India is preparing to construct a significant overseas military base on an island in Seychelles, an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, off East Africa to counter growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean.
Last month, Seychelles and India signed a twenty-year agreement, permitting the Indian military to build an airbase and naval installations on Assumption Island, a small island in the Outer Islands of Seychelles north of Madagascar, said Seychelles News Agency. Continue reading →
Beijing extends invitation after two countries partake in unprecedented military exercise in Persian Gulf
China’s defense minister said Thursday the world’s most populous country is “ready to enhance” military ties with Iran.
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Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan was meeting in Beijing with Iranian Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, commander of Iran’s navy. Wanquan told his Iranian counterpart the two countries have had “good cooperation on mutual visits, personnel training and other fields in recent years,” China’s official Xinhua news agency reported, according to Reuters.
Sayyari said Iran was “ready to enhance bilateral exchanges to push forward cooperation between the two armed forces, especially in naval cooperation.” Continue reading →
The Iranian and Chinese defense ministers held high-level talks Monday in a bid to expand the military relationship between Tehran and Beijing, according to reports in China and Iran’s state-run media organs.
Iranian Defense Minister Hussein Dehghan met with his Chinese counterpart, Chang Wanquan, in Beijing on Monday to increase “cooperation between the two countries in military and defensive fields,” according to Iran’s state-run Fars News Agency.
Dehghan emphasized the mutual benefits of increased “military cooperation” between Beijing and Tehran in public comments and stated that the two militaries could work at “disarming the Zionist regime of its nuclear arsenals.” Continue reading →
Dubai: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s recent five-day trip to China after assuming power has been termed highly successful in Islamabad. Important deals were inked on this visit that is emblematic of Sharif’s economic policy aimed at fixing the country’s staggering economy. But more significant is the strategic development pertaining to the decision to develop the trade corridor between the two countries — a project with regional implications beyond South West Asia.
The much-publicised agreement to speed work on developing a 2,000-km trade corridor linking Gwadar Port on Pakistan’s Makran Coast to Kashgar in China’s Xingjian province has been called a “game changer” by Sharif. Continue reading →
Frustration with the unwillingness of the Obama administration.
A regional threat that continues to grow out of Iran and past remarks of wanting to go nuclear should Ahmadinejad’s regime continue along the nuclear proliferation path.
Although there’s peace/stability between the two, they’re still not truly allies of Israel.
debkafile’s military sources report that Saudi Arabia has set its feet on the path to a nuclear weapon capability and is negotiating in Beijng the purchase of Chinese nuclear-capable Dong-Fen 21 ((NATO-codenamed CSS-5) ballistic missile.
China, which has agreed to the transaction in principle, would also build a base of operations near Riyadh for the new Saudi purchases.
As we reported last year, Saudi Arabia has struck a deal with Pakistan for the availability on demand of a nuclear warhead from Islamabad’s arsenal for fitting onto a ballistic missile.
Riyadh owns a direct interest in the two most active Middle East issues: Iran and Syria.
Iran’s nuclear weapons program has been advancing for two decades regardless of countless attempts at restraint by every diplomatic tool under the sun and a rising scale of sanctions – to no avail.
Tehran marches on regardless of impediments. In Istanbul, Tuesday, July 3, the six powers and Iran failed the fourth attempt to reach an accommodation on Iran’s nuclear program.
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On July 1, they redoubled their military preparedness when the European Union clamped down an oil embargo on Iran. The Saudis, the US Fifth Fleet and the entire Gulf region are since braced for Iranian reprisals which could come in the form of closure by Tehran of the vital Straits of Hormuz to shipping or strikes against the Gulf emirates’ oil exporting facilities.
Tension shot up again when Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched a three-day missile drill against simulated enemy bases in the region – expanding its threats to include US forces and bases in the region, Israel and Turkey.
Global Geopolitics 