Posted on 06/25/2022 3:39:59 PM PDT by blam
Democratic countries are proposing a new Pacific-wide pact to strengthen cooperation and development efforts in the region to combat Beijing’s influence building and hybrid warfare operations.
The “Partners in the Blue Pacific” would involve the United States, Australia, France, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom to provide “closer, more purposeful, and more ambitious cooperation.”
“Too often, our efforts have been uncoordinated, creating duplication in some cases and gaps on the others,” according to a concept note about the pact. The partnership was earmarked by U.S. Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell at a Center for Strategic and International Studies meeting on June 23.
The program would look at strengthening the Pacific Islands Forum, facilitate regular engagement and dialogue between partners, and map existing projects and coordinate future ones to avoid “lost opportunities.”
The development of the Partners in the Blue Pacific will come in close consultation with Pacific leaders and will target areas such as climate change, maritime security (China’s illegal fishing fleet), health, education, and providing better access to infrastructure.
Working Together to Deal with the ‘Grey Zone’
South Pacific expert Cleo Paskal has called for better coordination and for democratic nations to leverage each other’s strengths to deal with Beijing’s unrestricted or grey zone warfare in the region.
“Each of the Quad [Australia, India, Japan, and the United States] members have their own unique track records and capabilities to contribute,” she wrote in The Australian newspaper along with Anthony Bergin of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
“France is [also] a key Pacific player with nearly 3,000 defence personnel in the region. We need to get our relationship back on track for that reason alone.”
The South Pacific has become a hotbed of geopolitical competition as the Chinese Communist Party pushes to win influence over Pacific leaders in the region.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s recent tour to eight nations in the region exemplified this trend, with the minister signing a swathe of new bilateral deals to tighten cooperation.
Paskal warned that the increasing influence of Beijing also saw the weakening of democratic institutions and the gradual rise of authoritarianism.
“Those weapons are used to weaken the target country from the inside and to fragment and create disorder in the target country so that it is less able to withstand Chinese influence,” Paskal previously told The Epoch Times.
“That process of creating instability and fragmentation can be described as creating a state of ‘entropy’—of political, social, and economic entropy—where things start to just break down. And in that state of disorder, China can create a new order with itself and its proxies at the centre.”
Crumbling Democratic Institutions
A key example is the signing of the security deal between Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and Beijing, which could pave the way for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy to station troops, weapons, and naval ships in the region.
Sogavare’s prime ministership has not been without controversy. One report revealed that 39 of 50 pro-Beijing members of Parliament received payments from the National Development Fund operated in conjunction with the Chinese Embassy.
While opposition leader Matthew Wale accused the prime minister of not delivering basic services, over-centralising power, and exploiting the country’s timber industry for the benefit of a few logging companies and to line his own pockets.
Late last year, local anger erupted, and protests were held in the capital Honiara against Prime Minister Sogavare, which resulted in three deaths and the Chinatown district being razed.
“You start to get this distortion in the society that creates an enormous amount of social anger. If you are from a democratic background, you think that’s a bad thing,” Paskal said. “But if you accept this premise of entropic warfare being the desired outcome from Beijing, you actually do want to create disruption within the society.”
If we could add India, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia to the list, we would have a strong response.
Hmmm. No Tiawan.
It’s now how many countries you have, it’s what they bring to the party. We’re pretty much undermilitarized (less than 3% of GNP), overextended (all over the world, still in Kosovo, for example), and now have half of our conventional weapons depleted (due to the Neocon War in Ukraine).
The other countries are in worse shape.
I’m gonna fight ‘em all
A six nation army couldn’t hold me back
Beijing’s “unrestricted warfare”???
I know 1939-1945 was a long time ago, but REALLY?
Just curious, what exactly does U.K. have to do with this other than trying to remain a relevant ‘world power’ ?
Not to mention the $80,000,000,000 of materiel Brandon left behind in the middle of the night in Afghanistan.
Does Biden even understand what unrestricted warfare is? Does Biden know that China is already at war with us, per China’s definition of unrestricted warfare?
The UK has a number of alliances and defense treaties throughout the Asia Pacific. What they lack is a Navy as the RN isn't that much bigger that the Australian Navy (which in itself is too small for Australia's requirements).
It is past time to dissolve the old 5 Eyes group.
New Zealand, Canada and the UK are basically worthless as allies, and they will become more worthless in the years to come.
India, Japan and Vietnam will make good allies and probably S. Korea and Taiwan.
If Australia doesn’t become a Covid Fascist nation, they might become partners.
In the meantime, we need to improve our relationships from Mexico down to the antarctic. As the Castro lovers/disciples die of old age in Cuba, we need to be ready to bring the new Cuba back into this time period.
It might be best if N. Zealand, the Philippines and Pakistan get into bed with new partners, not us.
The Chinese and Russians are running their mouths and showing off their junk against better equipped and better trained forces of many other nations.
“Just curious, what exactly does U.K. have to do with this other than trying to remain a relevant ‘world power’?”
The sun has set for the UK as a world power and maybe even as a regional power.
Canada/New Zealand and Australia are Covid Fascist Countries to their own people and probably worse with our people.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.