Peace and Justice for Guam and the Pacific: October 2016

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Rodrigo Duterte and Xi Jinping Agree to Reopen South China Sea Talks

BEIJING — President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, agreed on Thursday to resume direct talks on disputes in the South China Sea after years of escalating tension, a sign of warming relations with Beijing.

The announcement came during Mr. Duterte’s state visit to China, as he repeatedly sought to distance the Philippines from the United States, a treaty ally. Mr. Duterte, speaking to business leaders shortly after meeting with Mr. Xi, openly declared a “separation from the United States.”

Washington Should Stop Militarizing the Pacific

WASHINGTON — Americans often assume that Chinese military aggression is increasing the likelihood of a clash between China and the United States. But many policy makers in Washington ignore that Beijing has good reason to be troubled by the United States’ military footprint in its neighborhood. President Obama’s “pivot” to Asia — which includes doubling down on Washington’s already-robust military presence in the region — further stokes the potential for conflict between China and the United States.

If the United States wants to avoid strife in Asia, it should resist antagonizing China by encircling it with ever more military partners and bases.

Philippines, US launch live fire drills

The United States and the Philippines have launched joint military drills following Manila’s decision to end its long-running maneuvers with Washington.

Some 1,400 US soldiers from Washington’s base in Okinawa, Japan, joined some 500 Philippine army personnel in the 33rd iteration of the Philippines Amphibious Landing Exercises (PHIBLEX33), media reports said Monday.

The PHIBLEX33 runs from October 4 to 12 at multiple locations on the island of Luzon and the Province of Palawan between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea.

Press Release: Responding to new Asia-Pacific security challenges

Tuesday, 11 October 2016, 3:09 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Government

Hon Gerry Brownlee

Minister of Defence

11 October 2016

Responding to new Asia-Pacific security challenges through cooperation – Xiangshan Forum, China

The last 15 years has seen the international strategic environment become increasingly uncertain and unstable.

Terrorism is a global issue that affects many nations, including those in the Asia-Pacific.

It is not new to Southeast Asia – extremist groups have had an enduring presence in countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines for decades.

By Kumaran Ira
10 October 2016

In pursuit of reactionary financial and strategic objectives in the Asia-Pacific, French imperialism is announcing its ambitions to boost its military deployments to this region.

This was detailed in a June report, “France and Security in the Asia-Pacific,” presented by French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian at the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in June. It is part of an updated version of the 2015 Military Programming Law, stipulating that Paris must invest in major upgrades of its military capabilities to develop its influence in Asia.

US rebalancing strategy faces dim future

With the US presidential election entering the sprint stage, Barack Obama's eight-year term is also close to an end. Looking back over his eight years in power, the president has brought many new ideas and changes for US diplomacy - giving priority to using multilateral platforms to solve hot spot issues, making efforts to ease relations with hostile countries, promoting non-traditional security issues including climate change and non-proliferation. One of the most notable changes is that the US has shifted its strategic focus to the Asia-Pacific region, and "rebalancing" has become key to its foreign policy.

Obama's "pivot" has a unique background and rationality. On the one side, during the George W. Bush period, the US, to a large degree, focused too much on the Middle East and anti-terrorism while ignoring Asia, making its Asia-Pacific allies and partners dissatisfied. "The US is losing Asia" has increasingly become a worry among the US strategic circles. It can be said that pivot to Asia was the US bolstering weak spots.

Japan seeking return of U.S. military land in Okinawa by year-end

October 9, 2016 (Mainichi Japan)

NAHA (Kyodo) -- A Cabinet minister in charge of Okinawa base issues told local officials Saturday that the central government is seeking the return of roughly half of a large U.S. military training area in the island prefecture by year-end.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga's remarks over the return of land -- within the U.S. military's Northern Training Area in northern Okinawa -- are viewed as a way for the government to demonstrate to local residents it is taking steps to ease Okinawa's base-hosting burden.

"(Japan) wants to negotiate with the United States to achieve the year-end return of the training area," Suga said during a meeting with the chiefs of the villages of Kunigami and Higashi where the training area is located.

Washington’s ‘pivot’ to Asia hits snag with new Philippine regime

BY MARK THOMPSON

As part of the Barack Obama administration’s “pivot” to Asia to counter the growing power of China, Washington has been expanding its air, naval and military forces in the Pacific. This includes re-establishing a military presence in the Philippines, a former colony and strategic ally. But this part of the pivot has become less dependable since the May election of President Rodrigo Duterte, whose politics are marked by nationalist and anti-American demagogy.

At the recent Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Laos, Duterte called Obama a “son of a bitch” — for which he later apologized — and a few days later announced he was canceling any future joint naval patrols with Washington in the South China Sea.

