By Mai Nguyen | HO CHI MINH CITY HO CHI MINH CITY Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday he was confident the next administration would stick to the same peaceful principles on Asian security as the current one, despite hawkish comments from President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks. Referring to the disputed South China Sea, Kerry told a university audience in Ho Chi Minh […]
Donald Trump’s upcoming presidency has led many investors to size up oil, coal and gold trades that could benefit from the sweeping changes he has promised. But a growing band of specialist commodity traders think investors may be overlooking the one raw material in line for bigger price gains than others when the US president-elect takes office: uranium. While interest in the key fuel for nuclear power […]
By Anna Koper and Andrew Osborn | WARSAW/MOSCOW WARSAW/MOSCOW Poland on Thursday welcomed several thousand U.S. troops along with tanks and heavy equipment under a planned NATO operation to beef up its Eastern European allies, vexing the Kremlin, which said the troops’ presence is a threat to Russia. The largest U.S.military reinforcement of Europe in decades of around 2,700 troops, out of 3,500 planned, arrived as part […]
By Phil Stewart and Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon put Russia at the top of a list of threats to U.S. interests on Thursday and told Congress that America must be ready to confront Moscow where necessary, even as he backed Trump’s bid for better relations. The remarks by retired Marine General James Mattis were the latest by one of […]
By Manuel Mogato | MANILA MANILA The Philippines is deferring plans to repair and upgrade features it occupies in the disputed South China Sea, the country’s military chiefs said on Thursday, to avoid provoking China while the two traditional foes seek to bury the hatchet. The Philippines would continue to observe a moratorium on construction in the Spratly islands that it adopted while an international tribunal handled […]
Rex Tillerson has set the stage for a major diplomatic clash between Washington and Beijing after the nominee for US secretary of state said China should not be allowed to access islands it has built in the South China Sea. At his confirmation hearing before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, Mr Tillerson said China’s construction of artificial islands in the contested sea was “akin […]
WASHINGTON A high-tech sea-based U.S. military radar has left Hawaii to monitor for potential North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile test launches, a U.S. defence official said on Wednesday. Earlier this month, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said that the isolated, nuclear-capable country was close to test-launching an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the radar, known as the Sea-based X-band […]
By Patricia Zengerle and Yeganeh Torbati | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson expressed views on Wednesday at odds with President-elect Donald Trump’s positions on key foreign policy issues like nuclear proliferation, trade deals, climate change and relations with Mexico. In a nine-hour Senate confirmation hearing, the former chief executive of oil company Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) said he favoured maintaining U.S. sanctions against Russia for […]
By Linda Sieg | TOKYO TOKYO A South Korean political vacuum and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s concerns about his conservative political base have rekindled a feud over wartime history, just as tension over North Korea makes cooperation between the U.S. allies as vital as ever. The row over “comfort women”, as those forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels are known, coincides with uncertainty over […]
Photo The United States guided missile destroyer Mahan in the Mediterranean in 2013. Credit Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jacob D. Moore/U.S. Navy, via Reuters WASHINGTON — In a vivid illustration of the tensions between the United States and Iran, an American Navy warship fired warning shots at Iranian boats that were racing toward it near the Strait of Hormuz, Defense Department officials said on Monday. The […]
“We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.” So Henry Temple, the third Viscount Palmerston, described British foreign policy in 1848, at the height of its imperial pomp. “England is a power sufficiently strong, sufficiently powerful to steer her own course.” It is more than fanciful to imagine US […]
South Korea is creating a hit squad with a mission to eliminate Kim Jong Un and his top command in the event of war, as it vows to ramp up its response to the growing threat from the North. The formation of the military unit, originally set for 2019, has been brought forward to this year amid increasing bellicosity from the North, the defence ministry in Seoul […]
