INTERNATIONAL FEBRUARY 2014

INTERNATIONAL FEBRUARY 2014

• The UN Security Council on 28 February, held an "urgent" meeting to discuss the deteriorating situation in Ukraine, asking all political actors in the strife-torn country to exercise maximum restraint and resolve issues through inclusive dialogue. The Council held closed-door consultations at the request of the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UN, which appealed in a letter to the Council President for an "urgent" meeting "due to the deterioration of the situation in the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea, Ukraine, which threatens the territorial integrity of Ukraine." Following the meeting, Ukraine's UN ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev accused Russia of illegally sending military planes and attack helicopters and said his country was strong enough to defend itself. "The United States calls upon Russia to pull back the military forces that are being built up in the region, to stand down, and to allow the Ukrainian people the opportunity to pursue their own government, create their own destiny and to do so freely without intimidation or fear,". Last week, Members of the Ukrainian Parliament voted to remove President Viktor Yanukovych, and an arrest warrant has reportedly been issued for his arrest. The move came after more than 100 people were killed last week in the latest wave of deadly clashes in Kiev. Amid the rapidly unfolding events in Ukraine, UN Chief Ban Ki-moon has called for an inclusive political process to enable the country to emerge from the crisis, one which reflects the aspirations of its people and preserves its unity and territorial integrity.
  
• Turkey's President Abdullah Gul on 25 February signed into law a contested bill tightening the government's grip on the judiciary as it grapples to contain the fallout from a major corruption probe. The new law, will give the Justice Ministry greater control over the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), an independent body responsible for appointing members of the judiciary.
  
• Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni on 23 February signed a controversial anti-gay Bill that has harsh penalties for homosexual sex. The Bill calls for first-time offenders to be sentenced to 14 years in jail. It also sets life imprisonment as the maximum penalty for a category of offenses called “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as repeated gay sex between consenting adults as well as acts involving a minor, a disabled person or where one partner is infected with HIV.
  
• The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted a resolution on 22 February 2014 to boost humanitarian aid access in Syria to ease some civilian suffering. In the 15-member UNSC, the resolution was co-authored by Australia and Luxembourg calling for an immediate end to all forms of violence in the country and strongly condemned the rise of Al Qaida-affiliated terror. The Resolution demanded that all parties will promptly allow rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access for UN humanitarian agencies and their implementing partners, including across conflict lines and across borders. It also stressed the importance of medical neutrality and demanded the demilitarization of medical facilities, schools and other civilian facilities. The general secretary will submit a report to the members every 30 days from the adaption of resolution specifying progress made towards the resolution’s implementation. The Security Council is one of the six main organs established under the UN Charter, headquarters at New York, US. The United Nations gives primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security to the Security Council.
  
• The Ukrainian Parliament on 26 February approved pro-EU Arseniy Yatsenyuk as the new Prime Minister of the country after the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych. Yatsenyuk has been appointed as the premier until May when elections will be held to elect the new president. Yatsenyuk was one of the most prominent leaders of the three-month anti-government protests that swept Ukraine, culminating in deadly violence last week that precipitated the ouster of president Viktor Yanukovych and the collapse of his entire government.
  
• Amid its maritime disputes with several neighbours, China has completed the collection of detailed topographic data and images of over 10,000 islands using aerial remote sensing to improve surveillance. The completion of the project marks China's first "systematic and comprehensive" move to collect surveillance information on more than 10,500 islands within its territory, the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said on 28 February. China has disputes over islands with Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan in South China Sea and Diauyu/Senkaku islands with Japan in East China Sea. It took three years of work by the aviation law enforcement forces with the China Marine Surveillance (CMS) to complete the collection of data, SOA said in a statement. According to the CMS, it will cooperate with the SOA island management department and the National Marine Data & Information Service in drafting an information sharing mechanism in order to strengthen technological support for the country's law enforcement work concerning its islands, the report said.
  
• Ibrahim Mahlab was sworn in as new Egypt Prime Minister on 25 February 2014. He will head Egypt's sixth government since the 2011 uprising that dropped the autocratic Mubarak. He is the former CEO of Arab Contractors, one of the region's largest construction firms. He is expected to lead an interim government at least until the election of a new president.
  
• A shop selling the virtual Bitcoin currency opened in Hong Kong on 28 February, as fresh concerns grew in Asia over the currency's viability and security. Touting itself as the world's "first" physical Bitcoin retail store, Hong Kong-based exchange ANXBTC said it could help raise the popularity of the crypto-currency. It came on the day that Japanese Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox was forced to file for bankruptcy protection, saying it had lost nearly half a billion dollars' worth of the digital currency in a possible theft. Analysts have warned that the lack of government support and security risks may fuel further uncertainties for the digital currency. Late last year, the People's Bank of China (PBoC), the nation's central bank, ordered financial institutions not to provide Bit coin-related services and products while cautioning against its potential use in money-laundering. Vietnam has also banned its banks from handling Bitcoins, saying the virtual currency is not legal tender in the communist nation. Japan’s finance minister said recently, he had always thought Bitcoin was suspect and that the country might take action following the Mt. Gox debacle.
  
• The London-based International News Safety Institute (INSI) said on 18 February that at about one hundred and thirty-four journalists and media support staff was killed while on reporting assignments last year, with India fourth on the list of countries with the most number of deaths. Most of those killed were targeted deliberately. Of these, 65 died covering armed conflicts - primarily in Syria, where 20 were killed, and Iraq, where the death total was 16 - while 51 were killed in peacetime covering issues like crime and corruption, and 18 died in accidents. After Syria and Iraq, cited by the institute as the most dangerous countries for journalists last year, came Philippines with 14 deaths, India with 13 and Pakistan with 9. The total was down from 152 deaths recorded in 2012, but there was an accompanying rise in assaults, threats and kidnappings directed at journalists which largely go unreported, said the INSI study, "Killing the Messenger." The institute, funded by major world news organisations including Reuters, has been issuing the report since 1996. Its main work is providing security training for journalists reporting in dangerous situations.
  
• Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi was nominated Italy’s youngest-ever Prime Minister on 17 February. Mr. Renzi (39), head of the leftist Democratic Party received the nomination to become the nation’s next Premier after ousting his predecessor Enrico Letta. His nomination by President Giorgio Napolitano has been welcomed by investors but left analysts wondering whether he has the political maturity to succeed.
  
• Iceland will drop its EU membership bid without holding a referendum that was earlier promised by the two ruling Euro-skeptic parties, the government said on 22 February. The centrist Progress Party and the right-wing Independence Party agreed on a draft bill asking the government “to retract the application for membership of the European Union,” which the island nation presented in 2010.The move was foreseeable, as the current government suspended EU accession talks indefinitely last September, following a promise made during the 2013 election campaign.
  
• Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli on 17 February 2014 warned Pakistan that it may send Iranian forces to enter Pakistani and Afghan territory to release border guards seized by a rebel group. This statement of the Iranian Interior Minister came a week after little-known Jaish al-Adl posted photos of five men on twitter with a claim that they are the border guards it has seized near Pakistan. Jaish Al-Adl (Army of Justice) is a Sunni insurgent Iranian group. In this warning to Pakistan, the Iranian minister has also asked Pakistan to treat the case strongly and seriously or to allow Iran to secure the remote region deep on Afghanistan and Pakistan soil. In case of failure, might be possible that Iran will consider their right to intervene and create new security sphere for safety. As per reports of Iranian media, the guards were seized by militants on 6 February 2014 in the province of Sistan-Balochistan of Iran, who took them across the border to Pakistan.
  
• Facebook Inc announced on 20 February, that it will buy fast-growing mobile-messaging startup WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock in a landmark deal that places the world's largest social network closer to the heart of mobile communications and may bring younger users into the fold. Founded by a Ukrainian immigrant who dropped out of college, Jan Koum, and a Stanford alumnus, Brian Acton, WhatsApp is a Silicon Valley startup fairy tale, rocketing to 450 million users in five years and adding another million daily. The deal provides Facebook entree to new users, including teens who eschew the mainstream social networks but prefer WhatsApp and rivals, which have exploded in size as private messaging takes off.
  