“Philippines Pivots Away from the US” and “America’s Pacific Pivot Is Sinking,” noted headlines in the Sept. 14 and 19 Financial Times. “China is now in power, and they have military superiority in the region,” Duterte said that week.

HOW TRUMP’S WHITE HOUSE BID HAS PUT JAPAN ON THE DEFENSIVE

Outside the site of a new proposed US military base at Henoko on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, three members of the American anti-war campaign group Veterans for Peace are singing songs while surrounded by a cordon of police to show…

BY GAVIN BLAIR

8 OCT 2016

Russia to Set up Heavy Bomber Division to Patrol Japan, Hawaii, and Guam

A new division of Russian strategic bombers will soon begin conducting patrols over the Pacific Ocean.

By Franz-Stefan Gady

October 13, 2016

The Russian Aerospace Forces are in the process of setting up a new long-range Heavy Bomber Division in Russia’s Far East to patrol the Pacific Ocean inside the Japan-Hawaii-Guam triangle, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced last week, according to local media report.

“The formation of the division is almost complete now. It consists of several squadrons of long-distance bombers deployed in the Eastern and Central military districts,” an unnamed senior Russian defense official told Izvestia. The new bomber division will be based at Belaya and Ukrainka, in eastern Siberia.

The division will be composed of several dozen Tu-95MS strategic missile bombers and Tu-22M3 long-range bombers.

Japan, U.S. to cooperate on return of military land in Okinawa

KYODO

Defense Minister Tomomi Inada and Gen. Robert Neller, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, agreed Wednesday to cooperate over the return of roughly half of a large U.S. military training area in Okinawa Prefecture, Defense Ministry officials said.

The Japanese government seeks the return of the land within the United States’ Northern Training Area by year-end to demonstrate it is taking steps to ease Okinawa’s base-hosting burden.

“I call for continued cooperation (by the United States) as we are making diligent efforts,” said Inada in Tokyo at her first meeting with Neller, according to the officials. She took office in August.

The United States agreed in 1996 to return to Japan about 4,000 of some 7,800 hectares that make up the training range, provided that six helipads will be relocated to another area.

Opinion: "Why Okinawa Should Matter"

Okinawa has been a mostly unhappy host of American military bases, and the issue has been prominent at times on the agenda of the Japanese peace movement.

When President Barack Obama visited Hiroshima in May of 2016, there was an effort to persuade him to put Okinawa on his travel itinerary, but as has happened frequently throughout the long tortured history of Okinawa, the request was ignored, and the people of the island were once more disappointed. In an important sense, Okinawa is the most shameful legacy of Japan’s defeat in World War II, exceeding even the sites of the atomic attacks by its daily reminders of a continued colonialist encroachment on Okinawan national dignity and wellbeing.

Actually, Okinawa is being victimized by overlapping exploitations with that of the United States reinforced and legitimized by mainland Japan. For the United States, Okinawa serves as a hub for its strategic military operations throughout the Pacific, with at least 14 separate military bases occupying about 20% of the island. Kadena Air Base was used for B-29 bombing missions during the Korean War more than a half century ago, and the island was used as a major staging area throughout the Vietnam War. It has also been used as a secret site for the deployment of as many as 1,000 nuclear warheads in defiance of Japanese declared no-nukes policy. Actually, in recent years Okinawa rarely receives global news coverage except when there occurs a sex crime by American servicemen that provokes local outrage and peaceful mass demonstrations followed by the strained apologies of local American military commanders.

Tokyo, Washington Agree To Move Forward With Okinawa Land Return

On Wednesday top Japanese and US defense officials agreed that about 50 percent of the land currently being used as an American military training area in Okinawa Prefecture would be returned to Japan.

US Marine Corps commandant Gen. Robert Neller and Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada cooperated on the land transfer, first agreed to by the US in 1996.

By the end of the year Japan would like to see the US make progress in turning over the almost 10,000-acre section of the 17,500-acre Northern Training Area, including the relocation of six helipads.

Pentagon Announces “Third Phase” of Military Build-Up Against China. U.S. Economic Hegemony under TPP Supported by Military Might

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced last Thursday a further dramatic expansion of the Pentagon’s “rebalance” or “pivot” to the Asia Pacific that will only heighten the already tense military confrontation with China in the region. He insisted that the Asia Pacific was “the single most consequential region for America’s future.”

Speaking on board the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in San Diego, Carter outlined what he called the “third phase” of the US military build-up and the strengthening of a “principled and inclusive security network” in Asia. While claiming that Beijing was not excluded from the “network,” every aspect of the “third phase” is aimed at preparing for a war with China.

