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(CNSNews.com) – At a time of escalated tensions with the West over Ukraine, Russia says it is negotiating with eight governments around the world for access to military facilities, to enable it to extend its long-range naval and strategic bomber capabilities. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday the military was engaged in talks with Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Algeria, Cyprus, the Seychelles, Vietnam and Singapore. “We need bases for refueling near the equator, and in other places,” ITAR-Tass quoted him as saying. Russia is not looking to establish bases in those locations, but to reach agreement to use facilities there when...

A US aircraft carrier arrived in Vietnam on Monday for the first time since the end of the war, as the former foes bolster military ties in the face of Beijing's build-up in the disputed South China Sea. (Please see full article, at the link)

China's J-20 stealth fighter has entered combat service, the country's armed forces confirmed on Friday, expanding the military's air power options as it presses on with a massive modernisation programme. People's Liberation Army Air Force spokesman Shen Jinke said the deployment of the J-20 to combat units would "help the air force better shoulder the sacred mission of safeguarding national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity". Shen said the air force was moving towards a modernised military service that could operate in all fronts, and had become an effective force to control, contain and win a war. (please see link for...

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) has flown its new top-the-line Russian-made Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker-E air superiority fighters over the South China Sea to cement Beijing's claim over the region. The PLAAF is also rumored to have deployed its newly operational Chengdu J-20 fifth-generation stealth fighters to the region. "The Chinese air force recently sent its Su-35 fighter jets to take part in a joint combat patrol over the South China Sea," according to a release from the Chinese Ministry of Defense. "This is the first time the People's Liberation Army Air Force has made public the deployment...

At the summit of the leaders of the Group of 20 nations in Hamburg in July, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indicated that Tokyo would be willing to take part in Beijing’s ambitious “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) economic development plan. The Japanese leader’s decision was apparently prompted by concerns that domestic firms would miss out on lucrative construction projects as the modern-day “Silk Road” project spread into Southeast Asia, the Central Asian republics, the Middle East and beyond. Just three months later — and after conservatives at home raised their eyebrows at such close cooperation with a government that...

Vietnam has won the promise of a visit from a U.S. aircraft carrier and deeper defense cooperation from the United States.. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Vietnamese counterpart Ngo Xuan Lich in Washington on Tuesday that a strong defense relationship was based on common interests that included freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. A Vietnam flag flies as U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (L) hosts an honor cordon for Vietnamese Defense Minister Gen. Ngo Xuan Lich (R) at the Pentagon...

Beijing denounces U.S. B-1B bomber flight over South China Sea By Elizabeth Shim Contact the Author | July 7, 2017 at 9:27 AM July 7 (UPI) -- China issued a warning after two U.S. B-1B bombers took part in a joint drill with Japan in the East China Sea, then flew over the South China Sea. Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters at a regular press briefing on Friday that China is "adamantly opposed to acts that undermine China's sovereignty," South Korean news agency Yonhap reported. China claims sovereignty over nearly the entire South China Sea, a claim...

China finally got around to responding to Japan’s planned tour of the South China Sea with the helicopter carrier Izumo, its largest warship. The Chinese response was predictably unpleasant, as reported by Reuters. “If Japan persists in taking wrong actions, and even considers military interventions that threaten China’s sovereignty and security… then China will inevitably take firm responsive measures,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular press briefing. China said on Tuesday that it was waiting for an official word on why Japan plans to send the warship on the tour through the South China Sea, but that...

On Tuesday, China slammed the United States’ deployment of an aircraft carrier to conduct “routine operations” in the South China Sea, calling it a pretense to undermine its sovereignty. “China always respects the freedom of navigation and overflight all littoral countries enjoy under international law,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a daily news briefing, according to Reuters. “But we are consistently opposed to relevant countries threatening and damaging the sovereignty and security of littoral countries under the flag of freedom of navigation and overflight,” Geng said. “We hope relevant countries can do more to safeguard regional peace...

Threatening to destabilize the tentative improvement in Sino-US relations achieved in recent days following Trump's recent concession over the "One China" policy, was the US deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) to the disputed waters of the South China Sea on Saturday as part of maritime "routine operations", according to an announcement posted on the Vinson's Facebook page. Sailing with the 97,000-ton Vinson is the guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer, the Navy said in a statement. The Vinson carries a flight group of more than 60 aircraft, including F/A-18 jet fighters. The deployment comes just one...