• The G20 nations will aim to increase global growth by at least two percentage points over the next five years, but are yet to endorse a clear action plan to achieve the target.G20 finance ministers and central bank governors on 22 February, set the growth goal, an ambition that translates to about $US 2tn in economic activity, after two days of meetings in Sydney. In an acknowledgement of concerns about the impact of the US Federal Reserve’s tapering program, the official communiqué said all central banks “maintain their commitment that monetary policy settings will continue to be carefully calibrated and clearly communicated”. Central banks are urged to be “mindful of impacts on the global economy”. The communique, published on 22 February, says there is “no room for complacency” and the G20 nations commit to develop new measures to foster growth.“We will develop ambitious but realistic policies with the aim to lift our collective GDP by more than 2% above the trajectory implied by current policies over the coming five years,” the document says. The communique commits to a global response to base erosion and profit shifting, endorsing the common reporting standard for automatic exchange of tax information. The meeting also raised concern over lack of progress on reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).G20 countries “deeply regret” that IMF quota and governance reforms agreed to in 2010 had not yet become effective, the communique said. It urged the US to ratify the reforms by April. The meeting welcomed recent signs of improvement in the global economy, in particular, growth strengthening in the United States, United Kingdom and Japan alongside continued solid growth in China and many emerging market economies, and the resumption of growth in the euro area. But the communique said the global economy “remains far from achieving strong, sustainable and balanced growth”. It pointed to weaknesses in some areas of demand, recent volatility in financial markets, high levels of public debt, continuing global imbalances and remaining vulnerabilities within some economies.
  
• Russia and Estonia have signed a border pact that took the two countries 23 years to negotiate. Estonia is the last of the three Baltic States to have legalized its border with Russia. It is the second time the two countries finalized the pact. The first time they signed it in 2005, but Russia recalled its signature after Estonian Parliament added a preamble referring to a long dead 1920 treaty between Russia and then independent Estonia. The mention of the treaty opened the way for Estonia to advance territorial claims on two Russian border towns. Relations between Russia and Estonia have been frosty since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Estonia sends more than 18 percent of its farm exports to Russia and is keen to attract more Russian tourists.
  
• The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the World Congress on Agro-forestry, 2014 on 10th February in New Delhi. Speaking on the occasion, the President said that Agro-forestry offers a significant opening in resetting priorities on farm sustainability. It is emerging as a major domain in environmentally sustainable food production systems. Agro-forestry system produces food, fuel and fiber; contributes to food and nutritional security; sustains livelihoods; helps in preventing deforestation; increases biodiversity; protects water resources, and reduces erosion. The President said that agro-forestry holds immense promise in enhancing the productivity of land in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner. Greater research is required in agro-forestry, focused on creating eco-technologies that purposefully blend traditional ecological prudence with renewable energy technology. The Congress on the theme of ‘Trees for Life: Accelerating the Impact of Agro-forestry’ is jointly organized by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), World Agro-forestry Centre and the Indian Society of Agro-forestry.
  
• A new government led by Prime Minister Tammam Salam was formed in Lebanon on 15th February after a 10-month deadlock. According to a decree signed by Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, Samir Mokbel has been appointed as defense minister and vice prime minister. The announcement after a compromise was reached by the pro-Syrian March 8 camp and the opposition March 14 camp and witnessed a complete shuffle in the portfolios. Prime Minister Salam, born in 1945, is a centrist politician whose father was a long time prime minister and he is considered close to former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
  
• The Parliament of Nepal elected Sushil Koirala as next Prime Minister of Nepal on 10 February 2014. Sushil Koirala is a veteran Nepali Congress (NC) leader. The general election of Nepal was held on 19th November 2013. In the Constituent Assembly of 601-member the NC has 194 seats, while the CPN-UML has 173 seats. After the results, CPN-UML had pressed for new elections for president and vice president. Both the parties had reached a consensus and CPN-UML standing committee decided to give support to Nepali Congress (NC).They also agreed to draft the Constitution according to the 12-point agreement that was reached in New Delhi in 2005, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the Interim Constitution and the mandate expressed by the people in the November election. Sushil Koirala will take over the charge from Khil Raj Regmi, who was working as acting Prime Minister of Nepal from 14 March 2013.After the dissolution of the Nepalese Constituent Assembly in March 2012 there was a political deadlock in Nepal. The 36th Prime Minister of Nepal, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai was then replaced by Khil Raj Regmi.
  
