken expressed support for the Philippines over the presence of the Chinese vessels. “We will always stand by our allies and stand up for the rules-based international order,” he wrote on Twitter.


    The buildup has highlighted the further erosion of the Philippines’ control of the disputed waters, which could become a problem for the country’s president, Rodrigo Duterte.


    The country’s defense department dispatched two aircraft and one ship to Whitsun Reef to document the buildup but did not otherwise intervene. It is not known whether Vietnamese forces responded.


    Critics say China’s disregard for the Philippine claims reflects the failure of Mr. Duterte’s efforts to cozy up to the Communist Party leadership in Beijing.


    “People need to hear from the commander in chief himself, a coward to China but a bully to his own people,” said Mr. Duterte’s staunchest political opponent, Senator Leila de Lima. Mr. Duterte has not publicly addressed the matter, though his spokesman suggested that quiet efforts to defuse the situation were underway.


    China has brushed off the protests. A spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, Hua Chunying, said that Chinese fishermen “have been fishing in the waters near the reef all along.” Officials in the Philippines and experts said there was no evidence of that.


    Whitsun Reef is part of an atoll known as Union Banks, about 175 nautical miles from Palawan, a Philippine island. The Philippines, China and Vietnam each claim that the atoll lies within their country’s exclusive economic zones, but only China and Vietnam have established a regular physical presence there, giving each a secure, if not legal, advantage in asserting control.


    Vietnam has occupied four islets in the atoll since the 1970s, while China has built two outposts on previously submerged reefs as part of its program, underway since 2014, to dredge up seven artificial islands. Two of the outposts — Grierson Reef, occupied by Vietnam, and Hughes Reef, occupied by China — are less than three nautical miles apart.


    An international tribunal convened under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ruled in 2016 that China’s expansive claim to almost all of the South China Sea had no legal basis, though it stopped short of dividing the territory among its various claimants. China has based its claims on a “nine-dash line” drawn on maps before the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.


    A Philippine patrol first reported the large number of ships at Whitsun Reef on March 7. According to Mr. Poling, satellite photographs have shown a regular, though smaller, Chinese presence over the past year at the reef.


    By March 29, 45 ships remained at Whitsun, according to a statement on Wednesday by the National Task Force-West Philippines Sea, an agency that reports to the Philippine president’s office. The task force counted 254 ships as well as four Chinese warships that day in the Spratlys, an archipelago of more than 100 islands, cays and other outcroppings between the Philippines and Vietnam.


    The task force said the 254 ships were not fishing vessels, as Beijing claimed, but part of China’s maritime militia, an ostensibly civilian force that has become an integral instrument of China’s new maritime strategy. Many of these boats, while unarmed, are operated by reservists or others who carry out the orders of the Coast Guard and People’s Liberation Army.


    “They may be doing illicit activities at night and their lingering (swarming) presence may cause irreparable damage to the marine environment,” the task force’s statement said.


    The presence of so many Chinese ships is meant to intimidate. “By having them there, and spreading them out across these expanses of water around the reefs the others occupy, or around oil and gas fields or fishing grounds, you are steadily pushing the Filipinos and the Vietnamese out,” Mr. Poling said.


    “If you’re a Filipino fisherman, you’re always getting harassed by these guys,” he said. “They’re always maneuvering a little too close, blowing horns at you. At some point you just give up and stop fishing there.”


    Patrols and statements aside, Mr. Duterte’s government does not seem eager to confront China. His spokesman, Harry Roque, echoed the Chinese claims that the ships were merely sheltering temporarily.


    “We hope the weather clears up,” he said, “and in the spirit of friendship we are hoping that their vessels will leave the area.”


    The Philippines has become increasingly dependent on Chinese trade and, as it fights the pandemic, largess.


    On Monday, the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines arrived in Manila from China with great fanfare. As many as four million doses are scheduled to arrive by May, some of them donations. China’s ambassador, Huang Xilian, attended the vaccines’ arrival and later met with Mr. Duterte.


