Free and Open Indo-Pacific / FOIP
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Features
Modern Militaries, Reinforced Alliances
FORUM Staff Technology is strengthening militaries tasked with maintaining security and stability in the Indo-Pacific. Rapidly modernizing nations are transforming arsenals with advancements from cutting-edge aircraft and game-changing submarines to unmanned vehicles, space awareness tools and cyber defense upgrades. Meanwhile, security partnerships are encouraging scientific cooperation among like-minded militaries, and leaders are relying on the power of regional alliances to…
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Departments
Japan launching defense tech research agency, advancing railgun project
FORUM Staff Japan plans to create a research agency by 2024 to accelerate defense technology development. The agency will be modeled after the United States’ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and its Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), according to Shigenori Mishima, vice commissioner and chief technology officer at Japan’s Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency. DARPA is the U.S. Defense Department’s…
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Free and Open Indo-Pacific/FOIP
U.S. won’t accept coercion, bullying by Beijing, defense chief says
The Associated Press United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin vowed in June 2023 that Washington will not stand for any “coercion and bullying” of its allies and partners by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), while assuring Beijing that the U.S. remains committed to maintaining the status quo in Taiwan and prefers dialogue over conflict. Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue,…
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Free and Open Indo-Pacific/FOIP
Philippines, U.S. strengthen alliance with new defense guidelines
Maria T. Reyes The Philippines and the United States finalized bilateral defense guidelines during Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s trip to Washington, D.C., in May 2023. The guidelines are part of an effort to modernize and strengthen the alliance in support of the nations’ shared vision for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific, according to the U.S. Defense Department. (Pictured: Philippine…
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Free and Open Indo-Pacific/FOIP
Indo-Pacific allies, partners preserve navigational rights, ensure secure, open global sea lines of communication
FORUM Staff The United States and its allies and partners continue engaging in maritime security activities to safeguard international waters and key global sea lines of communication (SLOCs). Thailand and the U.S., for example, conducted the 29th Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT)/Marine Exercise (MAREX) Thailand in May 2023, which included five days of drills in anti-submarine warfare; visit, board,…
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Across The Region
Philippines, Singapore Affirm Defense Ties, Maritime Stability
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. concluded a two-nation Southeast Asian tour in Singapore in September 2022, where he and government leaders agreed to boost counterterrorism cooperation and affirmed the importance of peace in the South China Sea. Marcos arrived in Singapore after a state visit to Indonesia — his first foreign trip as president since his May 2022 election. Marcos,…
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Free and Open Indo-Pacific/FOIP
French Navy frigate Prairial concludes Indo-Pacific mission
FORUM Staff The French Navy frigate Prairial’s monthslong patrol and goodwill mission to the Indo-Pacific reinforced France’s commitment to regional security, freedom of navigation and the international rule of law. The 94-meter, Floreal-class warship with about 100 personnel left Papeete, the capital of Tahiti in French Polynesia, on February 21, 2023, and was scheduled to return May 18. The frigate…
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Features
Maritime Transparency
James McAden/HawkEye 360 Radio frequency (RF) space-based technologies aid in maritime domain awareness (MDA) and in the detection of dark vessels or dark ships. At sea, such vessels have disabled their automatic identification system (AIS) responders to avoid the tracking of their location, identity, course and speed, potentially to carry out nefarious activities. MDA poses a challenge, particularly given nations’…
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Conflicts - Tensions
ASEAN members resisting Chinese bullying in South China Sea
Tom Abke Years of bullying by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) against other South China Sea claimant states has spurred a pattern of resistance among Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members. Beijing has used its arbitrary and discredited territorial claims to justify its harassment of fishing vessels, interference with hydrocarbon exploration and other encroachments on ASEAN states. These…
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Free and Open Indo-Pacific/FOIP
PLA suspected of targeting passenger planes with GPS jamming
FORUM Staff Chinese warships are suspected of jamming navigation systems and interfering with radio communications of passenger aircraft over the South China Sea and other international waters, the latest in the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) litany of brazen and reckless interactions in the skies and seas across the Indo-Pacific. Australia’s largest airline carrier, Qantas Group, warned in mid-March 2023 that…
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