January 24, 2017 The latest diplomatic spat between the US and China erupted overnight, when China said on Tuesday it had "irrefutable" sovereignty over disputed islands in the South China Sea after White House spokesman Sean Spicer vowed to defend "international territories" in the strategic waterway. Spicer's first official comments on Monday signaled a sharp departure from years of cautious U.S. handling of China's assertive pursuit of territorial claims in Asia. "The U.S. is going to make sure that we protect our interests there," Spicer said when asked if Trump agreed with comments by his secretary of state nominee, Rex...

While Rex Tillerson's confirmation hearing as Trump's Secretary of State was for the most part uneventful, several hours into his back and forth with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Tillerson compared China’s actions to those of Russia in Crimea, saying a failure to respond had allowed it to “keep pushing the envelope” in the South China Sea. “We’re going to have to send China a clear signal that first the island-building stops and second your access to those islands is also not going to be allowed” and that putting military assets on those islands was "akin to Russia’s taking...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Chinese Navy warship has seized an underwater drone deployed by an American oceanographic vessel in international waters in the South China Sea, triggering a formal diplomatic protest from the United States and a demand for its return, a U.S. defense official told Reuters on Friday. The incident, the first of its kind in recent memory, took place on Dec. 15 northwest of Subic Bay off the Philippines just as the USNS Bowditch, an oceanographic survey ship, was about to retrieve the unmanned, underwater vehicle (UUV), the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The UUV was...

With main objector Philippines placated, Vietnam is taking the mantle of opposition to China’s colonization of the South China Sea, with a new report indicating that it has begun dredging land in the Spratly Island chain. Reuters reports that satellite images reveal a new dredging project in the Vietnamese Spratly Islands, apparently intended to convert Ladd Reef from a shifting tidal land mass to a sturdy island onto which Hanoi can build military and civilian assets. The reef is already home to a lighthouse, Reuters notes, but it “is completely submerged at high tide.” The dredging project appears designed to...

Engaging with China need not be a zero sum game: Obama Administration’s Pointless Confrontation with China over the South China Sea Amidst concerns over how a Trump administration will interact with China, especially with respect to trade, China’s President Xi Jinping told President-elect Trump during their recent telephone conversation that “The facts prove that cooperation is the only correct choice for China and the United States.” According to a statement from President-elect Trump’s presidential transition office, “the leaders established a clear sense of mutual respect for one another, and President-elect Trump stated that he believes the two leaders will have...

Japan will step up its activity in the contested South China Sea through joint training patrols with the United States and bilateral and multilateral exercises with regional navies, Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada said on Thursday. Inada said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, that Japan's increased engagement in the area, where Japan shares U.S. concerns about China's pursuit of extensive territorial claims, would include capacity building for coastal nations. Japan also has its own dispute with China over territory in the East China Sea. Inada said that if the world...

South China Sea disputes are turning worse. Last week, Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte had a loud and clear message for China: Stay away from our territory or else it could be a “bloody” confrontation. Philippines’s warning comes shortly before China hosts the G20 Leaders’ Summit in the eastern city of Hangzhou on 4-5 September, and one week after a Japan Times editorial revealed that China has set a “red line” for Japan in the South China Sea. China warned Japan “not send Self-Defense Forces to join U.S. operations that test the freedom of navigation in the disputed South China Sea....

President Barack Obama meets with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India in June. (Photo by Dennis Brack-Pool/Getty Images) Around August 30, in Washington, India and the U.S. will sign a major war pact that makes them logistical allies against, among others, the superpower China currently making a bold power grab in the South China Sea. Specifically, Indian Defense Mister Manohar Parrikar will sign the deal during a two-day visit in Washington. The deal is the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), a foundational agreement for India and the U.S.. In this instance, the agreement provides for each to use the...

Adding to the latest in a series of military drills, Beijing has said a branch of its coast guard is holding live-fire exercises from Monday to Wednesday (22 - 24 August). The drill is being staged at the Gulf of Tonkin, the northern arm of the South China Sea, home to several territorial disputes among Asian countries. Despite fresh tensions in the disputed waters, China's Maritime Safety Administration said it was banning vessels from entering the area between China's southern island province of Hainan and the northern coast of Vietnam. The Tonkin Gulf has historical significance over the Vietnam War...

CHINA could match the military might of the US in a decade and any conflict between them would rock the entire world economy. That is the frightening warning issued by research organisation, Rand Corporation, which highlights how the US and China remain at loggerheads over several regional disputes with large military forces operating closely together. In its new report War With China, Thinking Through the Unthinkable, Rand warn any conflict would ultimately be intense, destructive and protracted. “If an incident occurred or a crisis overheated, both have an incentive to strike enemy forces before being struck by them,” the report...