The importance that Carter attached to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to “bind the United States more closely together with 11 other countries” underlines the real purpose of the “pivot:” to maintain American dominance and subordinate China to the interests of the United States. The very terms of the TPP ensure that Beijing will be excluded unless it accepts the rules set by Washington.

The Philippines president's threat to 'break up' with the United States may be empty rhetoric, but his war on drugs has deepened a rift in the two countries' relations.

By Weston Williams, Staff OCTOBER 4, 2016
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is no stranger to strong language.

The outspoken former mayor, who became president in June, has found popular support in his straight-talking, politically incorrect strongman image. He has made no secret of his frustration with President Obama's criticism of his trademark fight against drugs, which is estimated to have killed about 3,000 suspected drug dealers and users, and has used strong language on multiple occasions against the Philippine's most powerful ally.

But comments he delivered in a speech on Tuesday included some of his most explicit anti-US rhetoric yet, indicative of the increasingly tense relations between the two allies. The remarks come as US and Filipino forces are cooperating in amphibious military drills in the country. Mr. Duterte has said that the drills will be the last during his presidency, though he has not yet made any moves to support that rhetoric, according to US officials.

The people with US passports but no vote

THEY have US passports, but won’t be able to vote in the upcoming election.

They are forced to import goods from America over cheaper products, but cannot access benefits, such as disability allowance, that would come with being a citizen of the United States.

These are people seemingly totally overlooked by the entire world.

Their home is the breathtakingly beautiful Micronesian island of Guahan, popularly known as Guam.

Its tropical beaches and historic villages should make it a tourist mecca, but the paradisiacal aspect of this tiny island in the Western Pacific is somewhat overwhelmed by its strategic military importance.

US-Philippine drills open in uncertainty: Are they the last?

By Jim Gomez | Associated Press | Published: October 4, 2016

MANILA, Philippines — U.S. and Philippine forces opened joint combat exercises under some uncertainty on Tuesday, days after the Philippines' new leader said they would be the last such drills of his six-year presidency.

Marine commanders from both sides said at the opening ceremony that the exercises, involving 1,100 American and 400 Filipino military personnel, are aimed at improving readiness by the two countries to respond to a range of crises while deepening their historic ties.

Angered by U.S. criticism of his deadly anti-drug campaign, President Rodrigo Duterte said last week that the maneuvers would be the last of his term, which began in June. His foreign secretary later said the decision was not final, sparking questions as to whether other annual U.S.-Philippine military exercises would proceed as planned.

By Peter Symonds
4 October 2016

BY ALASTAIR WANKLYN

STAFF WRITER

Citing bruising reprimands from Washington, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Sunday he may pursue new alliances with Russia and China after those nations urged him to turn away from the U.S.

Duterte threatened to tear up a historic agreement that has seen the U.S. send troops and military hardware to the Philippines. He called the 2014 document a mere executive agreement that can be cast aside as it was drafted by a previous administration.

US Embassy: Relationship with PHL one of the most important, enduring in Asia Pacific

Published October 4, 2016 11:58am

The United States Embassy in Manila said the US' relationship with the Philippines is one of the most important and enduring in the Asia Pacific region.

In an email to GMA News' Sandra Aguinaldo, Molly Koscina, press attaché of the US Embassy said, "Our relationship with the Philippines is broad and our alliance is one of the most enduring and important relationships in the Asia Pacific region."

Koscina's comment came a day after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to end the Enhanced Cooperation and Defense Agreement (EDCA) with the US, saying it does not have a presidential signature and that US forces may be asked to leave the Philippines soon.

Editorial: Talk of base burden reduction in PM Abe’s policy speech is a sham

September 27, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo

If those imposing a burden intend to seriously think about reducing such burden, they must listen sufficiently to the opinions of the local people, and endeavor to realize a solution to the problems they experience.

Unilaterally forcing a “burden reduction” policy on locals who refuse the policy on the grounds that it itself constitutes a burden would not hold water in ordinary society. Yet when it comes to government policy, this is exactly what is happening.

In his general policy speech before the Diet, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that the return of 4,000 hectares constituting a portion of the U.S. military’s Northern Training Area would entail “a nearly 20% reduction of U.S. military facilities within Okinawa Prefecture, the largest land return since Okinawa came back under Japanese administration. This is achievable as a result of relocating helipads comprising 0.96 hectares of land to within the existing training area.”

Pentagon announces plans to 'sharpen' military capacity in Asia-Pacific

Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the alliance with the Philippines remains “ironclad” despite recent remarks from President Rodrigo Duterte.

By Elizabeth Shim Contact the Author

| Sept. 30, 2016 at 9:34 AM

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said plans are underway to "sharpen" the United States' military edge as part of the U.S. plan to pivot or "rebalance" to Asia.

