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Weaponizing Water In South Asia: World Needs A Water Treaty

July 13, 2019 Conn Hallinan, Fpif.org , ,
The world has enough water for 7 billion people, but not if countries waste, hoard, or weaponize it. Ongoing tensions over Kashmir have transformed water into a national security issue for both India and Pakistan. During the face-off earlier this year between India and Pakistan over a terrorist attack that killed more than 40 Indian paramilitaries in Kashmir, New Delhi made an existential threat to Islamabad. The weapon was not India’s considerable nuclear arsenal, but one still capable of inflicting ruinous destruction: water.

Iran At The Center Of The Eurasian Riddle

June 20, 2019 By Pepe Escobar, Asiatimes.com , , , ,
President Rouhani blasts US leader Donald Trump as ‘a serious threat to regional and world stability’, offers preferential treatment to SCO companies that invest in his country. With the dogs of war on full alert, something extraordinary happened at the 19th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) late last week in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Virtually unknown across the West, the SCO is the foremost Eurasian political, economic and security alliance. It’s not a Eurasian NATO. It’s not planning any humanitarian imperialist adventures. A single picture in Bishkek tells a quite significant story...

As Washington Vacillates, Asia’s Alliances Are Shifting

September 1, 2018 By Conn Hallinan, Fpif.org , ,
“Boxing the compass” is an old nautical term for locating the points on a magnetic compass in order to set a course. With the erratic winds blowing out of Washington these days, countries all over Asia and the Middle East are boxing the compass and re-evaluating traditional foes and old alliances. India and Pakistan have fought three wars in the past half-century, and both have nuclear weapons on a hair trigger. But the two countries are now part of a security and trade organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), along with China, Russia, and most of the countries of Central Asia. Following the recent elections in Pakistan, Islamabad’s foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, has called for an “uninterrupted continued dialogue” with New Delhi to resolve conflicts and establish “peace and stability” in Afghanistan.

A Preview Of The Coming War On China

August 7, 2016 Maki Sunagawa and Daniel Broudy, www.fpif.org , ,
By Maki Sunagawa and Daniel Broudy for Foreign Policy in Focus. The film is also set in Okinawa, as you know. Part of the theme is to show the resistance to power and war by a people who live along a fence line of American bases in their homeland. The film’s title has a certain foreboding about it because it’s meant as a warning. Documentaries such as this have a responsibility to alert people, if necessary to warn, and to show the resistance to rapacious plans. The film will show that the resistance in Okinawa is remarkable, effective, and little known in the wider world. Okinawa has 32 US military installations. Nearly a quarter of the land is occupied by US bases. The sky is often crowded with military aircraft; the sheer arrogance of an occupier is a daily physical presence. Okinawa is about the size of Long Island. Imagine a bristling Chinese base right next to New York. I went on to film in Jeju Island, off the southern tip of Korea where something very similar has happened. People on Jeju tried to stop the building of an important and provocative base about 400 miles from Shanghai. The South Korean navy will keep it ready for the US. It’s really a US base where Aegis Class destroyers will dock along with nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers—right next to China. Like Okinawa, Jeju has a history of invasion and suffering, and resistance.

The Hague Ruling: A Dangerous Step Toward War

July 19, 2016 Staff, www.wsws.org , , , ,
By Staff of WSWS - In the wake of the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s sweeping ruling on Tuesday in The Hague, negating all Chinese maritime claims in the South China Sea, there has been a chorus of US-led condemnations of China’s “illegal activities,” demands that Beijing abide by the court decision and calls for US diplomatic and military action to enforce the verdict. A New York Times editorial entitled “Testing the Rule of Law in the South China Sea” declared that “the signs are troubling” that “Beijing has defiantly rejected an international arbitration court’s jurisdiction” and will not accept the “path-breaking judgment.”

Ash Carter’s Asian Folly

April 22, 2016 Peter Lee, www.counterpunch.org , , ,
By Peter Lee for Counter Punch - Ash Carter is on a mission: to convince Asia’s democracies that Asian security is synonymous with American leadership. Unfortunately for him, the two concepts are not theoretically or even empirically identical, as is revealed by a major clanger Secretary Carter dropped at the Council for Foreign Relations on April 8, 2016. During the Q&A, Carter stated that the PRC was screwing things up in the South China Sea, thereby promoting militarization and insecurity in “a region that has had it good for 70 years”…

‘Silk Road’ Revived As First Train Arrives In Iran From China With Goods

February 23, 2016 Staff, www.AFP.com , , ,
By Staff of AFP - The train, carrying 32 containers of commercial products from eastern Zhejiang province, took 14 days to make the 9,500-kilometre journey through Kazakstan and Turkmenistan. "The arrival of this train in less than 14 days is unprecedented," said the head of the Iranian railway company, Mohsen Pourseyed Aqayi. "The revival of the Silk Road is crucial for the countries on its route," he said at a ceremony at Tehran's rail station attended by the ambassadors of China and Turkmenistan.

More Than 1,000 Protesters Prepping For Obama Summit

February 11, 2016 Brett Kelman, Anna Rumer and Rosalie Murphy, www.desertsun.com , , , ,
By Brett Kelman, Anna Rumer and Rosalie Murphy for The Desert Sun - Protests have been planned over Obama’s aggressive deportation policy, the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and the dreadful human rights records of some of the visiting nations, according to protest organizers, who estimated how many people will show up. The largest confirmed demonstrations will oppose the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments, but authoritarian leaders from other nations will likely be met with opposition also. Protester groups said they will stand united against the oppression and corruption that is rampant throughout the governments of Southeast Asia.