• The Afghan government’s share of blame for civilian casualties rose drastically last year, largely reflecting intensification in the ground conflict between insurgents and Afghan troops, according to a new report from the United Nations (U.N.) released on 9 February. The report highlighted how significantly the nature of the conflict has changed, as American and NATO forces handed over most of the responsibility for security to the Afghans last year. Despite a series of high-profile complaints by President Hamid Karzai , the U.N.’s 2013 Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict said that only three per cent of civilian casualties were caused by international forces last year. At the same time, a decline in civilian deaths seen in 2012 was reversed, with 2,959 killed in 2013 — nearly the same as the civilian toll in the war’s worst year, 2011, the United Nations said. Overall, civilian casualties, totaling 8,615, were up by 14 per cent in 2013 over 2012.While the Taliban insurgents and their allies continued to cause by far the most civilian casualties — three-fourths of the total in 2013 — the report expressed concern about the rapid rise in the number of civilians killed in ground fighting between government and insurgent forces, as well as the increase in deaths attributed to government forces. Civilian casualties caused by pro-government forces increased 59 per cent last year, while those arising from ground engagements rose 128 per cent, the report said. Among the three per cent of civilian casualties caused by international military forces, the single biggest factor was airstrikes, according to data in the report. It cited 182 civilian deaths and injuries caused by 54 airstrikes last year. Of those, 19 were drone attacks, which more than tripled the civilian casualties from such strikes over 2012. Previously, drone strikes in Afghanistan were rare compared with those in neighboring Pakistan. The U.N. report documented numerous instances in which the insurgents deliberately hit civilian targets. It said the Taliban publicly claimed responsibility for 153 attacks that caused civilian casualties last year, three times the number of such claims in 2012. Those 2013 attacks killed 302 civilians.
  
• Hillary Rodham Clinton is launching a new global review of data to analyze the advancement of women and girls around the world since the mid-1990s. The former secretary of state on 14 February, announced the new partnership at New York University between the Clinton Foundation and the Gates Foundation. The project will collect and review data on the progress of women since the 1995 United Nations Beijing conference that Clinton addressed as first lady. The potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate is starting the project as part of her "No Ceilings" initiative that aims to empower women in the 21st century. Clinton says progress has been made but there's a lack of data on what needs to be done to promote female participation in education, politics and the economy around the world.
  
• Belgium has become the first country to allow euthanasia for terminally ill children of all ages, after a heated debate in which critics questioned a child's ability to make the decision to die. Despite opposition from the Church, which called the move “a step too far”, and some pediatricians, parliament adopted the legislation on 14 February by 86 votes to 44, with 12 abstentions. The ground-breaking legislation makes the largely Catholic country the second after the Netherlands to allow mercy-killing for children, and the first to lift all age restrictions. Unlike the Dutch across the border, where euthanasia is allowed for children over 12, the law states that any incurably sick child may request to end their suffering if “conscious”, and if equipped with “a capacity of discernment”. Belgium is one of three countries in Europe to allow euthanasia for adults, and a poll last October showed 73 per cent supported extending the right to children.
  
• China plans to build the world’s longest underwater tunnel beneath the Bohai Sea by 2026, connecting the port cities of Dalian in Liaoning province and Yantai in Shandong province. The blueprint of the ambitious project is expected to be submitted to the State Council of the People’s Republic of China in April, the China Daily reported on 14 February.“Once approved, work could begin as early as 2015 or 2016,” Wang Mengshu, a tunnel and railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, who has worked on the plan since 2012.Wang said that the 123-km underwater tunnel will cost around 220 billion yuan ($36 billion). The length of the tunnel will be more than the combined length of the world’s two longest underwater tunnels – Japan’s Seikan Tunnel and the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France. “Using the tunnel, it will take only 40 minutes to travel from Dalian to Yantai,” Wang said. At the moment it is a 1,400-km drive and it takes eight hours by ferry.
  
• Representatives of Taiwan and China on 11 February, held their first official talks since the end of China’s civil war in 1949, a meeting expected to produce few concrete results but one that marked a symbolic development in the easing of the two sides’ longtime rivalry. The setting was a resort hotel in the Chinese city of Nanjing, which was at times the capital of Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of China before its government fled to Taiwan after being defeated by Mao Zedong’s Communist forces.“Before today’s meeting, it was hard to imagine that cross-strait relations could get to this point,” said Wang Yu-chi, head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council. The improved ties were “hard earned through efforts of generations,” said Zhang Zhijun, head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, according to the media reports. China considers Taiwan to be a part of its territory that must eventually be reunited. It has reacted angrily in the past to steps seen as moving the self-governed island toward formal independence. In 1995 and 1996, it fired missiles into waters around Taiwan ahead of its first democratic presidential election, and it regularly denounced Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan’s independent-leaning president from 2000 to 2008.Following the 2008 election of President Ma Ying-jeou, who favors closer ties with the mainland, Beijing has taken a more conciliatory approach. Cross-strait trade has nearly doubled over the course of Ma’s presidency, reaching $197 billion last year. Nearly 3 million Chinese traveled to Taiwan last year, constituting the largest single group of visitors following Taiwan’s easing of restrictions on mainland arrivals starting in 2008. The two sides signed a landmark trade agreement, the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, in 2010. Until now, representatives of China and Taiwan have met only through unofficial organizations or through retired officials, as Beijing has resisted any steps that might be seen as recognizing Taiwan’s sovereignty.
  
• The President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the Asia-Africa Agri Business Forum on February 4, 2014 at FICCI Auditorium, New Delhi. Speaking on the occasion, the President said “One billion people, representing fourteen per cent of the global population, is still afflicted by hunger. Asia and Africa account for most of them. This cannot continue any further. Food production has to proceed in a business-unusual manner; on a war footing”. He also said a shift in focus towards the development of horticultural crops and food processing industry can provide the impetus necessary for the overall growth of the agricultural sector. Africa has tremendous scope for benefiting from the development of the food processing industry. India can provide training in post harvest management of different crops and provide assistance in developing packaging technology in line with world standards. There is need for both the continents to overcome the challenges through symbiotic associations. Partnerships must aim at developing the agri-business sector into an efficient business enterprise capable of competing in other international markets. He said it is heartening to note that the agenda of the business forum includes forging new business partnerships, sharing best practices and new technologies, and exploring project finance and funding options.
  
• The Scottish Parliament approved the Same Sex Marriage Bill on 3 February 2014. The Scotland became the 17th country to give the green signal to same sex marriages which was an important step for equal rights. The Bill was adopted with 105-18 votes by the Scottish Parliament, which follows similar legislation of the British parliament. Under the law, same sex marriage ceremonies can take place in any place agreed between the couple and the registrar, other than religious premises. No part of the religious community will be forced to hold such ceremonies in churches. Bill also allows transgender people to stay married rather than having to get divorced, when obtaining a Gender Recognition Certificate. Scotland has joined the group of countries which have allowed same-sex marriage. The Netherlands was the first country that allowed same sex marriage in 2001. In 2013 England and Wales, Brazil, Uruguay, New Zealand and France passed the same sex marriage bill.
  
• China on 2 February, rejected reports suggesting it was planning to set up an air defence zone over the disputed South China Sea. In November, China established its first Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) over parts of the East China Sea, amid an increasingly tense stand-off with Japan over the Senkaku islands. An ADIZ is a defined area in international airspace within which countries monitor and track aircraft heading towards their territory. The setting up of the ADIZ heightened tensions with Japan, as it overlapped with Japan’s zone and included the Japanese islands. China at the time defended the move, pointing out that Japan had established its own ADIZ in 1969.After a Japanese newspaper reported last week that China was considering setting up a second such zone over the South China Sea — a move that would be certain to worry the half a dozen or so countries that have competing claims over the sea’s waters and islands — the Chinese Foreign Ministry was quick to deny the report, and also, at the same time, accuse Tokyo of attempting to fan tensions.China-Japan relations have soured over the past year over the disputed islands, and issues relating to wartime history and the Japanese occupation of China during the Second World War. The rising tensions with Japan have coincided with an apparent diplomatic outreach by China to other Asian countries.
  
