ORAC
5th Jun 2017, 07:18
The mind boggles. I spent an enjoyable 2 weeks in Penang/Butterworth doing a two week FPDA course, still have the certificate, very flash. Vital work of course. :cool:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/france-seeks-defence-pact-with-commonwealth-over-brexit-fears-gtb35rhmj
France is pushing to join a Commonwealth defence pact in an effort to maintain its close military links with Britain after Brexit.
The Five Power Defence Arrangements was created almost half a century ago after Britain’s military withdrawal “East of Suez”, and has increasingly been regarded as a Cold War anachronism. However, this year the FPDA has been brought back into focus by fears over international terrorism, North Korea, Chinese expansionism and President Trump’s foreign policy.
At a meeting in Singapore, the five members of the FPDA — Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Britain — agreed to expand their annual exercises to focus more on counterterrorism and maritime security. Now they also face a dilemma over whether to accept France, which has asked to join the defence arrangements. “People say that the FPDA is irrelevant, so why is it then that the French want to join?” said a senior government source, who was present at the meeting of ministers of four of the five members in Singapore.
A spokesman for Sylvie Goulard, the French defence minister who was in Singapore attending a meeting of defence ministers, did not respond to a request for comment. A French official said the request reflected France’s wish to maintain a military presence in east Asia, to strengthen diplomatic relationships with the increasingly prosperous economies of southeast Asia and to maintain its post-Brexit military co-operation with Britain. “It makes sense because France wants to remain a power in Asia and because Britain is our closest military friend,” the official said. “With Britain out of Europe, who is to be our partner? Germany is not the same.”
The French request seems likely to be rejected because of resistance to expanding the membership of the FPDA. The group was formed in 1971 to protect Singapore and Malaysia against the threat from Indonesia, which fought a war with Malaysia in the mid-1960s. A similar conflict now is unimaginable but the continuing existence of the FPDA annoys Indonesia. “If you change [the FPDA], you’d invite suspicion and erode legitimacy,” Ng Eng Hen, Singapore’s defence minister, said yesterday at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a meeting of ministers and security experts organised by Britain’s International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Under the FPDA, Australian and British air force officers operate an air defence system at a Malaysian base, which could come into operation in case of a conflict with China over the disputed islands in the South China Sea that it is claiming. Malaysia and Singapore are increasingly worried about terrorist attacks by Islamic militants such as those who remain in control of parts of the city of Marawi in the southern Philippines after seizing it last month. Malaysia was also rattled by the assassination with a nerve agent of the brother of Kim Jong-un, the North Koran leader, in Kuala Lumpur airport.
“We are going through uncharted waters,” said Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s defence minister. “Never have we seen trucks used to kill, burning people alive in cages. The five nations of the FPDA has a lot to contribute [and] the situation in Korea makes the FPDA more important today.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/france-seeks-defence-pact-with-commonwealth-over-brexit-fears-gtb35rhmj
France is pushing to join a Commonwealth defence pact in an effort to maintain its close military links with Britain after Brexit.
The Five Power Defence Arrangements was created almost half a century ago after Britain’s military withdrawal “East of Suez”, and has increasingly been regarded as a Cold War anachronism. However, this year the FPDA has been brought back into focus by fears over international terrorism, North Korea, Chinese expansionism and President Trump’s foreign policy.
At a meeting in Singapore, the five members of the FPDA — Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Britain — agreed to expand their annual exercises to focus more on counterterrorism and maritime security. Now they also face a dilemma over whether to accept France, which has asked to join the defence arrangements. “People say that the FPDA is irrelevant, so why is it then that the French want to join?” said a senior government source, who was present at the meeting of ministers of four of the five members in Singapore.
A spokesman for Sylvie Goulard, the French defence minister who was in Singapore attending a meeting of defence ministers, did not respond to a request for comment. A French official said the request reflected France’s wish to maintain a military presence in east Asia, to strengthen diplomatic relationships with the increasingly prosperous economies of southeast Asia and to maintain its post-Brexit military co-operation with Britain. “It makes sense because France wants to remain a power in Asia and because Britain is our closest military friend,” the official said. “With Britain out of Europe, who is to be our partner? Germany is not the same.”
The French request seems likely to be rejected because of resistance to expanding the membership of the FPDA. The group was formed in 1971 to protect Singapore and Malaysia against the threat from Indonesia, which fought a war with Malaysia in the mid-1960s. A similar conflict now is unimaginable but the continuing existence of the FPDA annoys Indonesia. “If you change [the FPDA], you’d invite suspicion and erode legitimacy,” Ng Eng Hen, Singapore’s defence minister, said yesterday at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a meeting of ministers and security experts organised by Britain’s International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Under the FPDA, Australian and British air force officers operate an air defence system at a Malaysian base, which could come into operation in case of a conflict with China over the disputed islands in the South China Sea that it is claiming. Malaysia and Singapore are increasingly worried about terrorist attacks by Islamic militants such as those who remain in control of parts of the city of Marawi in the southern Philippines after seizing it last month. Malaysia was also rattled by the assassination with a nerve agent of the brother of Kim Jong-un, the North Koran leader, in Kuala Lumpur airport.
“We are going through uncharted waters,” said Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s defence minister. “Never have we seen trucks used to kill, burning people alive in cages. The five nations of the FPDA has a lot to contribute [and] the situation in Korea makes the FPDA more important today.”