Top officials from Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the UK yesterday said that their 52-year-old Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) pact helped keep things in balance amid regional tensions.
“The longstanding FPDA ... always been an important part of ensuring signaling collective defense in this region,” New Zealand Minister of National Defense Andrew Little said at a news briefing on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
As tensions between the US and China persist, the longstanding relationships among smaller nations are “what keep things in balance,” Little said.
Photo: REUTERS
“I’m comfortable continuing to keep things in balance as different countries including the major powers work out how the relationships are working,” he added.
Singaporean Minister of Defense Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏), Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles, Malaysian Minister for Defense Seri Mohamad Hasan, British Secretary of State for Defense Ben Wallace and Little discussed the importance of the FPDA as a constructive and peaceful arrangement.
The ministers talked about collaborating in unconventional ways in the face of contemporary security challenges.
“We are five countries who are deeply committed to a rules-based order and promoting peace within our region,” Marles said.
Increased regional involvement by nations in and outside Asia has been a recurring theme at the security meetings, with comments on the subject from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday night and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin echoing the sentiments in a speech yesterday morning.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS