From Stratfor This week, the media spotlight fell on the small island nation of Seychelles, a former French and British colonial possession off the east coast of Africa. On Monday, China’s ministry of national defence announced that Beijing was considering using the port on the main island of Mahe for naval purposes, in response to an offer from Seychelles. On the same day, an American MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), part of a detachment that carries out regional counterpiracy and counterterrorism orbits from the airport near the harbor on Mahe, crashed on approach (although the recent loss of a more sophisticated UAV in Iran made headlines, this happens surprisingly often.) Meanwhile, General Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), arrived in Sri Lanka to meet with virtually every senior official on the island (itself a potential base of operations for the Chinese) even as the Chinese foreign ministry denied that a naval base was under consideration in Seychelles. By Wednesday, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh was reacting to the fallout, within India and beyond, caused by the Chinese announcement. India’s defence ministry said on Tuesday that it did not see anything wrong […]
May we live in interesting times
May we live in interesting times
Asteptam opiniile si intrebarile dv.