Free and Open Indo-Pacific/FOIP
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China’s Taiwan Strait traffic control scheme part of ‘salami slicing’ strategy
Lt. Col. Uilisone F. Tua/U.S. Army In early August 2026, China’s Guangdong Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) announced and sought to enforce a dayslong “traffic control scheme” for northbound vessels entering…
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Australia-Philippines-U.S. maritime cooperation boosts interoperability
Australian Defence Department/Armed Forces of the Philippines Naval and air units from Australia, the Philippines and the United States conducted a maritime cooperative activity (MCA) within the Philippines’ exclusive economic…
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Beijing drives maritime militia aggression in South China Sea
Sarah Chan The strategic contest in the South China Sea increasingly is waged not by warships but by dual-purpose fishing trawlers. State-directed maritime militias, operating in the murky space between…
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China set to militarize once pristine South China Sea reef
Reuters China has completed the first phase of construction on Antelope Reef in the Paracels archipelago, building an artificial island in the contested South China Sea that analysts say will…
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PACAF sets theater with prepositioned materiel
U.S. Pacific Air Forces The Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) is moving prepositioned materiel into key locations throughout the U.S. Pacific Command area of responsibility. This effort, central to the U.S.…
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U.S. Coast Guard deploys fast-response cutters to Pacific
FORUM Staff Reassigning six United States Coast Guard fast-response cutters to the Western Pacific enhances the service’s posture in a vast maritime region illegally and aggressively claimed by China. The…
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Drone boat approaches, videos Chinese destroyer in Philippines EEZ
Reuters A small uncrewed boat sailed close enough to a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) guided-missile destroyer in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in June 2026 to capture…
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Antelope Reef transformation another step in Beijing’s destructive South China Sea activities
FORUM Staff Beijing’s development of Antelope Reef in the Paracel Islands is the latest example of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) attempts to project power across the South China Sea.…
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Philippines positioned to lead maritime liberty safeguards, defense chief says
FORUM Staff On the 10th anniversary of an international tribunal’s ruling invalidating China’s expansive sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, Manila is presenting itself as “the archipelagic sentinel —…
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Indonesian Navy bolstering dual-purpose assets
Gusty Da Costa When the Indonesian Navy’s new hydro-oceanographic survey vessel, KRI Canopus, docked at the Kolinlamil Pier in North Jakarta in May 2026, the welcoming party of defense and…
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