U.S. and India agree “in principle” over military coordination Addressing a press conference with Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar in New Delhi, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Tuesday that the two countries have reached a preliminary agreement on how the two countries' militaries can coordinate their efforts in disasters or other emergencies (NYT, NDTV). U.S. defense officials said the first agreement will help the two militaries coordinate better, including in exercises, and also allow the U.S. to more easily sell fuel or provide spare parts to the Indians. Earlier on Monday, Carter, who is on a three day visit to India to discuss bilateral military cooperation, visited the Karwar Naval Base in Karnataka. Pakistan’s powerful spy agency may have provided the funding for a deadly 2009 suicide attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan that ranks as one of the deadliest days in the agency’s history, according to a newly declassified State Department cable. – Foreign Policy’s Passport
India protested Friday against the blocking of its latest bid to have a top Pakistani militant leader put on a U.N. terror blacklist following a deadly attack on an Indian air force base. – Associated Press
The U.S. Navy might be gearing up for a third freedom of navigation exercise soon near disputed Chinese territory in the South China Sea. An unnamed source tells Reuters that the operation will take place in early April but other sources say no such operation is scheduled to take place in the near future. The source says the exercise is likely to involve a smaller ship and not the aircraft carrier USS Stennis currently in the region. China has registered mounting displeasure with the U.S. flybys and sail-throughs in recent months. In a meeting on the sidelines of the nuclear summit in Washington last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping told President Obama that "China will not accept any act under the disguise of freedom of navigation that violates our sovereignty and damages our security interests." South China Sea Japan just made a port call in the Philippines, in a sign of support to the country as it hedges its bets against China's territorial ambitions. Defense News reports that Japan sent two destroyers, the JS Ariake and JS Setogiri, and a submarine, the Oyashio, to Subic Bay on Sunday. The visit marks increasing cooperation between the two countries as both are locked in disputes with China over its claims to islands in the region. The visit also marks the growing importance of the Philippines as a base for operations in the South China Sea. The U.S. recently signed a deal with Manilla that gives U.S. forces access to five bases in the country, marking a return to the country since it closed down the U.S. Navy base at Subic Bay in the early 1990s. America’s most powerful allies in the Pacific, Australia and Japan, are building up their amphibious forces, buying amphibious vehicles, V-22 aircraft and big new warships. While far smaller than the Marine Corps, the Australian and Japanese units could assist America in stabilizing the region and deterring China — if they can overcome their self-imposed limitations. – Breaking Defense
The Obama administration is vowing to stop Russia from selling to Iran advanced fighter jets, saying that such sales would violate United Nations resolutions governing the comprehensive nuclear agreement, according to comments by a top State Department official to the Washington Free Beacon. – Washington Free Beacon
Cliff Smith writes: The Iranian Mullahs will see America’s weakness not as a strategic realignment that could benefit their interests if they moderate and draw closer to the U.S., but as proof that they are following divine will in their struggle to dominate the Middle East and eventually beyond. This will not lead to American disentanglement, but deeper entanglement, and under worse circumstances. – The American Spectator |
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