A humanitarian crisis in the Bay of Bengal has attracted international attention; over 4,000 Rohingya migrants, also referred to as the ‘boat people’, embarked on rickety vessels have been sighted or intercepted by the maritime security forces of Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand. Many more may still be at sea and their handlers are waiting […]
World Ocean Day (WOD), celebrated on 08 June every year, brings an opportunity to raise global awareness of the impacts of human actions on the ocean, and to mobilize support for sustainable global ocean management. It was first proposed in 1992 by the Government of Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil […]
China has been issuing Defence White Papers biennially since 1998. The ninth White Paper of 2014 titled ‘China’s Military Strategy’ was released recently in May 2015. This essay seeks to analyse the salient aspects of the document, particularly in context of the preceding document of 2012 released in April 2013. In comparison to the Defence […]
The 26th ASEAN Summit concluded in Kuala Lumpur on 27 April 2015 with the ministers once again ‘sharing concerns’ over the outstanding maritime territorial disputes in the South China Sea (SCS). In acknowledgment of certain member states’ alarm at China’s expanding footprint in the disputed island groups, a reference was made in the Chairman’s Statement […]
Japan released its latest edition of Defense White Paper titled ‘Defense of Japan 2013’ on July 9, 2013. While describing the Defense Policies of Countries which possibly affect the Security Environment Surrounding Japan, the paper contended that “… in regard to the issues of conflicting interests with its surrounding countries, including Japan, China has attempted […]
The first-ever joint Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief and Military Medicine (HADR & MM) Exercise under the auspices of the ‘ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus’ (ADMM+), was conducted with great professionalism from June 17-20, 2013 in Brunei. The military participants in this exercise were from the ASEAN countries and also included eight dialogue partners viz. […]
The Vietnamese National Assembly passed a ‘Law on Vietnamese Sea’[1] on June 21, 2012, which provides legal basis for defining its internal waters, territorial waters, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zones (EEZ), continental shelf, islands, the Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago, the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago and other archipelagoes under Vietnam’s sovreignty, sovereign right and national jurisdiction. It […]
The Chinese Navy celebrated the fourth anniversary of its ongoing anti-piracy escort mission and patrols in the Gulf of Aden and waters off the Somali coast on December 26, 2012 with great fanfare and wide publicity. The three Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA) Naval Fleets held open day activities over two days from December 25, 2012, […]
China’s unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou-8 was successfully sent into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre on board a Long March-2F rocket on November 1, 2011. Shenzhou, which means ‘magic vessel,’ finally achieved a historic first by carrying out a rendezvous and docking maneuver with the Chinese orbiting space lab module Tiangong-1 at 1:35 AM (Chinese […]
Many an international eyebrow has been raised at the rapid pace of the Chinese defence modernisation over the last decade. The US has been an active proponent in questioning the Chinese ‘Peaceful Rise’, a term used for the very first time at the scenic beach resort town of Bo’ao in the tourist paradise of Hainan […]
The South China Sea and the issues of sovereign rights therein between China and Vietnam have again surfaced since the May 26, 2011 incident when the Chinese maritime patrol ships ventured into the Vietnamese Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and cut off the exploration cables of a Vietnamese seismic survey ship ‘Binh Minh 02’ engaged in […]
The ‘Jasmine Revolution’ that started in Tunisia on 17 December 2010 and resulted in the Regime change by peoples’ power, has also spread into the other regions in North Africa. Egypt followed suit thereafter and President Hosni Mubarak also had to demit office on 11 February 2011 after putting up a stiff but ineffectual resistance. […]