Submitted by Peter Korzun via Strategic-Culture.org, It should be noted that quite often the most interesting arms contracts escape media attention. That’s how it was in 2016. Signing a multi-billion-dollar military aid package between the United States and Israel and the subsequent White House approval for long-awaited fighter sales to the Middle East hit the radar screen. In late September, the US approved the sales of Boeing fighters worth […]
Yet many Western analysts believed that he sought a less confrontational relationship with the United States than other powerful figures in the Iranian hierarchy, for whom hostility toward Washington was a touchstone of ideological purity. Continue reading the main story Mr. Rafsanjani, for instance, was credited with suggesting that “Death to America” be dropped from the litany of slogans at Tehran’s Friday prayers, a weekly moment of […]
By Jack Kim and Tony Munroe | SEOUL SEOUL North Korea said on Sunday it can test launch an intercontinental ballistic missile at any time from any location set by leader Kim Jong Un, saying the United States’ hostile policy was to blame for its arms development. Kim said on Jan. 1 that his nuclear-capable country was close to test-launching an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). (Full Story) […]
ABU DHABI // The Gulf has been left without the protection of a naval strike force after the United States Navy withdrew out its sole aircraft carrier last month. With the Dwight D Eisenhower returning to Norfolk, Virginia, at the end of December and its relief, the George H W Bush yet to leave port in the US, the gap of potentially two months is seen as […]
Photo The Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov has been called back to its home port, Murmansk. Credit Norway Royal Airforce, via European Pressphoto Agency MOSCOW — Russia has ordered its only aircraft carrier to return home, part of a general drawdown of forces involved in the Syria conflict, a senior general announced on Friday. The carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, was sent to the eastern Mediterranean in the […]
SEJONG, South Korea China is suspected to be taking indirect action against South Korea’s decision last year to deploy a U.S. anti-missile system, South Korea’s finance minister said. China worries that the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system’s powerful radar can penetrate its territory and it has objected to the deployment. South Korea and the United States say the missile system is aimed solely at […]
WASHINGTON The United States said on Thursday North Korea had demonstrated a “qualitative” improvement in its nuclear and missile capabilities after an unprecedented level of tests last year, showing the needed to sustain pressure on Pyongyang to bring it back to disarmament negotiations. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a joint news conference after a meeting with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts that North […]
Submitted by Darius Shahtahmasebi via TheAntiMedia.org, Lithuania has confirmed the presence of U.S. special forces inside its territory, stating the deployment’s purpose is to train local forces and act as a deterrent against Russian aggression. Supposedly, Vladimir Putin has been deploying nuke-ready missiles in the Russian province of Kaliningrad, an area that borders Poland, Belarus, and Lithuania. This move has prompted the neighboring Baltic states to become “highly concerned” about […]
CAIRO: A report alleging human rights violations in Yemen by Houthi rebels has recorded 949 cases of damaged public property and 2,673 instances of private property damage, the Saudi Embassy here reported on Tuesday.The damage varied between complete and partial by bombardment from Houthi militants and loyalists of deposed President Abdullah Saleh against civilian homes and government and private facilities, according to a statement released on Tuesday […]
By David Brunnstrom and Arshad Mohammed | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON In three words of a tweet this week, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump vowed North Korea would never test an intercontinental ballistic missile. “It won’t happen!” Trump wrote after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Sunday his nuclear-capable country was close to testing an ICBM of a kind that could someday hit the United States. Preventing such […]
WASHINGTON The U.S. Defense Department, reacting to North Korea’s statement that it plans to test an intercontinental ballistic missile, said on Tuesday it was confident in its ability to protect U.S. allies and the U.S. homeland from threats from Pyongyang. “We have a ballistic missile defense … umbrella that we’re confident in for the region and to protect the United States homeland,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told […]
BEIJING China’s hard work in trying to ensure the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula is obvious to all, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Beijing was not helping to control North Korea. Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, speaking at a regular press briefing, also urged the United States to recognise the sensitivity of the Taiwan issue after Trump left open the possibility […]
