Good morning, and welcome to the Global Situation Report for Friday, 03 May 2024.
- U.S., JAPAN, AND AUSTRALIA DEEPEN DEFENSE TIES: The defense ministers of Japan, Australia, and the United States held a trilateral meeting and released a Joint Statement agreeing to greatly enhance trilateral defense cooperation.
- Numerous bi- and trilateral exercises will be held throughout the next year. Japan will participate in future Talisman Sabre Exercises.
- They also agreed to “Regularize Asset Protection Missions for the U.S. Forces and the Australian Defence Force by Japan Self-Defense Forces.”
- The trio will also engage Association of Southeast Asian Nations members and Pacific Island nations in supporting roles for the defense architecture.
Why It Matters: This enhanced defense architecture is likely to stand on its own even if the U.S. declines. This means continued containment of China but also continued protection of global supply chains. However, China will not take this lightly and may begin sanctioning Japan and Australia as they become the main arbiters of Chinese containment. – J.V.
- Global Rollup
- Turkey cut off all trade with Israel and joined South Africa’s International Court of Justice genocide case against Israel.
- Russian troops are now occupying a Nigerien airbase that also houses American troops in separate facilities. The Secretary of Defense confirmed that there is no comingling.
- China announced a “normalization” of Coast Guard patrols around Kinmen, one of Taiwan’s outlying islands, meaning they would become permanent. (This behavior is likely to expand around the Senkaku islands, which have a “temporary” patrol of their own, and in the South China Sea. – J.V.)
- South Korea raised its terror alert levels at embassies in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Russia, and China after their intelligence service determined that North Korea was planning to attack South Koreans abroad.
- Australia will participate in Exercise Keen Sword for the first time next year. Keen Sword is a U.S.-Japanese field exercise that follows on from the Keen Edge command exercise the previous year.
THAT’S A WRAP: This does it for today’s edition. Thank you for reading. If you know folks who would also like to receive this email, would you please forward it to them? We appreciate you spreading the word. – M.S.