    “China is encroaching on our maritime zone, but softening it by sending us vaccines,” said Antonio Carpio, an outspoken retired Supreme Court justice who is expert in the maritime dispute. “It’s part of their P.R. effort to soften the blow, but we should not fall for that.”
    The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos

  6. #31
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    48,105
    Philippines' defence chief says China intends to occupy more South China Sea areas


    MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines’ defence chief said on Sunday China was looking to occupy more areas in the South China Sea, citing the continued presence of Chinese vessels that Manila believes are manned by militias in disputed parts of the strategic waterway.


    “The continued presence of Chinese maritime militias in the area reveals their intent to further occupy (areas) in the West Philippine Sea,” Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement, using the local name for the South China Sea.


    It was the second hostile statement by Lorenzana in two days as he repeated calls by the Philippines for the Chinese boats to leave Whitsun Reef, which Manila calls the Julian Felipe Reef, located within its 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

    Chinese diplomats have said the boats anchored near the reef - numbering more than 200 based on initial intelligence gathered by Philippine patrols - were sheltering from rough seas and that no militia were aboard.


    On Saturday, Lorenzana said there were still 44 Chinese vessels at Whitsun Reef despite improved weather conditions.


    “I am no fool. The weather has been good so far, so they have no reason to stay there,” he said.


    The Chinese Embassy in Manila responded to Lorenzana’s comments, saying it was “completely normal” for Chinese vessels to fish in the area and take shelter near the reef during rough sea conditions. It added, “Nobody has the right to make wanton remarks on such activities.”


    An international tribunal invalidated China’s claim to 90% of the South China Sea in 2016, but Beijing does not recognise the ruling and has built artificial islands in the disputed waters equipped with radar, missiles batteries and hangars for fighter jets.


    “They have done this (occupy disputed areas) before at Panatag Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc and at Panganiban Reef, brazenly violating Philippine sovereignty and sovereign rights under international law,” Lorenzana said in his Sunday statement.

    Philippines''' defence chief says China intends to occupy more South China Sea areas | Reuters

  7. #32
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,563
    Time for Uncle Sam to go a roaming.

  8. #33
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Last Online
    Today @ 02:08 PM
    Location
    Where troubles melt like lemon drops
    Posts
    25,224
    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    I am no fool. The weather has been good so far,
    As many sailors know storms, in or out of teacups and politicians are fickle things, here today and gone tomorrow.

    I presume it's up to each ship captain to decide if his ship can venture out to sea.

    Are the Philippine supply ships able to deliver the Chinese orders of food, water and bed warmers?

    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    They have done this (occupy disputed areas) before
    Are the locals complaining about 200 ships, say 1,000 "hungry sailors", needing supplies (see above)?
    Last edited by OhOh; 05-04-2021 at 12:39 AM.
    A tray full of GOLD is not worth a moment in time.

  9. #34
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    48,105
    Philippines turns up heat on China over boats massing in South China Sea

    MANILA (Reuters) - Aides of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday criticised China for what they called territorial incursions by hundreds of its vessels, which his legal counsel warned could damage ties and lead to “unwanted hostilities”.

    In some of the strongest words yet from Duterte’s camp about China’s conduct in the South China Sea, his lawyer Salvador Panelo called the prolonged presence of boats an unwelcome stain on relations that risked “unwanted hostilities that both countries would rather not pursue”.


    “We can negotiate on matters of mutual concern and benefit, but make no mistake about it - our sovereignty is non-negotiable,” Panelo said in a statement.


    Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque echoed the view and told a news conference: “We will not give up even a single inch of our national territory or our exclusive economic zone (EEZ).”


    China’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Though Philippine diplomats and top generals have spoken out against China lately, the comments from the presidential palace are unusually strong given Duterte’s reluctance to confront Beijing, which he has sought to befriend.


    His refusal to press China to respect a landmark 2016 arbitral ruling that clarified the Philippines sovereign rights in its EEZ has frustrated nationalists, who accuse Duterte of gambling with territory in return for elusive Chinese investment.


    Duterte has previously said challenging China was pointless and risked starting a war.