• The rival Koreas agreed on 5 February to hold their first reunions of Korean War-divided families in more than three years later this month, another small step forward in easing tensions that comes despite North Korea’s anger over upcoming U.S.-South Korean military drills. Many had been skeptical in Seoul that the North would agree to a quick resumption of the dramatic reunions because of the annual military exercises that Seoul and Washington plan later this month. North Korea calls them a rehearsal for invasion, and used last year’s drills to partly justify a torrent of threats and provocations that still clouds relations on the Korean Peninsula.North Korea also scrapped an earlier plan for reunions at the last minute in September after accusing South Korea of planning war drills and other hostile acts. It is again calling for the cancellation of the annual drills. Seoul and Washington insist they are purely defensive and have refused to call them off.The talks were arranged after North Korea last month approved a resumption of the reunion program, which has been stalled since late 2010. North Korea has recently ratcheted down its typical harsh rhetoric against South Korea and has made a series of conciliatory gestures in a sharp departure from a year ago, when it threatened Washington and Seoul with nuclear war and vowed to restart its production of fuel for nuclear weapons. Analysts say impoverished North Korea needs improved ties with Seoul to help attract foreign investment and aid to improve living conditions and revive its sagging economy, and that it is unlikely to abruptly cancel this month’s reunions. The two Koreas share one of the world’s most heavily fortified borders and ordinary citizens are not allowed to exchange phone calls, letters and emails between the countries. The Korean Peninsula is still technically in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
  
• President of Israel Shimon Peres set a new Guinness World Record on 6 February 2014. He delivered the largest online civics class in the world. He delivered the classes using Cisco’s advanced technology. The classes will be conducted from the company headquarters in Netanya. Over 6500 students in 215 classes across the country from Jerusalem, Beersheva, Tel Aviv, Kuseife, Ofakim, Dimona, Hadera, Tiveria, Taibeh, Nahariya, and other communities will attend it. The participants in the online class will include Jewish and Arab students together. The class will be a live example of the technology which will help digitalize education worldwide, reduce the distance between the center of countries and the periphery, reduce inequality in education and allow for lessons to be delivered by leading experts to thousands of pupils at the same time. At 90, he is also the oldest serving head of state in the world.
  
• After some hiccups, the four-member Pak government appointed committee and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)’s nominees met on 6 February , for the first time to finalise a roadmap for a dialogue, in a fresh bid for peace in the country. Maulana Samiul Haq of the TTP committee said the talks were held in a cordial atmosphere. The government committee demanded that the talks should be conducted within the framework of the Pakistan Constitution and that there should be no terror strikes during the duration of the talks. It wanted a clarification on the role of the nine-member TTP committee which has been appointed to oversee the talks. The government committee also wished to meet the TTP in Waziristan to establish a direct communication channel. On the other hand, the TTP nominees said the government should clarify the scope and mandate of its committee and what all it could negotiate. The two committees met at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House in the capital.
  
• The Chinese Navy on 8 February, conducted rare exercises in the Lumbok Strait in the Indian Ocean near Indonesia, with the drills seen by analysts as underlining China’s expanding capabilities in carrying out operations in waters far beyond its borders. A three-ship flotilla of the South Sea fleet, which included the large amphibious aircraft “Changbaishan” and two destroyers, conducted 10 exercises, including anti-piracy, search and rescue, and damage control drills, over a five-day exercise starting January 29, based out of the Lombok Strait, a narrow strip of water that runs from the Java Sea, near Indonesia, and is north of Australia. The Lombok drills also included simulations for warfare to test the response of command systems and soldiers’ “combat skills.”This was the first drill of this nature in the Lombok Strait, and also marked the first time the PLAN had in its drills charted a new route from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean. This also marked the first deployment of the Changbaishan, China’s largest landing ship which is equipped with advanced weapons systems, in a drill of this kind.