Asia-Pacific: TPP Backers Face Opposition Almost Everywhere

January 25, 2016 Chuck Chiang, www.vancouversun.com ,
By Chuck Chiang for The Vancouver Sun. Canada - In the world of inter-governmental trade agreements, the signing often gets the most attention. But it is the ratification by member states, required to make such agreements reality, that may be the most difficult part of the process. An agreement as large as the 12-member Trans-Pacific Partnership, signed last year by parties including Canada, remains very much a matter a public debate as it continues to face challenges from opponents to ratification in each member country.

US Planning New Military Bases In Middle East, Asia, And Africa

December 12, 2015 Dan Wright, www.shadowproof.com , , ,
Dan Wright for Shadow Proof - Not satisfied with sowing greater chaos and despair in the Middle East for the last decade, the Obama Administration is reportedly planning for the U.S. to expand its imperial footprint throughout Africa, Asia and other parts of the Middle East with a series of new military bases. The base plan was reportedly submitted this year by now-former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey. The U.S. already has military personnel in 135 countries, with the Department of Defense’s own reports acknowledging the existence of over 660 U.S. military bases abroad.

These Pacific Islanders Still Live At The Mercy Of The US Military

June 24, 2015 Roy Smith, www.theconversation.com , , ,
By Roy Smith in The Conversation - In the latest development of the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia, a strategy of reorganising and strengthening US military capabilities in the Pacific, the islanders of Pagan and Tinian are being told to make way for a “simulated war zone”. After decades of living at the behest of American military priorities, they are still resisting moves to encroach on their homelands – and their chances of success are as slim as ever. Both islands are part of the US associated Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas. Their strategic location, midway between the US Pacific Fleet headquarters in Hawaii and the Asian mainland, with further logistical support available at the naval facilities in nearby Guam, make them attractive locations for the US military’s purposes.

The New Asian Bank & A New World Order

March 30, 2015 Teymoor Nabili, www.aljazeera.com , ,
It's usual these days that every policy statement coming out of Beijing is minutely scrutinised and commented on by the English language media, so the absence of any alarm bells on and after February 3 came as something of a surprise. The 13th Meeting of Russia, India and China's foreign ministers should have merited at least passing mention - but not a single major western newspaper covered it. There was no reporting of the final communique; no editorial comment was made and no reaction sought, from Washington or London. The relevant comment was short, and buried within 30 other paragraphs of much more conciliatory language; nonetheless it was punchy. . .

Filipinos Reject Expansion Of US Empire In Asia Pacific

April 29, 2014 Bayan USA, www.bayanusa.org , ,
We, Asian and Pacific Islanders and peace-loving people in the US, denounce the US government’s strategic plan to increase economic, political, and military intervention in the Asia-Pacific region, as part of the so-called “US Pivot to Asia”. The said pivot aims to expand and consolidate long-running US hegemony over the region, as well as quell peoples struggles for social and national liberation across the Asia-Pacific region that have historically frustrated the interests of US empire. We call for protests in April 2014, when US President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines to further consolidate key allies in the region in line with its strategic economic and geopolitical agenda. We stand with the peoples of the Asia-Pacific region who for decades have been struggling for self-determination and for genuine sovereignty amidst decades of US-led neoliberal economic policies in the region.

Asia-Pacific Voices Protest TPP and US Corporate Colonialism

April 23, 2014 Sarah Lazare, www.commondreams.org , ,
As President Barack Obama prepares to embark on his fifth visit to the Asia-Pacific region, grassroots protests against U.S. efforts to ram through the Trans-Pacific trade deal and the U.S. military pivot to Asia are mounting on both sides of the Pacific. "People are saying we don't want more U.S. militarization in our countries," said Rhonda Ramiro, Vice Chair of BAYAN-USA—an alliance of Filipino organizations in the U.S.—in an interview with Common Dreams. "This is about U.S. military power and economic domination." In the coming days, protests against the TPP and U.S. military pivot will sweep U.S. embassies in Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines, with more actions slated for the "weeks and months to come," said Ramiro. Channel News Asia reports that in Tokyo, where Obama will land Wednesday, protests against the TPP by workers, farmers, and community groups are already heating up.

White House In Denial About Asian Ties To Russia

March 26, 2014 Pepe Escobar www.atimes.com , ,
What the White House calls "the international community" - roughly the "Hague Declaration" G-7 plus a few European minions - could not possibly admit that. Asia, on the other hand, clearly identifies it. China, Japan and South Korea, for starters, identify Russia with a steady supply of oil and gas and further business deals. Even considering that Japan and South Korea are essentially US protectorates, nothing could be more anachronistic in their calculations than a Western-provoked New Cold War. Asia will not "isolate" Russia - and Asians and Russians know it, as much as The White House is in denial. Beijing's abstention in "condemning" Moscow - talk about the American angry-schoolmaster brand of politics - is classic Deng Xiaoping-style "keep a low profile", as China is Russia's strategic partner and both are busy working for the emergence of a multipolar world.
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