    The Philippines last month filed a diplomatic protest over a “swarming and threatening” presence of 220 Chinese vessels it believed to be manned by militias at Whitsun Reef, a stance backed by ally the United States.

    On Monday, its foreign ministry rejected China’s view that Whitsun Reef was a traditional fishing ground in its waters, and said it would send a diplomatic protest each day that China boats stayed there.


    It said the boats “blatantly infringe” on Philippine jurisidction.


    Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, China and Vietnam also have competing claims for islands and features in the area.


    Panelo also said the Philippines would not be blinded by China’s humanitarian gestures, referring to millions of COVID-19 vaccines donated by China.


    Philippines turns up heat on China over boats massing in South China Sea | Reuters

  10. #35
    last farang standing
    Hugh Cow's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Last Online
    15-03-2024 @ 01:44 PM
    Location
    Qld/Bangkok
    Posts
    4,110
    Duterte is learning what happens when you choose to swim with crocodiles.

  11. #36
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,563
    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Cow View Post
    Duterte is learning what happens when you choose to take backhanders from crocodiles.
    FTFY.

  12. #37
    Thailand Expat
    panama hat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Last Online
    21-10-2023 @ 08:08 AM
    Location
    Way, Way South of the border now - thank God!
    Posts
    32,680
    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    As many sailors know storms, in or out of teacups and politicians are fickle things, here today and gone tomorrow.
    Hmm, you are simply so full of apologist shit . . .

  13. #38
    Thailand Expat
    Shutree's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
    Last Online
    27-03-2024 @ 06:14 PM
    Location
    One heartbeat away from eternity
    Posts
    4,658
    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    As many sailors know storms, in or out of teacups and politicians are fickle things, here today and gone tomorrow.
    Unlike the Chinese fishing boats. Those with the heavily reinforced bows, useful for ramming very big fish, and water cannon, useful for ....

  14. #39
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    48,105
    Philippines Welcomes US Backing to Help Defend Manila in South China Sea


    The Philippines welcomes an American commitment to back it should Beijing become aggressive in the South China Sea, Manila’s defense department said Thursday, after Washington warned that an armed attack on the Southeast Asian nation would force the U.S. to aid its ally under a decades-old treaty.


    For weeks, the Philippine government has engaged in a verbal tussle with Beijing and lodged diplomatic protests over the presence of dozens of Chinese ships in contested waters of the sea, but China has denied the allegations and said these are fishing vessels.


    “The U.S. admonition to China against the use of force on Philippine public vessels and aircraft, which are performing their constitutional mandate to protect and defend Philippine rights in the South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea, is an additional affirmation of the long-standing partnership between our two countries,” said Arsenio Andolong, a spokesman for the Philippine Department of National Defense.


    “As the situation in the West Philippine Sea evolves, we keep all our options open in managing the situation, including leveraging our partnerships with other nations such as the United States,” Andolong said, referring to the section of the South China Sea claimed by the Philippines.


    A day earlier, the U.S. State Department reiterated that Washington was backing its longtime Asian ally – a former American colony – in the ongoing dispute over the Chinese ships moored at Whitsun Reef, which lies within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and other disputed waters in the Spratly Islands.


    “As we have stated before, an armed attack against the Philippines armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the Pacific, including in the South China Sea, will trigger our obligations under the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty,” Ned Price, the department’s spokesman, told a daily press briefing in response to a reporter’s question.


    Under the auspices of the 70-year-old treaty, the armed forces of the United States and the Philippines will come to each other’s military aid in the event of an external attack on one of them.


    Despite repeated calls by Manila for the ships to leave the area and the filing of diplomatic protests, the Chinese vessels have lingered there.


    Last week, the Philippine military said dozens of Chinese militia ships were scattered among contested reefs and islets in the Philippine EEZ.


    China’s foreign ministry has insisted the area around Whitsun Reef belongs to Beijing.


    “The Philippines attempts to use an illegal, null-and-void award to negate China’s sovereignty, rights and interests, negate Chinese fishermen’s fishing history and rights in their traditional fishing grounds,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters during a press briefing on Tuesday.


