position:defence secretary

#Huawei ban: why Asian countries are shunning Trump’s blacklist despite concerns about China’s influence | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3012820/huawei-ban-why-asian-countries-are-shunning-trumps

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“Some if not all regional countries may harbour concerns about the security ramifications of using Huawei, but there are real pragmatic considerations,” said Collin Koh Swee Lean, a research fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “Cost-wise in particular, Chinese offers for infrastructure development present more attractive propositions.”

Acting US Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan sought to address funding worries in his speech, mentioning that the US roughly doubled a competing infrastructure fund to US$60 billion. He contrasted the American vision of a “ free and open ” region with one “where power determines place and debt determines destiny”.

For many Asian countries, however, US funding isn’t enough to meet their needs and generally comes with too many strings attached . Myanmar, for instance, found that China was the only country willing to finance a deep-sea port and industrial estate on its coastline near Bangladesh.

“In the end, the decision to accept or not to accept such financing rests with the recipient country and not with Beijing,” said Thaung Tun, Myanmar’s national security adviser, dismissing the notion that China would indebt the country for strategic gains.

#Chine #Etats-Unis

Britain admits warship threat upset China | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-china-idUSL9N1YF004

Britain on Thursday admitted that talk by its defence minister of deploying a warship in the Pacific had complicated the relationship with China.

When asked directly on BBC radio if the relationship had been damaged by Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson’s threat to deploy a new aircraft carrier to the Pacific, finance minister Philip Hammond said:

“It is a complex relationship and it hasn’t been made simpler by Chinese concerns about royal navy deployments in the South China Sea.”

British media reported that China cancelled trade talks with Hammond because it was upset about Williamson’s speech.

Hammond said he was disappointed that the Chinese had reacted in the way they had.

“This is entirely premature, the aircraft carrier isn’t going to be at full operational readiness for another couple of years, no decisions have been made or even discussed about where its early deployments might be,” Hammond said.

UK sending 800 troops to Arctic in warning shot to Russia
▻https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/09/29/uk-sending-800-troops-arctic-warning-shot-russia

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2018/03/31/TELEMMGLPICT000158714476-xlarge_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqO2wBkCq2Mm4bNdLs0EhrY_Cx5N7oklDnuXG52pl6X-M.jpeg

Britain is to step up its military presence in the Arctic significantly amid concerns about growing Russian aggression “in our back yard”, the Defence Secretary reveals today.

Gavin Williamson told The Sunday Telegraph that the Government was drawing up a “defence Arctic strategy” with 800 commandos being deployed to Norway next year and the instalment of a base in the north of the country.

Mr Williamson highlighted Russia’s re-opening of Soviet-era bases and an “increased tempo” of submarine activity as evidence that Britain needed to “demonstrate we’re there” and “protect our interests”.

Britain to sail warship through disputed South China Sea | UK news | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/13/britain-to-sail-warship-through-disputed-south-china-sea

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3269547a7c15387881c41f5ddc23fd209ec68957/69_0_2063_1238/master/2063.jpg?w=1200&h=630&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=crop&crop=faces%2Centropy&bm=normal&ba=bottom%2Cleft&blend64=aHR0cHM6Ly91cGxvYWRzLmd1aW0uY28udWsvMjAxOC8wMS8zMS9mYWNlYm9va19kZWZhdWx0LnBuZw&s=882247be37a27cc981d474c28c921089

A British warship will sail from Australia through the disputed South China Sea next month to assert freedom of navigation rights, the UK’s defence secretary said on Tuesday in a move likely to irk Beijing.

China claims nearly all of the resource-rich waterway and has been turning reefs and islets into islands and installing military facilities such as runways and equipment on them.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said HMS Sutherland, an anti-submarine frigate, would arrive in Australia later this week.

“She’ll be sailing through the South China Sea (on the way home) and making it clear our navy has a right to do that,” he told The Australian newspaper after a two-day visit to Sydney and Canberra.

He would not say whether the frigate would sail within 12 nautical miles of a disputed territory or artificial island built by the Chinese, as US ships have done.

But he said: “We absolutely support the US approach on this, we very much support what the US has been doing.”

Britain increases arms exports to world’s most repressive regimes by nearly a third since Brexit vote
►https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/arms-sales-britain-increases-exports-worlds-repressive-regimes-nearly-third

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Britain has dramatically increased the value of weaponry and defence equipment it sells to the world’s most repressive regimes since vows by senior ministers to expand arms exports after the Brexit vote. Figures seen by i show that the Government cleared export licences worth £2.9bn in the 12 months after June 2016 to 35 countries considered “not free” by Freedom House, a respected international think-tank. The figure represents a 28 per cent increase on the 12 months before the Brexit vote. Human rights Among the countries to which ministers have given the green light for military equipment sales are Equatorial Guinea, considered to be one of the most corrupt and repressive countries in the world. Licences worth £1m were also granted for Azerbaijan, accused by human rights campaigners of conducting a vicious campaign against freedom of expression, while Uzbekistan, which is rated by Freedom House as one of the least free countries in the world, was granted a licence to import military vehicle components worth nearly £200,000. The Government has singled out arms sales as a priority area for Britain’s post-Brexit trade push. Prior to his resignation last year, former Defence Secretary Michael Fallon vowed at the world’s largest arms fair in London that Britain would “spread its wings across the world” with increased weaponry and equipment sales. The Government insists that the UK has “robust” measures in place to allow “ethical defence exports” which are worth £5.9bn a year to the British economy.

Read more at: ►https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/arms-sales-britain-increases-exports-worlds-repressive-regimes-nearly-third

US masses ships and aircraft outside North Korea - World Socialist Web Site
▻https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/10/30/pers-o30.html

Les infos du lundi matin pour bien commencer la semaine.

US masses ships and aircraft outside North Korea
30 October 2017

US Defence Secretary James Mattis has again warned North Korea that the United States military is ready and able to obliterate the country of 25 million people unless it abandons its nuclear arsenal. The threat, backed by an unprecedented US military build-up in North East Asia, places the region and the world on the brink of a catastrophic war.

“I cannot imagine a condition under which the US would accept North Korea as a nuclear power,” he told reporters in Seoul on Saturday. “Make no mistake any attack on the United States or our allies will be defeated, and any use of nuclear weapons by the North will be met with a massive military response that is effective and overwhelming.”

#corée_du_nord

U.S. Has Three Aircraft Carriers in West Pacific for First Time in a Decade - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-26/u-s-has-three-carriers-in-west-pacific-for-first-time-since-07

The U.S. Navy has three aircraft carriers and their assorted missile-carrying vessels deployed to the western Pacific Ocean for the first time in a decade as tensions with North Korea remain high and President Donald Trump prepares to depart for Asia next week.

The milestone was reached Wednesday when the USS Nimitz and its strike group entered the Western Pacific region after operating in the Middle East, according to a Navy press release. The USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group, including a cruiser and three destroyers, entered the region Oct. 23, joining the USS Ronald Reagan.

The high-profile deployments are part of a larger build-up. In addition to the aircraft carrier strike groups, capable of launching Tomahawk cruise missiles, the Navy announced Oct. 13 that the USS Michigan — one the service’s four specialized submarines for carrying as many as 66 Navy SEAL commandos and 154 Tomahawks — arrived in Busan, South Korea.

New agreement strengthens UK-Saudi Arabia Defence relationship - GOV.UK
▻https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-agreement-strengthens-uk-saudi-arabia-defence-relationship

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/static/opengraph-image-a1f7d89ffd0782738b1aeb0da37842d8bd0addbd724b8e58c3edbc7287cc11de.png

The governments of the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have announced a new Military and Security Cooperation Agreement, signed today in Jeddah by the Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon and the Saudi Crown Prince HRH Mohammed bin Salman.

#alliances

British made cluster bombs used by Saudi-led forces in Yemen, Government research shows - Mirror Online
▻http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/british-made-cluster-bombs-used-9483580

British-made cluster bombs have been used by Saudi Arabia-led forces in Yemen, Government research has indicated.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon is set to make a statement on the analysis in the House of Commons this afternoon.

Cluster bombs are made up of dozens of small explosives, which deliver widespread and indiscriminate damage. The sale of cluster munitions is illegal.

The Government said it takes the allegations “very seriously” and has raised them with the Saudi-led coalition.

In June, the Ministry of Defence denied British-made cluster bombs discovered in Yemen by Amnesty International had been dropped by Saudi-led forces.

Paris climate negotiations won’t stop the planet burning
▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/paris-climate-negotiations-won-t-stop-planet-burning-1543258788

It is not widely known that US, British, French and Israeli oil companies have had a range of overlapping interests in exploiting Syria’s unconventional oil and gas resources, which are believed to be considerable.

A document for the Syrian Ministry of Petroleum reveals that just months before the uprising, British oil major Shell was about to “devise a master plan for the development of the gas sector in Syria, following an agreement signed with the Ministry of Petroleum. The agreement includes an assessment of the overall undiscovered gas potential in Syria, potential for upstream gas production, need for gas transmission and distribution networks…”

CGGVeritas, a firm backed by the French government, had conducted seismic surveys estimating Syria’s total offshore hydrocarbon potential to represent “billion-barrel/multi-TCF [trillion cubic feet]” levels. A study by the firm was published in 2011 by GeoArabia, a Bahrain-based petroleum industry journal sponsored by Chevron, ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Total, and BP.

Total, another French major, also worked with Assad at this time.

More recently, another US firm with interests in Syria is Genie Oil and Gas, an Israeli subsidiary of which was granted a licence by the Israeli government in 2013 to explore the Syrian Golan Heights, which has been controlled by Israel since capturing the territory from Syria in 1967.

In early November, Prime Minister Netanyahu personally asked Barack Obama in a private meeting if Israel’s right to the Golan could be accepted by the US, to which the American president apparently said nothing.

Genie’s board consists of an interesting mix, including former former CIA director James Woolsey, Vice President Dick Cheney, global media baron Rupert Murdoch, Obama’s former economic advisor Larry Summers, and Obama’s nomimee for Secretary of Commerce Bill Richardson, among others.

“We want a new Syrian state including some of those who are fighting it helping on the ground,” said British defence secretary Michael Fallon.

No doubt, US, British, French and Israeli oil firms hope to be well positioned to take advantage of the “new Syrian state” in a post-conflict Syria.

#Syrie #hydrocarbures #énergie #business

Intercepted Russian bomber was carrying a nuclear missile over the Channel | UK | News | Daily Express
▻http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/555454/Intercepted-Russian-bomber-was-carrying-a-nuclear-missile-over-the-Channe

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RAF Typhoon fighter jets were scrambled on Wednesday [28 January] after two long-range TU-95 “Bear” bombers were detected flying over the English Channel.

The incident was last night described as “yet another in a series of deliberately provocative” measures by President Vladimir Putin which confirmed that Nato’s status had moved firmly from “rival to adversary”. 

Sources within the Ministry of Defence last night revealed that one of the two long-range bombers was carrying at least one air-dropped “seek and find" nuclear warhead-carrtying missile, designed to seek and destroy a Vanguard submarine. 

Both Prime Minister David Cameron and Defence Secretary Michael Fallon were alerted after cockpit conservations confirming the bomber’s nuclear payload were intercepted by a Norwegian military listening post, and shared with the Ministry of Defence.
(…)
One senior RAF source said: (…)
"We also knew from another source that one of the aircraft was carrying a nuclear weapon long before it came anywhere near UK airspace.”
(…)
“But this intimidation belies a misunderstanding of the way the West works. As far as our military is concerned, it is helpful for Putin to be stepping up these actions. It serves to remind the public at a time where defence budgets are under pressure that this threat is still real, active and is not going away.”

Et donc, merci M. Poutine, de nous rappeler qu’il ne faut pas diminuer nos dépenses militaires !…

Britain to build first permanent Middle East military base in four decades | UK news | theguardian.com
▻http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/dec/06/britain-first-middle-eastern-military-base-bahrain

Foreign secretary Philip Hammond said the deal with Bahrain would guarantee the Royal Navy’s presence in Bahrain well into the future. He said: “The expansion of Britain’s footprint builds upon our 30-year track record of Gulf patrols and is just one example of our growing partnership with Gulf partners to tackle shared strategic and regional threats.”

Defence secretary Michael Fallon said Britain would now be based in the Gulf again for the long term. The rise of Islamic State, fears over Iran and ongoing instability in the region contributed to the decision to establish the new naval base, which is adjacent to a more substantial US facility, home to the fifth fleet. Bahrain will contribute most of the £15m cost of construction, with the UK picking up the ongoing costs.

Chief of the defence staff, general Sir Nicholas Houghton, said the deal was symbolic and strategically important. “Rather than just being seen as a temporary deployment to an area for a specific operational purpose, this is more symbolic of the fact that Britain does enjoy interests in the stability of this region,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“And the fact that the Bahraini authorities and government agreed to fund infrastructure within the country to base our maritime capability forward, both is a recognition from their perspective of the quality of the relationship with the United Kingdom, but also of our interest over time in maintaining the stability of this very important area.”

#Sri_Lanka: United States had given its fullest support to destroy the LTTE’s floating armouries in the deep sea between 2006 and 2008- Defence Secretary (LankaWeb)
▻http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2013/09/14/united-states-had-given-its-fullest-support-to-destroy-the-lttes-floating-

Defence Secretary in an an interview with The Australian newspaper said that the United States had given its fullest support to destroy the LTTE’s floating armouries in the deep sea between 2006 and 2008.

“One turning point in the war came when the Sri Lankan navy was able to sink these Tiger supply ships: “Between 2006 and 2008 we destroyed 12 of these floating armouries.” What made this possible?

“The Americans were very, very helpful. Most of the locations of these ships were given to us by the Americans,” Mr. Rajapaksa said.

#surveillance #anti-terrorisme

Ce n’est pas le Département d’État mais le Pentagone qui a répondu à l’appel de la semaine dernière d’un groupe de personnalités américaines et libyennes demandant que Washington ne laisse pas tomber la Libye.

America firmly backs Libya, US Defence Secretary tells Al-Thini | Libya Herald
▻http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/09/21/america-firmly-backs-libya-us-defence-secretary-tells-al-thini/#axzz2fdiT4QVw

The United States will continue to back Libya despite the present difficulties. Moreover, it looks to strengthening the relationship in future, the US Defence Secretary, Chuck Hagel, has told Libyan Defence Minister Abdullah Al-Thini.

In phone on Thursday, “Secretary Hagel highlighted the United States’ support to Libya and its people during its transition,” Pentagon Press Secretary George Little was quoted by the American Forces Press Service as saying.

According to Little, both men had “agreed to continue efforts to strengthen military cooperation”. In particular, they had discussed “how the United States military can assist training for Libyan security forces and strengthening regional security through stability and rule of law”.

Hagel and Al-Sisi discuss events in Egypt - Daily News Egypt

▻http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/09/18/hagel-and-al-sisi-discuss-events-in-egypt

Hagel and Al-Sisi have both said that they speak regularly of the telephone in separate interviews with the BBC and the Washington Post, respectively.

The defence secretary expressed reluctance to cut ties with Egypt amidst a White House review of the US relationship with Egypt, which has been on-going since the armed forces ousted former President Mohamed Morsi following mass protests on 30 June. Al-Sisi outlined a political roadmap on 3 July, the night of Morsi’s ouster.

US-SYRIE. Obama blocked US plan to arm Syrian rebels | World news | guardian.co.uk
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/08/pentagon-supported-plan-syrian-rebels

Pentagon leaders have said they supported a recommendation from the US state department and CIA to arm Syrian rebels, but Barack Obama ultimately decided against it.

The Obama administration has limited its support to non-lethal aid for the rebels who, despite receiving weapons from countries such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia, are poorly armed compared with the army and loyalist militias of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.

John McCain, a Republican senator who has championed greater US involvement, asked Pentagon leaders at a congressional hearing: “How many more have to die before you recommend military action?”

He then pressed the outgoing defence secretary, Leon Panetta, and General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the US military’s joint chiefs of staff, about whether they backed the recommendation by the state department and CIA chiefs last year to arm the rebels.

Panetta and Dempsey said they had backed the recommendation and, later in the hearing, the defence secretary elaborated.

“Obviously there were a number of factors that were involved here that ultimately led to the president’s decision to make [the aid] non-lethal,” Panetta said, adding that he supported Obama’s decision.

The comments were the first public acknowledgement of Pentagon support to arm the rebels since 2 February when the New York Times reported on the plan developed last summer by Hillary Clinton and David Petraeus, who have since left their jobs at the state department and CIA respectively.

The defence chiefs’ testimony suggested White House opposition alone may have been enough to override the position of most major US foreign policy and security agencies.

The New York Times said the plan to arm and train rebels was rebuffed by the White House due to concerns that it could draw the United States into the Syrian conflict and that the arms could fall into the wrong hands.

The questions about US policy in Syria came during a hearing focusing on Libya, with Pentagon leaders defending their response to last year’s deadly attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.

Republican politicians raised questions about whether the reaction was too slow and whether Obama was engaged enough during the incident, choosing to get updates on the crisis from staff instead of military leaders.

Panetta and Dempsey said US forces could not have reached Libya in time to prevent the deaths of the US ambassador and three other Americans on 11 September 2012, and insisted Obama was kept in the loop.

Panetta stressed that it was not the US military’s responsibility to be able to immediately respond anywhere in the world to a crisis. There was no intelligence about a specific plan to attack the consulate, he and Dempsey noted.

“The United States military … is not and, frankly, should not be a 911 service capable of arriving on the scene within minutes to every possible contingency around the world,” he said.

Panetta: Iran undecided over nuclear bomb
►http://www.aljazeera.com/video/americas/2012/02/20122170514625396.html

Leon Panetta, the United States defence secretary, has told US legislators that while Iran is enriching uranium for its nuclear programme, there are currently no indications that Tehran has decided to develop atomic weapons.

US defence chief says Israel ’isolated’ - Middle East - Al Jazeera English
►http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/10/201110341753393563.html

Leon Panetta, the new US defence secretary, says Washington is committed to ensuring Israel maintains a “qualitative military edge” in the Middle East, but warned that the country is becoming increasingly isolated.

Panetta, who is due to arrive in Israel on Monday on his first visit to the region since taking charge at the Pentagon, said he planned to use the trip to reaffirm US security commitments to Israel and try to improve its deteriorating relations with Turkey and Egypt.

“It’s pretty clear, at this dramatic time in the Middle East when there have been so many changes, that it is not a good situation for Israel to become increasingly isolated. And that is what has happened,” Panetta told reporters on his plane.

“The important thing there is to again reaffirm our strong security relationship with Israel, to make clear that we will protect their qualitative military edge,” Panetta said.

“As they take risks for peace, we will be able to provide the security that they will need in order to ensure that they can have the room hopefully to negotiate.”

Cette dernière phrase est très drôle.

Libya: Liam Fox directs the conflict from a Spanish hotel at taxpayer’s expense | Mail Online
►http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023900/Libya-Liam-Fox-directs-conflict-Spanish-hotel-taxpayers-expense.html

Liam Fox is running the war in Libya from his sunbed in Spain, the Daily Mail can reveal.

The Defence Secretary has flown out a team of officials from his ministry to join him on his two-week holiday so he can stay in control of the campaign against Gaddafi.

The advisers include a military assistant, a special adviser and a signaller who is responsible for military communications.

However, critics may ask why the Defence Secretary is on holiday at all while Britain is involved in two conflicts.

En Avril 2003, en Irak (via @asa_wire):
Carry on looting, Hoon tells civilians in Basra - Telegraph
►http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/1426921/Carry-on-looting-Hoon-tells-civilians-in-Basra.html

Iraqi civilians were given the go-ahead by Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, to help themselves to furniture and other items from headquarters and palaces of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

He told the Commons yesterday that most looting was so far confined to Iraqi citizens “liberating” items from facilities of the regime - “redistributing that wealth among the Iraqi people”.

Gates : US may extend Afghan mission - Central & South Asia - Al Jazeera English
►http://english.aljazeera.net//news/asia/2011/03/20113761614567225.html

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, has arrived in #Afghanistan at a time of increased strain between Kabul and its Western supporters with important security transition milestones looming.

His arrival on Monday marked the start of a two-day visit which had not been announced in advance.

US military Gates said on Monday that both the US and Afghan governments agree on the US military involvement in Afghanistan after the planned 2014 end of combat operations to help train and advise Afghan forces.

“Obviously it would be a small fraction of the presence that we have today, but I think we’re willing to do that,” Gates told a group of US troops at Bagram air field, US and NATO forces headquarter in eastern Afghanistan.

“My sense is, they (Afghan officials) are interested in having us do that.”

C’est un peu le problème : ils t’apportent la démocratie à grands coups de bombardements chirurgicaux, ça c’est bien, mais après, ils ont un peu tendance à s’incruster...

Iraq war briefings headlined with biblical quotes, reports US magazine | World news | guardian.co.uk
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/18/rumsfeld-gq-iraq-bible-quotes-bush

In 2003 US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld included the quotes, allegedly to appeal to George Bush

High court rejects Iraqi prisoners’ call for public inquiry into torture claims | The Guardian
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/21/iraq-prisoners-inquiry-high-court-ruling?CMP=twt_fd

Two judges upheld the refusal by the defence secretary, Liam Fox, to order an immediate public inquiry into the allegations made by more than 200 men taken prisoner during the six-year British occupation of south-east Iraq.

Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Silber ruled that because the Ministry of Defence was already investigating the complaints an inquiry was not needed at this stage, although they warned that one might be “required in due course”.

#Grande-Bretagne #torture #irak