"In this next phase, the United States will continue to sharpen our military edge so we remain the most powerful military in the region and the security partner of choice," Carter said Thursday on the U.S. aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in San Diego.

Carter reaffirmed alliances with security partners in the region, including the Philippines.

U.S. Consul General backs military’s presence in Okinawa

JIJI

NAHA, OKINAWA PREF. – Joel Ehrendreich, U.S. Consul General in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, emphasized Friday that U.S. military bases in the southernmost prefecture contribute to regional peace and stability.

“I firmly believe that our presence here makes both our countries safer and makes our region more stable and contributes to peace and prosperity,” Ehrendreich said in an interview.

Russia expands Pacific bomber patrols near US bases

Russia has prepared a new strategic bomber division in the far east to patrol a huge area of the Pacific where the US military is especially active.

Tupolev Tu-22M3 and Tu-95MS bombers will fly from Siberia as far as Hawaii, Guam and Japan, all of which host major US naval and air bases, Russia's Izvestia daily reported.

Russia has sent Tu-22M3s on bombing runs in Syria and Tu-95s regularly carry out patrols near Western Europe.

Nato has criticised Russia's flights.

Britain's RAF and other Nato air forces regularly scramble fighters to monitor the Russian bombers' movements over the North Sea and Atlantic.

Why the torrent of N. Korean weapons? Maybe the US elections

By TIM SULLIVAN | Associated Press | Published: October 6, 2016

Over the past 10 months, the young ruler of North Korea has ordered an unprecedented torrent of weapons tests, forging an increasingly sophisticated arsenal. There have been truck-launched missile tests, two nuclear explosions, experiments with powerful rocket engines and more than a dozen other major missile trials.

But why the rush now, after so many years of a North Korean weapons program that progressed relatively slowly?

It's all about Nov. 8, and the U.S. presidential elections, according to a growing number of experts who study North Korea.

Russian Tu-95 and Tu-22M3 Bombers to Patrol Airspace Between Hawaii and Japan

15:57 06.10.2016

205907634 A new division of Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 strategic bombers will soon appear in the Russian Far East to patrol the area over the Pacific Ocean inside the Japan – Hawaii – Guam triangle, Izvestia reported.

Military experts see the creation of a new air group as a clear signal to the Asia-Pacific nations and the US that Russia is serious about is current pivot to Asia.

“The formation of the division is almost complete now. It consists of several squadrons of long-distance bombers deployed in the Eastern and Central military districts,” a Defense Ministry representative told the newspaper.

This abandoned radar site is slowly being taken back by the jungle, its mission cut short by the end of the Cold War.

Travel up the lazy slope of Mt. Petosukura on the island of Saipan, and at the top is an abandoned radar tower, a last vestige of Cold War surveillance trying its best to fight back against the encroaching jungle.

The facility dates to the late 1980s when the Air Force chose some high ground on the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the western Pacific. They repurposed the site with some repurposed equipment, cutting out a patch of dense foliage and replanting it with a 40-foot radar tower. The installation on the island of Saipan was the third of the U.S. military’s Pacific Barrier Radar sites—or PACBAR III—and its mission was to detect and track Soviet satellites and missile launches.

The Philippines president's threat to 'break up' with the United States may be empty rhetoric, but his war on drugs has deepened a rift in the two countries' relations.

By Weston Williams, Staff OCTOBER 4, 2016

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is no stranger to strong languge. The outspoken former mayor, who became president in June, has found popular support in his straight-talking, politically incorrect strongman image. He has made no secret of his frustration with President Obama's criticism of his trademark fight against drugs, which is estimated to have killed about 3,000 suspected drug dealers and users, and has used strong language on multiple occasions against the Philippine's most powerful ally.

Army Pacific Boss: Soldiers are Key in Complex, Growing Region

By: Michelle Tan, October 5, 2016 (Photo Credit: Sgt. Uriah Walker/Army)

The Army is stepping up its exercises and training events in the Pacific as it works to build relationships across a complex, growing region, senior leaders said.

The Asia-Pacific region is home to 10 of the largest economies in the world, seven of the 10 largest armies, and six of the world’s 10 most populous countries, said Gen. Robert Brown, commander of U.S. Army Pacific.

“Just India, China, North and South Korea, there are more people in that area than the whole rest of the world in total,” Brown said Wednesday during the Association of the United States Army annual meeting.

The Pacific also is prone to natural disasters and is home to 24 of the world’s 36 megacities, Brown said.

How the US got outplayed in the Asia-Pacific

Mark Valencia says four months after the landmark tribunal ruling against China on South China Sea issues, it is America’s presence – and welcome – in the region that is suddenly looking shaky

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 05 October, 2016, 5:08pm

UPDATED : Wednesday, 05 October, 2016, 7:21pm