Asia Pacific Defence Reporter

A ceasefire deal has been announced in the Middle East, but it's too early to know if it will be permanent. On the AUKUS front, the UK Defence Secretary John Healey resigned last week in the middle of a visit by his Australian counterpart, Richard Marles. Whoops! While his resignation was not directly over AUKUS, it is connected to it because Mr Healey does not believe the UK is spending nearly enough on defence capabilities - and those include nuclear powered submarines.The UK industrial base is in such poor shape that - once again - no Astute class SSNs can go to sea because they are awaiting maintenance. One of those is HMS Anson, which made a visit to Australia in February that was nothing more than a publicity stunt. Anson started experiencing problems - possibly with reactor piping issues - and is now out of service for an unknown period of time. You won't hear about that from the Australian government. The Royal Navy surface fleet is not in much better shape.UK submarine construction happens at Barrow in Cumbria. Many Australian journalists have expressed an interest in visiting the yard, but all have been rejected for completely bogus security reasons. The real reason is because the town of Barrow is without any redeeming features, meaning the recruitment of an additional 10,000 workers to build SSN AUKUS looks like a pipe dream - and the main construction hall at the yard was probably badly damaged by a fire in 2024.Finally, Ukraine is scoring noticeable battlefield success against Russia. The Australian government needs to get off its backside and sign a security treaty with Kyiv - a process that has been stalled for at least a year due to the indifference of our politicians. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More US-caused turmoil with President Trump cancelling his takeover of Greenland because he has reached a concept of a framework deal with NATO but of course hasn't released any details. But he's replaced that with more threats at Canada, including using violent language, if they go ahead with a trade deal involving China. All the world can see what's happening - with the exception of the Australian government. Then Trump insulted all 1,200 non-US soldiers who died in Afghanistan as part of the ISAF mission claiming it was only Americans who did the fighting. This resulted in enraged pushback from people like UK PM Kier Starmer, who called Trump directly. How did our leaders react - by avoiding any direct criticism of Trump. A notable exception was senior Opposition figure Andrew Hastie who has labelled Trump's words for what they are. And a few thoughts on how Trump is gearing up for a third term. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's a good thing we waited a couple of weeks before commenting on the US attack on Venezuela because the entire thing is getting stranger by the day. It clearly wasn't about regime change and even the logic of seizing oil reserves is looking shaky. It might have been because Donald Trump felt his dancing style was being mocked by the former Venezuelan President. As disturbing as that is, of even more concern is the US threatening again to acquire Greenland - by force, if necessary. This is completely insane and would destroy NATO, but Trump seems to be obsessed with it. If the US continues to destroy the existing rules based order, will Australian politicians finally grow a spine or will they find ever more creative ways to grovel? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The adventure continues with a late arrival in Kashgar - also known as Kashi - and a crowded program of educational and cultural events. The city has a very long history and is a colourful mix of cultures and religions.Then it was a flight to Ili, the capital of the Kazakh autonomous prefecture which was different again from Urumqi and Kashgar. Treats included milk beer and a visit to the former governor's palace - a frequent residence for exiles from eastern parts of China.Then a return to Urumqi for the final part of the tour and one of the most consequential events - a visit to the Exhibition of Counterterrorism and Deradicalisation in Xinjiang. This explained why - in often gruesome detail - why security crackdowns have been necessary.The quick summary of the 8 day program - Xinjiang is friendly, interesting, and well worth a visit. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.