    “We hope the Philippines will look at this objectively and correctly, immediately stop wanton hype … and avoid casting negative influence on bilateral relations and the overall peace and stability in the South China Sea,” he said.


    The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond on Thursday to the Philippine and U.S. statements.


    Beijing insists much of the South China Sea is its territory, despite a July 2016 international arbitral ruling by a United Nations-backed tribunal that affirmed the Philippines’ EEZ.


    Other governments claiming parts of the South China Sea are Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Although Indonesia does not consider itself a claimant in the territorial disputes, China claims historic rights that overlap with Indonesia’s EEZ.
    Ongoing protests


    Since Monday the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs has filed daily protests against China about the ships in its EEZ.


    On Wednesday, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. again demanded that all the Chinese ships move out.


    “Nobody fishes by lashing ships together. Last time that was done was the Persian invasion of Greece recorded by Herodotus,” Locsin said in a Twitter post late Wednesday. “We’ve seen that movie.”


    The Chinese presence in the Philippine EEZ also has Manila counting on its Visiting Forces Agreement with Washington, which President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to terminate.


    In February, Lloyd Austin, the defense chief in the new Biden Administration, reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to the 1999 VFA and the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty during his first official phone call with his Philippine counterpart, Delfin Lorenzana.


    The VFA, which allows the presence of U.S. troops in the Philippines, has remained in effect since Manila deferred its termination.


    The pact is also the basis for another defense cooperation agreement, which allows U.S. troops to pre-position assets at certain Philippine military bases.


    “We are continuously in talks with the U.S. on the matter of mutual defense,” Andolong said Thursday.


    “Both parties are committed to undertake their obligations under the Mutual Defense Treaty so that neither stands alone in these issues involving the two states’ inherent right of self-defense, individually and collectively,” he said.


    The U.S., meanwhile, has maintained naval patrols in the South China Sea. On Sunday, the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group entered the waterway to carry out maritime strike exercises, anti-submarine operations, coordinated tactical training, and other activities, according to the U.S. Navy.


    On Wednesday, the Royal Malaysian Air Force announced it had completed a two-day bilateral military exercise in the sea with the Roosevelt strike group.


    Philippines Welcomes US Backing to Help Defend Manila in South China Sea — Radio Free Asia

  15. #40
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,563
    After trousering lord knows how much chinky cash, suddenly Duterte realises he's gone too far.

    Let's hope the Covid takes him.

  16. #41
    Thailand Expat
    Klondyke's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Last Online
    26-09-2021 @ 10:28 PM
    Posts
    10,105
    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    The U.S., meanwhile, has maintained naval patrols in the South China Sea.
    How heart-breaking generosity theirs... And that in addition to the heart-breaking generosity for many others, especially now in Ukraine...

  17. #42
    Thailand Expat
    Klondyke's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Last Online
    26-09-2021 @ 10:28 PM
    Posts
    10,105
    Duo cum faciunt idem, non est idem.
    If two making the same, it's not always the same...

    NEWS | April 7, 2021
    7th Fleet conducts Freedom of Navigation Operation
    By U.S. 7th Fleet Public Affairs

    On April 7, 2021 (local time) USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53) asserted navigational rights and freedoms approximately 130 nautical miles west of the Lakshadweep Islands, inside India’s exclusive economic zone, without requesting India’s prior consent, consistent with international law. India requires prior consent for military exercises or maneuvers in its exclusive economic zone or continental shelf, a claim inconsistent with international law. This freedom of navigation operation (“FONOP”) upheld the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea recognized in international law by challenging India’s excessive maritime claims.
    7th Fleet conducts Freedom of Navigation Operation > Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet > Display


    India protests U.S. Navy's transit through its exclusive economic zone
    Sat, April 10, 2021, 2:57 AM·2 min read

    NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India protested to the United States for a navy vessel conducting a transit through its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) without consent, the foreign ministry said on Friday, in a rare row between the friendly navies of the two countries.

