articles are sensationalizing what the Admiral said, and pointing it at China, when the admiral specifically stated:
Admiral Swidt said:
Stop beating war drums. SD rules specifically forbid it.
South China Sea Strategies for other nations (Not China)
- Thread starter PanAsian
- Start date
Stop beating war drums. SD rules specifically forbid it.
Jura The idiot
General
In fact, those two ships operated together in the South China Sea in July precisely to demonstrate the US Navy's intention to do operate wherever international law allows.
The next event will have them getting within 12 miles of one or more of the reclaimed islands.
The US Navy said this about the July exercise:
US Navy said:
See:
I can't see ASEAN as a whole agreeing to this but I imagine there will be some countries willing to play the game. It's obviously unlikely for Vietnam and the Philippines to agree to this, but the other nations which China has maintained military to military contacts with may be interested.
I see this proposal as a bit of a litmus test to see which nations are more willing and which are not willing to cooperate with China's increased military presence in the SCS... even if none of the ASEAN countries respond this time around, I expect it will create a bit of dissent and could form the basis for more complex and formal discussions later on with various nations more willing to accept China's presence there.
I've also wondered in the past whether China could also increase confidence building measures by using the new facilities on the reclaimed islands to host multinational air patrols using various civilian maritime law enforcement agencies to monitor SCS shipping as well as hosting permanent multinational search and rescue planes, which could also reduce tensions a little bit, surrounding the use of the new airbases.
Brumby
Major
I think the sticking point is the sovereignty position already taken by China. This implicitly means that access will always be at the pleasure of China on when to turn it on or off. This is not a position that the rest of the countries are prepared to accept. It is different if the basis is joint development and joint patrols with China assuming leadership and providing access to facilities. A lot of goodwill had been expended getting to this point. Good faith is required and that requires concrete confidence building actions and not just statements.
The underlined part is what I'm thinking of -- China could provide leadership and provide the facilities (aka the reclaimed islands with airbases) with a negotiation of a joint agreement as to how they would be used with various terms and clauses that could preserve China's ability to use them as military staging grounds if a situation ever calls for it, but would in normal situations host multinational forces.
Of course for the nations who get in on this hypothetical idea, it would mean a degree of acceptance that the airbases there are semi-legitimate which is obviously a significant concession, but it is also provides the benefit that it significantly reduces the chance of accident and reduces the likelihood of conflict between those nations and China.
Obviously the suggestion would require a lot of nuance and some sacrifice on all sides to make work, but I'd be interested to see if China ends up pursuing something like it in the next few years.
shen
Senior Member
So when is the much talked about USN SCS panda patrol going to happen? What's taking so long?
It looks like the US is trying to talk other countries like Australia into joining its patrol.
Australia won't join new patrols of South China Sea, minister says
It looks like the US is trying to talk other countries like Australia into joining its patrol.
Australia won't join new patrols of South China Sea, minister says
Brumby
Major
I think it would also require China to shift its position of not negotiating individually. The other would be how to address the sovereignty issue, whether as condition precedent, subsequent or non conditional.