Current Events in Asia-Pacific

From australian abc news service https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-22/australia-canada-sign-billion-dollar-over-horizon-radar-deal/106827724?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=other

From DefenseNews EU Keeping China Weapons Embargo: U.S. Officials By STEPHANIE GRIFFITH, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE The European Union, at the urging of the United States, apparently will keep a 16-year-old arms embargo against China, U.S. officials said April 14, adding that talks next week will seek to sway holdout countries. “We do not now believe that the EU is close to a decision to lifting the embargo itself. But we realize that we must keep this issue at the forefront of our agenda with the EU in Brussels and with all the EU governments — and we intend to do just that,” Nicholas Burns, the U.S. State Department Under Secretary for Political Affairs, told a c…

North Korea Tests Longest Range Missiles Since 2012 (The Diplomat, Flashpoints)

From Australian ABC news service: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-13/taipan-helicopter-fly-again-talisman-sabre-nz/105522512?utm_source=abc_news_web&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link

From Flight Global [excerpt]

Chinas Future Bomber Requirements Murky (DefenseNews)

It was only a matter of time. Zhuhai Surprise: Chinas Third Russian Supersonic ASCM (Aviation Week, Ares blog)

China Making Some Missiles More Powerful (New York Times)

From Defence Talk Russia to lease only one nuclear sub to India Navy News — By RIA Novosti on June 23, 2009 at 5:20 am MOSCOW, June 22 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian government official dismissed on Monday media rumors that Russia planned to lease several nuclear submarines to India, saying a contract envisioned only the transfer of the Nerpa vessel. "We will lease only one submarine. In my opinion, India needs the sub more for enhancing its prestige rather than for accomplishing specific goals," Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, deputy head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said in an exclusive interview with RIA Novosti. India reportedly paid $65…

A short but concise article in Mer et Marine (in French) about the Chinese Navy, by Bernard Prézelin, editor of Combat Fleets of the World, with photos of new submarines and a consideration about the little islands dispute, the possesion of one of the guarantees to the owner a EEZ of 200 nm: http://www.meretmarine.com/fr/content/focus-limpressionnante-montee-en-puissance-de-la-marine-chinoise

From DefenseNews Posted 08/14/07 20:17 U.S. Sees Looming China Threat to Satellites By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE China may be just three years away from being able to disrupt U.S. military satellites in a regional conflict, a senior U.S. military leader said Aug. 14, citing a recent antisatellite test and other advances. The warning came amid calls at a conference in Alabama for intensified efforts to ensure U.S. “space superiority” in the wake of China’s shootdown Jan. 11 of one of its own satellites with a ballistic missile. “It is not inconceivable that within about three years we can be challenged at a near peer level in a region,” said Lt. Gen. Kevin Campbell,…

BBC reporting escalating row between China and Vietnam in the South China Sea China 'cable' cutting angers Vietnam in Spratlys row

Fascinating read on the Wikipedia entry, if true (range stated as 400 Km/216+ nm of Type 346 (CV Liaoning and DDG Type 052C), more on Type 346A (DDG Type 052D), no equivalent entry in other languages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_346_Radar

If China Invades Taiwan, This Is What The Fleet Could Look Like (Forbes)

Its Boom Time for Naval Spy Planes (War is Boring blog)

ADIZ Update: Enforcement in the East China Sea, Prospects for the South China Sea, and Implications for the United States (US China Commission, pdf)

Revealed: China's Nuclear-Capable Air-Launched Ballistic Missile (The Diplomat)

From DefenseNews Japanese Fighter Scrambles Jump in Past Year By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, TOKYO Japan scrambled its military fighters 13 times due to China in the past year, compared with once or twice in each of the previous five years, showing the deteriorating ties between the neighbors, official figures showed April 20. The rise in scrambles caused by China was in sharp contrast to an overall 11-percent decline in such aircraft moves to 141 times in the year to March 2005, the Defense Agency said. “We cannot tell what was behind the gain, but we can at least tell the gain was remarkable,” an agency spokesman said. Jiji Press said the sharp increa…

From Jane's Ma's victory eases tension across Taiwan Strait 01 April 2008 When Ma Ying-jeou is asked how his China-friendly attitude will play out in practice, he flinches. Although Ma just won Taiwan's presidential election in a landslide on an agenda of closer links with the island's economically attractive but politically hostile neighbour, he is very cautious. Welcome to political reality in Taiwan. While Ma has pledged not to move towards independence during his term in office, he has also committed himself not to negotiate unification. This sets a tight framework for what Ma can achieve. He has made clear that he will not try to resolve the conflict onc…

From the recent copy of Undersea Wafare: Taiwan's Project Diving Dragon Resurfaces TAIPEI - Recurring reports that countries other than the United States are helping Taiwan build diesel-electric submarines domestically go back a decade. According to various articles, it's either the Western Europeans, Russians or Indians who are clandestinely concocting a submarine plan with the Taiwanese. While the notion that any country able to build subs would choose to so profoundly snub China appears unlikely, the question arises as to why these rumors persist. An island and its mythical being Then-United States president George W Bush in 2001 approved the sale of eight c…