    The USS John Paul Jones "asserted navigational rights and freedoms," inside India's EEZ in line with international law by sailing about 130 nautical miles (241 km) west of India's Lakshadweep islands, the U.S. Seventh Fleet said in a statement on Wednesday.

    But an Indian foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement that UN rules did not allow such passage without consent.
    India protests U.S. Navy's transit through its exclusive economic zone

  18. #43
    Thailand Expat lom's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    on my way
    Posts
    11,453
    Quote Originally Posted by Klondyke View Post
    India requires prior consent for military exercises or maneuvers in its exclusive economic zone or continental shelf, a claim inconsistent with international law.
    I think international law wins over India's requirement.

  19. #44
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Last Online
    Today @ 02:08 PM
    Location
    Where troubles melt like lemon drops
    Posts
    25,224
    Quote Originally Posted by lom View Post
    I think international law
    Which law, are ameristani warships abiding by, that you refer to?

    UNCLOS, is generally accepted by most UN recognised countries, ameristan itself does not recognise UNCLOS.

    If it did, this is, IMHO, the relevant clause:

    Article58

    Rights and duties of other States in the exclusive economic zone


    1. In the exclusive economic zone, all States, whether coastal or land-locked, enjoy, subject to the relevant provisions of this Convention, the freedoms referred to in article 87 of navigation and overflight and of the laying of submarine cables and pipelines, and other internationally lawful uses of the sea related to these freedoms, such as those associated with the operation of ships, aircraft and submarine cables and pipelines, and compatible with the other provisions of this Convention.
    2. Articles 88 to 115 and other pertinent rules of international law apply to the exclusive economic zone in so far as they are not incompatible with this Part.
    3. In exercising their rights and performing their duties under this Convention in the exclusive economic zone, States shall have due regard to the rights and duties of the coastal State and shall comply with the laws and regulations adopted by the coastal State in accordance with the provisions of this Convention and other rules of international law in so far as they are not incompatible with this Part.


    United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea/Part V - Wikisource, the free online library

    Quote Originally Posted by Klondyke View Post
    India requires prior consent for military exercises or maneuvers in its exclusive economic zone or continental shelf,
    1. Without knowing if India has such a law, the ameristani military exercises or manoeuvres. may or may not be legal.

    2. ameristan not being an adopter of UNCLOS maybe excluded from it's protection and obligations.

    Possibly this law:

    The law of the jungle

    the idea that people who care only about themselves will be most likely to succeed in a society or organization:

    https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/law-of-the-jungle


    Philippines says 220 Chinese boats have encroached in South China Sea-laws-laws_of_the_jungle-politician-lion-king_of_the_jungle-animals
    Last edited by OhOh; 11-04-2021 at 12:58 PM.

  20. #45
    I'm in Jail

    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Last Online
    14-12-2023 @ 11:54 AM
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    13,986
    Lakshadweep islands ? A group of islands in the Arabian sea, 200 to 440 km (120 to 270 mi) off the southwestern coast of India.

    It's not like the US is going to develop them as bases like China is doing.

    Though it's pretty awful what happened in the Chagos Islands (Diego Garcia)

  21. #46
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,563
    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    Which law, are ameristani warships abiding by, that you refer to?

    UNCLOS, is generally accepted by most UN recognised countries
    But not Chinastan, which refuses to accept that it doesn't own everything it parks a boat on.

  22. #47
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Last Online
    Today @ 02:08 PM
    Location
    Where troubles melt like lemon drops
    Posts
    25,224
    Philippines says 220 Chinese boats have encroached in South China Sea-logo-png

    Passage of USS John Paul Jones through India's EEZ

    April 09, 2021



    "The Government of India’s stated position on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is that the Convention does not authorise other States to carry out in the Exclusive Economic Zone and on the continental shelf, military exercises or manoeuvres, in particular those involving the use of weapons or explosives, without the consent of the coastal state.

    The USS John Paul Jones was continuously monitored transiting from the Persian Gulf towards the Malacca Straits. We have conveyed our concerns regarding this passage through our EEZ to the Government of U.S.A through diplomatic channels."


    New Delhi
    April 09, 2021

    Passage of USS John Paul Jones through India's EEZ

    "Article 19

    Meaning of innocent passage


    1.


    Passage is innocent so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order
    or security of the coastal State. Such passage shall take place inconformity with this Convention and with other rules of international law.

    2.

    Passage of a foreign ship shall be considered to be prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal State if in the territorial sea it engages in any of the following activities:

    (a) any threat or use of force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity
    or political independence of the coastal State, or in anyother manner in violation of the principles of international law embodied in the Charter of the United Nations;

    (b) any exercise or practice with weapons of any kind;"

    https://www.un.org/depts/los/convent...s/unclos_e.pdf



    US: Indian Ocean is not India’s ocean

    April 10, 2021 by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

    "The guided-missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones sailing past Lakshadweep Islands April 7 has thrown India’s Sinophobes into confusion. One leading daily noted it as a “rare falling out between the two partners in the Quad grouping.” An anti-China analyst tweeted that it’s just a “botched PR exercise” on the part of Americans.

    The Ministry of External Affairs took a legalistic perspective as if it is answering a writ petition in the Delhi High Court. But, reflect seriously. Yes, this is a rare fracas within the cosy Quad family. Yet, Quad is a toddler. What all can happen when President Biden grooms it into a boisterous adolescent?

    Make no mistake, what happened is the military equivalent of what the great American diplomat-scholar George Kennan once wrote about the oil reserves in Persian Gulf — they are “our resources”, he wrote, integral to America’s prosperity and, therefore, the US should take control of them. (Which it did, of course.)

    The ocean beds of South China Sea and Indian Ocean are sitting on unimaginable wealth of mineral resources — potentially, the last frontier. USS John Paul Jones acted like a dog marking the lamp post. Spectre of acute future big-power scramble — not only with China or Russia but also involving European rivals — haunts Washington. With all their tragic colonial history, Indians tend to forget.

    Thus, after 65 years, Britain is returning to “east of Suez”. The 65000-tonne HMS Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s newest aircraft carrier, is sailing to the Indian Ocean in its inaugural deployment. The grandiloquent title of the impressive 114-page document released last month by the British PM Boris Johnson says it all — Global Britain in a competitive age : The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy.

    The document says rather explicitly on Page 66-69 under the sub-title The Indo-Pacific tilt :

    “Indo-Pacific is the world’s growth engine: home to half the world’s people; 40% of global GDP; some of the fastest- growing economies; at the forefront of new global trade arrangements; leading and adopting digital and technological innovation and standards; investing strongly in renewables and green tech; and vital to our goals for investment and resilient supply chains. The Indo- Pacific already accounts for 17.5% of UK global trade and 10% of inward FDI and we will work to build this further, including through new trade agreements, dialogues and deeper partnerships in science, technology and data.”
    It concludes: “We (Britain) will also place a greater emphasis than before on the Indo-Pacific, reflecting its importance to many of the most pressing global challenges in the coming decade, such as maritime security and competition linked to laws, rules and norms.”

    Again, the month of April will see French Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian arriving in India to pursue political dialogue with India, and, importantly, the 42,500 tonne Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier is leading a strike force to exercise with INS Vikramaditya in two phases in Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean.

    Without this “big picture”, India will keep counting the trees for the wood. There are four things about the US Navy 7th Fleet statement on Friday that arrest attention.

    One, it asserts in the very first sentence that this freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) took place “inside India’s exclusive economic zone, without requesting India’s prior consent.”

    Two, the statement rubs it in:

    “India requires prior consent for military exercises or manoeuvres in its exclusive economic zone or continental shelf, a claim inconsistent with international law. This freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) upheld the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea recognised in international law by challenging India’s excessive maritime claims.”

    Now, don’t the Indians know it? Of course, they do. But the US must proclaim it to the entire IOR including Pakistan — and European capitals alike — that India’s vaulting ambitions will not go unchecked.

