Australia-Philippines security cooperation: The two countries have drawn closer to fight Islamic State, a strategic shift that aims to rebuild broken strategic bridges between Manila and the West, Richard Javad Heydarian writes. Australia was among the first regional powers to ring alarm bells over the threat posed by Islamic State to the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. The warning came weeks before local and foreign militants first laid siege to the city of Marawi on May 22, a four-month-old urban warfare battle Manila is still struggling to finish. “We’re coping … we also hope [the Marawi battle] will be finished in about one week,” declared Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte aboard Australia’s largest warship, the HMAS Adelaide, during a goodwill mission to Manila on October 10. Since September, a fleet of six Australian Navy ships carrying as many as 1,200 Australian Defense Force personnel has toured the region under the Indo-Pacific Endeavor 2017 – a muscular expression of Australia’s growing naval presence in adjacent waterways. READ THE STORY HERE
China Down Under: In Australia, Beijing’s power is exercised through a complex mix of influence-peddling, political donations, infrastructure development, agricultural purchases, media influence (both in Mandarin and English), oversight of Chinese students and plain espionage, Helen Clark writes. China is increasingly important to the Australian economy, but the terms of exchange are under growing scrutiny, including the largely misunderstood notion of China’s exercise of so-called “soft power.” As China’s influence grows, there is little that resembles traditional concepts of soft power, or overtures that entice others to voluntarily adopt a common viewpoint. That was witnessed in Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s warning this week to Chinese students enrolled at Australian universities to respect others’ freedom of speech after a series of incidents pitting students versus professors on touchy territorial issues related to China. READ THE STORY HERE Southeast Asia diplomacy: A long-running territorial dispute between Australia and Timor-Leste is a step closer to resolution with last month’s announcement that talks at The Hague arrived at a new maritime border treaty for the Timor Sea, Erin Cook writes. The contested sea is home to the Greater Sunrise oil and gas fields, with estimated reserves worth over US$31 billion, sitting between one of the world’s most affluent and one of its poorest nations. Oil revenue makes up around 80% of Timor-Leste’s national revenue and with concerns current fields will be depleted within the next decade, Dili needs new exploration and production to prevent fiscal collapse while the government rolls out plans to lessen reliance on natural resources. Full details of the agreement are expected to be announced in late October, after a finalization process of the treaty is completed by The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration. READ THE STORY HERE
Australia-Philippines security cooperation: The two countries have drawn closer to fight Islamic State, a strategic shift that aims to rebuild broken strategic bridges between Manila and the West, Richard Javad Heydarian writes. Australia was among the first regional powers to ring alarm bells over the threat posed by Islamic State to the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. The warning came weeks before local and foreign militants first laid siege to the city of Marawi on May 22, a four-month-old urban warfare battle Manila is still struggling to finish. “We’re coping … we also hope [the Marawi battle] will be finished in about one week,” declared Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte aboard Australia’s largest warship, the HMAS Adelaide, during a goodwill mission to Manila on October 10. Since September, a fleet of six Australian Navy ships carrying as many as 1,200 Australian Defense Force personnel has toured the region under the Indo-Pacific Endeavor 2017 – a muscular expression of Australia’s growing naval presence in adjacent waterways. READ THE STORY HERE
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