US seeks to renew security pact

Australia won’t host US missiles: PM

SYDNEY, Aug 5, (RTRS): US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday negotiations have begun with three Pacific island nations to renew a national security agreement that would help Washington counter growing Chinese influence in the region.

Under the terms of the deal, known as the Compact of Free Association, the US military have exclusive access to airspace and territorial waters of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau. In exchange, the small islands receive financial assistance.

“Today, I am here to confirm the United States will help you protect your sovereignty, your security, your right to live in freedom and peace,” Pompeo told reporters in Pohnpei State, one of four members of the Federated States of Micronesia.

“I’m pleased to announce the United States has begun negotiations on extending our compacts .... they sustain democracy in the face of Chinese efforts to redraw the Pacific.”

Pompeo, who is the first US Secretary of State to visit Micronesia, spoke after meeting the leaders of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau.

The three tiny Pacific nations have gained greater strategic significance in recent years due a push by China into the region. During a visit to Sydney on Sunday, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper described China’s actions as both “aggressive” and “destabilising”.

Laying the foundations for negotiations, US President Donald Trump in May hosted the leaders of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau - a rare state visit for such small countries.

The agreement is due to expire in 2024, and any lapse could have created a potential opening for China.

“Federated States of Micronesia form part of the second island chain

‘Address missile defense systems’:

Any future talks Russia holds with France and Britain should address the latter two’s missile defense capabilities, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday.

France and Britain’s missile defense systems should be taken into account when establishing a new nuclear missile pact with Moscow, the Russian official told KUNA amid a press conference.

Russia is also aware of China’s reluctance to join a new international nuclear missile treaty, added Ryabkov, pointing out that Moscow does not intend to withdraw from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) struck during the Cold War, unlike the United States.

He pointed the finger at Washington for abandoning the agreement, saying Russia has fought hard to preserve the deal, which is a key pillar of international arms control, that China sees as a way of containing their strategic ambitions,” said Jonathan Pryke, director of the Pacific Islands program at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney think tank. “The relationship is a critical one, but China is increasing its pursuit of the region.”

China has become the region’s biggest bilateral lender during the past decade, although US allies including Japan, Australia and New Zealand have retained - and in some instances recently increased - their already significant aid programmes to Pacific island economies.

Documents

Reuters analysis of budget documents shows that most of China’s concessionary loans have flowed to those Pacific island economies with which it has strong diplomatic ties, including Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu.

Countries that have retained ties to Taiwan - like Palau, Kiribati and Solomon Islands - have limited Chinese investment.

US intermediate-range missiles will not be deployed in Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday, after the United States revealed ambitions to site missiles in the AsiaPacific region.

Officials from both governments held talks in Sydney over the weekend that ended with a joint statement in which the two allies pledged to strengthen opposition to Chinese activities in Asia-Pacific, as both sides have become increasingly concerned about China’s spreading influence.

During the talks, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper spoke of hopes to deploy missiles in the Asia-Pacific region in coming months following Washington’s withdrawal from a landmark arms control treaty last week.

Esper’s comments prompted speculation that Australia had been asked to

said the Russian official.

Russia has said that it does not want an arms race with the US, promising not to deploy Russian missiles unless Washington does so first.

The US last week formally withdrew from the landmark nuclear missile pact with Russia, on grounds that Moscow was violating the treaty, an accusation the Kremlin has denied.

The INF was negotiated between Russia and the US during the Cold War, banning land-based missiles with a range of between 310 and 3,400 miles (500-5,500 km). (KUNA)

Blast at ammunition dump:

An explosion at a Russian military base in Siberia has set off fires and injured at least two people.

The explosion on Monday was at an

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo greets US Embassy staff members and

their families in Sydney before departing on Aug 5. (AP)

host the missiles, but Morrison denied that any request had been made and said Australia would decline if it was asked in the future. “It’s not been asked to us, not being considered, not been put to us. I think I the rule a line under that,” Morrison told reporters in Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland.

MOSCOW:

Also:

Russia said on Monday it would take measures to defend itself if the United States stationed missiles in Asia following the collapse of a landmark arms control treaty and that it expected Japan to deploy a new US missile launch system.

US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said on Saturday that he was in favour of placing ground-launched, intermediaterange missiles in Asia relatively soon.

The US official made the comment a day after Washington withdrew from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a Cold War-era pact signed in 1987 that banned land-based missiles with a range of between 310 and 3,400 miles (500-5,500 km).

Asked about the possible US missile deployment, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia did not plan to get sucked into an arms race with Washington, but that it would respond defensively to any threats.

“... If the deployment of new US systems begins specifically in Asia then the corresponding steps to balance these actions will be taken by us in the direction of parrying these threats,” Ryabkov told a news conference.

He said Moscow expected Tokyo to soon station the US MK-41 missilelaunching system in Japan.

“The universal MK-41 launch system that will appear, it seems, in Japan can also be adapted to be used to launch medium-range cruise missiles ... So these new systems when they appear in Japan will without doubt also be taken into account during our corresponding planning,” he said.

ammunition dump at the base, located 10 kilometers from Achinsk, a closed military town in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia.

Emergency services were evacuating residents from the area.

Local authorities say residents don’t face an immediate threat but asked people to stay area from the military base.

No information has been released yet about the type of ammunition stored at the base. Several Russian media reports described the facility as a storage site for artillery shells. (AP)

Leader dispels death rumours:

After a weeks-long disappearance that sparked rumours of his death, the president of Turkmenistan, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, appeared on state television on Sunday driving a rally car to a flaming gas crater known as Hell’s Gate.

The 62-year-old autocratic leader disappeared from public view in late July and several foreign media outlets, citing unnamed sources, reported at the time that he had died. The government of the gas-exporting Central Asian country denied that and said he was simply on vacation.

On Sunday, state television broadcast a report about Berdymukhamedov’s holiday, which showed him driving a rally car to the Hell’s Gate crater - a flaming pit in the middle of the Karakum Desert.

The report also showed Berdymukhamedov, wearing a military-style outfit and a backwards-facing baseball cap, score three strikes in a bowling game, prompting rounds of standing applause from underlings dressed in identical tracksuits.

Berdymukhamedov has run the former Soviet republic - which exports natural gas by pipelines to China and Russia - since the death in 2006 of his equally authoritarian predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov.

Commonly referred to as Arkadag, or Protector, Berdymukhamedov has been steadily promoting his son Serdar, who is now regarded as a potential successor after becoming a provincial governor in June. (RTRS)