    Three, the US Navy statement flags that FONOP “demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows.” Now, interestingly, this is Mike Pompeo’s standard anti-China language. Plainly put, this is not a freak (“rare”) event. Besides, it’s the Arabian Sea now, but it can be Bay of Bengal tomorrow; it’s a warship sailing by today but tomorrow it can be The Dragon Lady lurking in the Indian skies at 70000 ft asserting the US prerogative to operate in India’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

    Four, the statement has been issued since the Indians failed to take seriously that the FONOP are “routine and regular… as we have done in the past.” Presumably, Delhi hushed up such previous incidents. But the FONOP missions “are not about one country, nor are they about making political statements.” Simply put, the US regards India’s EEZ as part of “global commons” where it will exercise its (perceived) prerogative to act in its supreme national interests, as it deems fit. The “defining partnership of the 21st century” with India will not inhibit Washington from pursuit of American interests.

    The bottom line is that in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), India should not punch above its weight. It may not be a coincidence that Washington administered this firm stricture within earshot of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s highly-publicised High Level Virtual Event on Thursday with Wavel Ramkalawan, Prime Minister of Seychelles, for “the joint e-inauguration of several development assistance projects funded by India in Seychelles and the handing over of a Fast Patrol Vessel supplied by India for the use of the Seychelles Coast Guard.”

    Modi dramatically called Ramkalawan the “son of India”, alluding to the ex-pastor’s Bihari family lineage. But Washington regards Ramkalawan as the doggedly nationalistic leader of an IOR island nation that is a difficult neighbour, separated by a mere 1894 kilometres of blue waters from Diego Garcia. The establishment of a top secret military asset by India in Seychelles’s Assumption Island is bad enough but Modi Govt’s reported plans of setting up a military base in that island nation is an entirely different proposition. (For all one knows, the media leak bears the stamp of the US intelligence.)

    Unsurprisingly, Delhi gave a supine response to the Pentagon warning — straight out of Chanakya’s rule book. However, now that the US warships have disappeared over the horizon, let us sit upon the ground and reflect sadly where all the heady Quad (“Asian NATO”) misadventure is taking India.

    The heart of the matter is that the ruling elites’ seething sense of rivalry over China’s rise is engendering a warped Indian mindset. The Chinese commentators have been warning the Indian establishment repeatedly that its big power aspirations in the IOR are unrealistic. They were speaking from experience. In fact, contrary to the Indian narrative that Quad membership can be leveraged to extract concessions from China, Beijing thinks that Quad is more India and Russia’s geopolitical headache, but it would intrinsically have no future, given internal contradictions.

    The Chinese scholars have consistently held the view that although the mainstream of the US-Indian cooperation nowadays has been cooperation instead of competition, “in the specific case of the Indian Ocean, their respective strategic views on the regional power structure are deeply rooted and these will become more and more obvious in the case of the power shift” — to quote from the prominent Chinese scholar Chunhao Lou, Deputy Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations headquartered in Beijing.

    In a 2012 essay titled US-India-China Relations in the Indian Ocean: A Chinese Perspective, the leading scholar added,

    “Although the China factor will always be there to promote US-India cooperation, the ‘democratic peace theory’ will give way to realistic politics, and the differing interests of the US and India in the IOR will be difficult to reconcile.”

    Chickens are coming home to roost."

    https://www.indianpunchline.com/us-i...-indias-ocean/
    Last edited by OhOh; 11-04-2021 at 05:41 PM.

  23. #48
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,563
    Awww sounds like your chinky-loving Indian has his nose out of joint.


  24. #49
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Last Online
    30-04-2022 @ 02:44 AM
    Posts
    11,204
    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    US: Indian Ocean is not India’s ocean
    This.

  25. #50
    Thailand Expat
    panama hat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Last Online
    21-10-2023 @ 08:08 AM
    Location
    Way, Way South of the border now - thank God!
    Posts
    32,680
    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    EVERYONE: Indian Ocean is not India’s ocean
    Like:

    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    EVERYONE: South China Sea is not China's Sea


    Christmas Island does not belong to Christmas

Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •