Richard Marles says the Department of Defence is examining how F-35 fighter jet parts bound for the US from Australia were unexpectedly diverted to Hong Kong. The acting prime minister said “very much everything that has occurred at the Australian end” will be reviewed, however, he claimed the technology parts were not “sensitive”, as first reported by Politico over the weekend. The parts, which were being transported by another unknown third party on behalf of manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, still remain unaccounted for months later following their unplanned diversion to Hong…
Tag: Arms trade
Trump’s Sharp Turn on China: Embracing It as a Peer Power
After meeting with China’s top diplomat in Malaysia last summer, Secretary of State Marco Rubio uttered a line that made few waves at the time but would later help pave the way for an abrupt change. The United States and China, Mr. Rubio said, had an “opportunity here to achieve some strategic stability” and find areas of cooperation. He used the phrase again in February while talking about China in the Caribbean, also to little notice. Chinese officials picked up on Mr. Rubio’s remarks and suggested to their U.S. counterparts…
US arms sales to Taiwan on ‘pause’ due to Iran war, says acting navy chief
US arms sales to Taiwan have been “paused” to ensure the US military has enough munitions for its Iran operations, according to Washington’s acting navy secretary, in the latest blow to Taipei after a series of comments by Donald Trump. When asked at a congressional hearing on Thursday about a $14bn (£10.4bn) weapons package awaiting Trump’s signoff for months, Hung Cao said: “Right now we’re doing a pause in order to make sure we have the munitions we need for Epic Fury [the Iran war] – which we have plenty.”…
Trump Says He Will Speak with Taiwan’s President About Arms Deal
new video loaded: Trump Says He Will Speak with Taiwan’s President About Arms Deal transcript Back transcript Trump Says He Will Speak with Taiwan’s President About Arms Deal President Trump said that he would talk to Taiwan’s president about a possible weapons sale to the self-governing democracy. Direct dialogue would anger China, which claims Taiwan as its territory and opposes contact between Taiwanese and foreign leaders. “Well, I’ll speak to him. I speak to everybody. We have that situation very well in hand. We had a great meeting with President…
Why the Trump-Xi Summit Matters, Even if Little Seems to Come of It
President Trump and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, are scheduled to meet in Beijing this week for a high-stakes summit that could shape the next stage of rivalry between the world’s two major powers. Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi are expected to discuss the war in Iran, trade, Taiwan and other points of contention during a two-day summit beginning on Thursday. Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi last met in October in South Korea, where they agreed to pause a bruising trade war in which the U.S. imposed triple-digit tariffs on Chinese…
Japan to Sell More Weapons Abroad, Breaking With Postwar Pacifism
The Japanese government moved on Tuesday to allow the sale of more weapons abroad, in the latest shift away from pacifist policies imposed after World War II, as it grapples with rising security threats from China and a rapidly changing global order. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her top officials, at a meeting in Tokyo, reversed longstanding limits on the sale of Japan-made weapons overseas. The move comes days after Japan welcomed more than 30 NATO envoys for a visit meant to show stronger ties, and after Tokyo sealed a…
China imposes sanctions on US defence firms over Taiwan arms deal
China’s foreign ministry has hit US defence companies including Boeing with sanctions after Donald Trump approved a large package of arms sales to Taiwan. The ministry said on Friday that the measures – against 10 individuals and 20 US firms including Boeing’s production hub at St Louis in Missouri – would freeze any assets the companies and individuals hold in China and bar domestic organisations and individuals from doing business with them. It comes after the Trump administration last week announced a package of arms sales to Taiwan valued at…
Trump or no Trump, Europe’s relationship with the US will never recover | Nathalie Tocci
Is the transatlantic rupture temporary or structural? Is Donald Trump the cause of the rift, or is the US president only a symptom of underlying trends? Optimists latch on to the hope that the stability we have lost can be restored post-Trump. Having spent the past few days in Washington, I doubt it. Even in recent history, things were not quite so bad for the transatlantic relationship. The current tensions make the first Trump administration look like a walk in the park for Europeans. It is one thing to withdraw…
Global defence budget jumps to record high of $2440bn
Global military expenditure has reached a record high of $2440bn (£1970bn) after the largest annual rise in government spending on arms in over a decade, according to a report. The 6.8% increase between 2022 and 2023 was the steepest since 2009, pushing spending to the highest recorded by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) in its 60-year history. For the first time, analysts at the thinktank recorded a rise in military outlay in all five geographical regions: Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Oceania and the Americas. Nan…
China supporting Russia in massive military expansion, US says
China is helping Russia undertake its biggest military expansion since Soviet times, ramping up sales of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for its war against Ukraine, according to a US assessment. US officials are hoping the release of the intelligence will encourage European allies to press China, as the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, heads to Beijing this weekend and G7 foreign ministers meet next week in Italy. Announcing US findings, officials said China was helping Russia in…