United Kingdom / UK
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Free and Open Indo-Pacific/FOIP
U.K.-led Operation Highmast departs for Indo-Pacific deployment with Allies and Partners
FORUM Staff The United Kingdom’s Royal Navy flagship HMS Prince of Wales departed Portsmouth Naval Base in late April 2025 to lead a multilateral deployment to the Indo-Pacific. The eight-month deployment of the U.K.’s Carrier Strike Group 2025, called Operation Highmast, will be joined by vessels and/or personnel from 13 nations, including Australia, France, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand,…
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Free and Open Indo-Pacific/FOIP
U.S. bolsters Diego Garcia base to support Indo-Pacific Allies, Partners
FORUM Staff The United States has deployed six B-2 bombers, a C-17 military transport aircraft and several refueling tankers to the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia to maintain operational readiness and ensure protection of strategic assets. The bombers, about one-third of the U.S. Air Force’s stealth bomber fleet, and other aircraft are stationed at the joint United Kingdom-U.S. base…
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Partnerships
Project Convergence ‘critical proving ground’ for emerging military capabilities
FORUM Staff Allied and Partner forces converged in the unforgiving terrain of the American West recently to test drones, robotic vehicles, and next-generation command and control (NGC2) as part of the United States Army’s “premier modernization experiment.” Project Convergence Capstone 5 (PC-C5), which runs from March through April 2025 at the U.S. Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California,…
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Free and Open Indo-Pacific/FOIP
G7 condemns China’s coercion, boosts Free and Open Indo-Pacific
FORUM Staff The foreign affairs chiefs of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations said they are committed to upholding a Free and Open Indo-Pacific that is prosperous and secure and based on “sovereignty, territorial integrity, peaceful resolution of disputes, fundamental freedoms and human rights.” A joint statement in mid-March 2025 from the G7 nations of Canada, France, Germany, Italy,…
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Partnerships
Five Power Defence Arrangements members adapt to regional security challenges
Sarah Chan Amid a shifting regional security landscape, members of the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) security pact are upgrading joint training, deploying advanced assets and increasing high-level personnel contacts. The new measures were showcased at the Bersama Lima exercise in October 2024, and officials and analysts expect the initiatives to further improve interoperability and strengthen regional security. Soldiers conduct…
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Partnerships
Multilateral La Perouse 25 exercise focuses on key maritime passages
FORUM Staff Protecting choke points that link the Indian Ocean to the Java Sea, South China Sea and Pacific Ocean was the mission of the La Perouse 25 exercise. Nine Indo-Pacific navies participated in the biennial exercise in January, the fifth and largest iteration. About one-third of the world’s commercial shipping traverses the Lombok, Malacca and Sunda straits, and the…
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Features
Securing the Digital Future
FORUM Staff Modern warfare won’t be limited by borders or conventional military maneuvers. With computer keystrokes, skilled hackers can bring down telecommunications networks, water and sewage systems, airports, highways, hospitals, and other critical infrastructure in mere minutes, experts warn. In recent years, cyberattacks linked to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), in particular, have increased and Beijing has expanded its…
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Global Commons
Italy, Japan, U.K. step up development of stealth fighter jet
The Associated Press Defense ministers of Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom agreed to accelerate development of a next-generation fighter jet and establish an organization to work with the aircraft’s manufacturers, officials announced in October 2024. The countries agreed in 2022 to jointly produce a combat aircraft for deployment by 2035 under the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) to strengthen…
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Partnerships
Multinational exercises in Philippines: ‘Partnerships that allow us to maintain peace and stability’
FORUM Staff Philippine and United States forces, joined by participants from six nations, conducted near-simultaneous military exercises in and around the Philippines in October 2024. Exercise Sama Sama, a Filipino phrase meaning togetherness, expanded in its eighth iteration to include training on shore and in waters off the northern Philippines, building on a legacy of Philippine-U.S. maritime collaboration. Part of…
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Features
Expanding Horizons
FORUM Staff When 200 or so Mongolian pro-democracy activists converged in Sükhbaatar Square on United Nations Human Rights Day in December 1989, there was little to portend the transformation set to unfold. From the square in the capital Ulaanbaatar, peaceful protests would sweep across the country of steppes and deserts. Within three months, Mongolia’s communist regime relinquished power after nearly…
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