In the News July 13
No to U.S. War Preparations!
Condemn Canada’s Participation in Rim of the Pacific War Exercise!
Canada is participating in the 28th Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval exercise led by the Commander of the U.S. Third Fleet, Vice Admiral Michael Boyle. It is the world’s largest international maritime exercise, in which 26 countries are participating, threatening the peace in the Asia Pacific. The exercise, which takes place around the Hawaiian Islands and southern California, started on June 29 and ends August 4.[1]
The announcement by the U.S. Navy says the exercise includes “gunnery, missile, anti-submarine and air defense exercises, as well as amphibious, counter-piracy, mine clearance, explosive ordnance disposal, diving and salvage operations. Additionally, the exercise will also introduce space and cyber operations for all partner nations.”[2]
RIMPAC 2022 is taking place on the heels of the NATO Summit in Madrid held from June 28 to 30 at which a new Strategic Concept was adopted. Besides NATO member states, four countries from the Asia Pacific – New Zealand, Australia, Japan and south Korea – participated in the summit.
Besides attacking the Russian Federation as “the most significant threat to Allies’ security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area,” NATO’s Strategic Concept targets China, saying that “The People’s Republic of China’s stated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values.” No mention of whose “interests, security and values” are challenged by the presence of such threatening maritime forces in the Pacific.
The U.S. publication Defense News, carried an article on July 11 entitled “U.S. Navy officials say Pacific exercise is not aimed at China, but it zeroes in on defending Taiwan.” “China has said it wants to accelerate its military modernization to be completed by 2027, and U.S. and Taiwanese military officials have said this modernization would give China the ability to invade Taiwan,” Defence News argues, showing clearly how the U.S. is causing trouble by using Taiwan to threaten China which China has clearly stated crosses a line which is not negotiable. Admiral Sam Paparo, Commander of the United States Pacific Fleet, “told Defense News RIMPAC was designed to bolster the international coalition’s proficiency in areas that would be applicable in the Taiwan 2027 scenario, including amphibious operations and long-range strikes.”
At a press conference at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii on July 8 Paparo said that the range of navies from North America, South America, the Indo-Pacific and Europe should “send a message of solidarity to any would-be actors that would upend the international rules-based order” and that “China has been on an historic path to build a navy, and it is quite concerning the combat power that China is developing over the last few decades” and that China’s build up is aimed at “power projection beyond its waters and beyond its shores, so it is very concerning.”
In the past most of the participants in the RIMPAC exercise were Pacific rim countries. This year nearly half are NATO members or “partners,” signaling the increasingly aggressive and expansionist aims of the U.S. whose incursions in Chinese waters and airspace are pushing provocations as never before. As late at 2016, China participated in the RIMPAC exercise but was not invited to participate this year. In December of 2021 the U.S. Congress passed the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act which included a provision that Taiwan would be invited to participate in future RIMPAC exercises, but ultimately no invitation was extended for this year either.
The Chinese newspaper Global Times decried the claim that China has expansionist aims and said the U.S. “intention to stir up trouble and sow discord in the South China Sea is obvious.”
In related news, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command informed that the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group is operating in the South China Sea for the first time during its 2022 deployment, July 13.
“The carrier strike group includes the Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), the embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5, and embarked staffs of Task Force 70 and Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, as well as the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 54) and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins (DDG 76).”
The bellicose mission of the strike group is to conduct “maritime security operations, which include flight operations with fixed and rotary-wing aircraft, maritime strike exercises, and coordinated tactical training between surface and air units.” Navy Command says that “Carrier operations in the South China Sea are part of the U.S. Navy’s routine operations in the Indo-Pacific.”
“Building on the lessons and successes of exercises like Valiant Shield 2022, and our continuous opportunities to train and operate alongside allies and partners, we provide assured capability to uphold the rules-based international order in this body of water and anywhere else we will sail, fly, and operate,” said Rear Adm. Michael Donnelly, commander, Task Force 70/Carrier Strike Group 5.
Ronald Reagan and accompanying units “have routinely integrated with ally and partner naval forces to build high-end warfighting readiness through air defense, anti-submarine warfare, maritime strike, and force protection exercises. In early June this included operations with Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy ships for Carrier Strike Group Exercise (CSG) 2022. Later that month in the Philippine Sea, the Sailors of CSG 5 worked with more than 200 aircraft and an estimated 13,000 personnel from the U.S. Navy, Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Space Force during the Valiant Shield exercise, a U.S.-only, biennial field training exercise (FTX) focused on integration of joint training in a multi-domain environment.”
During a port visit to Guam, “Sailors were able to conduct several community relations events and enjoy recreation and tours across the island, marking the strike group’s first port visit since 2020.”
In a really sanitized version of the truth, the Navy’s announcement concludes saying that the “Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group is forward-deployed to the U.S. Seventh Fleet area of operations in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region.” The U.S. Seventh Fleet “is the largest forward-deployed numbered fleet in the world and, with the help of 35 other maritime-nation allies and partners, the U.S. Navy has operated in the Indo-Pacific region for more than 70 years, providing credible, ready forces to help preserve peace and prevent conflict.”
“Our presence in the South China Sea demonstrates America’s commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” its commanding officer Capt. Fred Goldhammer declared.
The RIMPAC exercises and increasingly hostile anti-China statements and actions from the U.S., UK, Canada and other NATO countries, along with illegal U.S. sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea create a climate hostile to the resolution of conflicts between nations and promote confrontation and brinksmanship which threaten the peace, independence and security of all the peoples of the region.
Note
1. Participants are: U.S., Australia, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, France, India, Chile, Ecuador, Indonesia, Denmark, Tonga, Israel, Colombia, Japan, Brunei, Malaysia, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, New Zealand, Peru, the Republic of the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
(Defense News, Stars and Stripes, Global Times)
TML Daily, posted July 14, 2022.
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