Latest news with #militarybuild-up
Zawya
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Zawya
United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) urges immediate de-escalation in Tripoli
Noting increased reports of continued military build-up in and around Tripoli, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) strongly urges all parties to refrain from using force, particularly in densely populated areas, and to avoid any actions or political rhetoric that could trigger escalation or lead to renewed clashes. As reiterated in the Security Council press statement on 17 May, UNSMIL reminds all political and security actors of their obligation under international law to protect civilian lives and property and that those responsible for attacks against civilians will be held accountable. The Mission continues its efforts to help de-escalate the situation and calls on all parties to engage in good faith towards this end. UNSMIL urges the swift implementation of security arrangements developed by the Truce and Security and Military Arrangements Committees, which the Mission continues to support. Forces recently deployed in Tripoli must withdraw without delay. Dialogue - not violence - remains the only viable path toward achieving lasting peace, stability in Tripoli and across Libya. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).
Daily Mail
30-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
China issues a dark warning to Anthony Albanese: 'This should never have been in question'
China has warned Anthony Albanese not to increase defence spending, claiming both countries are 'friends, not foes'. Xiao Qian, China's top diplomat in Australia, has criticised US President Donald Trump 's push for Western allies to increase defence spending. Following last week's NATO meeting, all member nations - apart from Spain - agreed to lift defence spending to five per cent of GDP over the next decade. Trump, who has threatened Spain with retaliatory tariffs, has signalled he expects Australia to follow suit by increasing defence expenditure, but Albanese is so far holding firm. Now, Mr Qian has ramped up the pressure on the Australian Prime Minister to keep military spending down to its current level, which aims to reach 2.3 per cent of GDP over the next ten years. Without explicitly naming the United States, Mr Qian slammed the 'so-called China threat narrative', while painting Chinese President Xi Jinping as a man of peace. 'Such rhetoric and actions are steeped in Cold War mentality, blatantly creating division, fuelling a global arms race as well as threatening world peace and stability, which warrants our high vigilance,' he wrote in The Australian. 'By playing up international and regional tensions and slandering China's normal military build-up, these countries are merely seeking nothing but excuses to drastically grow their military spending, even arbitrarily reaching beyond its geographical scope and mandate.' Mr Qian accused the US of wanting to 'maintain their hegemony' by stifling the 'development and advancement of countries such as China'. He also sought to appeal to Albanese's domestic pressures, claiming an increase in defence spending would come at a high price, especially during the cost of living crisis. 'Dramatically increasing military spending places a heavy fiscal burden on the countries involved, undermining their efforts to boost economies and improve livelihoods, and further straining a global economy already struggling with weak recovery,' he said. Mr Qian also claimed China had 'never initiated a war or occupied an inch of a foreign land' over the last 70 years - despite invading Vietnam in 1979. 'China unwaveringly adheres to a defensive national defence policy, with military spending accounting for just 1.5 per cent of its GDP,' he added. 'It is far below the global average and paling in comparison to certain hegemons or their allies and partners.' Mr Qian talked up China and Australia's reliance on one another as trade partners - a relationship that has thawed significantly under Albanese's Labor administration. 'As I often hear from Australian friends, "we have hundreds of reasons to be friends, and none to be enemies",' he wrote. Mr Qian added that China and Australia are 'friends, not foes'. 'This should never have been in question,' he said. 'China has been always developing bilateral friendship and co-operation with the utmost sincerity and patience, and we hope Australia will work with us in the same direction.' Trump indicated last week that he expects his allies in the Asia-Pacific - including Australia - to increase their defence funding in line with NATO members. 'Yeah, look, if our allies in Europe and our NATO allies can do that, I think our allies and our friends in the Asia Pacific region can do it as well,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Friday. Ms Leavitt said she would leave the 'specific relations and discussions' for individual countries to Trump. This means that Albanese may be pressured to increase defence spending if he hopes to secure a carve-out from the punishing tariffs imposed by the US on imports, including a 50 per cent levy on steel and aluminium. Foreign Minister Penny Wong is heading to Washington this week for 'Quad' talks with her counterparts from the US, India and Japan. She is expected to hold one-on-one meetings with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 'The United States is our closest ally and principal strategic partner,' Senator Wong said.
Reuters
26-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Danish pension fund lifts ban on investments in European defence stocks
COPENHAGEN, June 26 (Reuters) - Danish pension fund AkademikerPension has lifted a self-imposed ban on investment in six of Europe's largest arms makers and some smaller groups, it said on Thursday, citing a worsening security situation and the need to boost European defences. Many of the continent's investment funds exclude weapons manufacturers from their portfolios on ethical grounds, such as their involvement in the manufacture of components for nuclear arms. AkademikerPension's decision to end its ban comes as Europe faces its largest military build-up in recent history, the fund said in a statement. "We believe it is the most responsible thing to do - both in terms of return and social responsibility in the current situation," CEO Jens Munch Holst said. "We don't want a small turnover from nuclear weapons-related activities to prevent us from providing capital to support the building of a European defence," he said. The fund manages 157 billion Danish crowns ($24.61 billion), it said on its website. NATO leaders on Wednesday backed the big increase in defence spending as demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump, and restated their commitment to defend each other from attack as tensions with Russia rise. But there are question marks over how member nations will afford the targeted 5% of output on defence, leading to potentially difficult budget choices. AkademikerPension's change of policy meant that the fund can again invest in Airbus ( opens new tab, Babcock International (BAB.L), opens new tab, Dassault Aviation ( opens new tab, Leonardo ( opens new tab, Safran ( opens new tab and Thales ( opens new tab, it said. Britain's Babcock said it expected to benefit from more UK government spending on defence as it lifted its medium-term forecast on Wednesday. Serco Group, Ultra Electronics and Groupe Reel were also removed from AkademikerPension's blacklist, but it maintained a ban on 46 defence groups globally over links to controversial weapons or human rights violations. ($1 = 6.3788 Danish crowns)
South China Morning Post
23-06-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Beijing's ‘massive' build-up raises threat of Taiwan Strait conflict: Nato chief
Beijing's 'massive' military build-up increases the threat of conflict across the Taiwan Strait in a way that could draw Russia and thus European forces into the fray, Nato's secretary general warned on Monday. Advertisement South Korea , Speaking to reporters ahead of this week's Nato summit in The Hague, Mark Rutte also said Nato enjoyed a close relationship with its Indo-Pacific partners – namely Japan Australia and New Zealand – as it ramped up the member states' defence industrial base. On the question of whether Nato would follow the US and come to its aid if Beijing tried to invade Taiwan , Rutte said the group's Indo-Pacific partners were 'very, very aware' of the People's Liberation Army 's 'massive' military build-up now under way. The Nato chief pointed to several Chinese defence companies ranking among the world's top arms makers in arguing that Beijing's expansion had reached levels that were 'never' before seen. Rutte said the associated defence industrial production capabilities could have a 'huge impact' on not just the Indo-Pacific region but also European security.
Reuters
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Soldiers, Strykers and 100-degree temps: Inside Trump's border military zone
SANTA TERESA, NM June 13 (Reuters) - The weapons system atop a drab green U.S. Army Stryker swivels, its camera shifting downward toward a white Ford F-150 driving slowly along the U.S.-Mexico border. Under the watchful eye of the 26-ton armored vehicle perched on a sand dune above them, humanitarian volunteers are driving the dirt road next to the border wall to see if they can continue to search for migrant remains inside one of two military zones established along the border by the Trump administration in April and May. Soon, they get their answer. It's not long before an unmarked gray pickup appears, makes a U-turn in the sand, and puts on its siren, here in the desert 5.6 miles (9 km) west of the Santa Teresa, New Mexico border crossing. The driver pulls alongside, introduces himself as a U.S. Border Patrol agent, and tells the volunteers they can no longer be there. James Holman, founder of the Battalion Search and Rescue group, whose volunteers also hand water to migrants through the bars of the barrier, acquiesces. Then he vents his frustration. "We're ramping up all this military and taking this public land away, it doesn't make sense, and it's theater, it's deadly, deadly theater," says Holman, 59, a former Marine. They are in one of two so-called "National Defense Areas" set up along 260 miles (418 km) of the U.S. southern border in New Mexico and Texas as part of the Trump administration's military buildup on the border. U.S. President Donald Trump has long shown interest in using the military for civilian law enforcement, sending Marines to Los Angeles this week in their first domestic deployment in over 30 years. The border military zones are one of his most audacious attempts yet to use troops trained for overseas combat in roles normally carried out by Border Patrol or local police. The Army has not made public the zones' boundaries. The New Mexico area may run over three miles into the United States, in places, based on 'restricted area' warning signs in English and Spanish posted along State Road 9 parallel to the border. The zones are classified as U.S. Army installations, giving troops the right to temporarily detain and question migrants and other civilian trespassers caught in the areas. Their primary mission is to detect and track illegal border crossers as part of the Trump administration's quest for '100% operational control' of the border at a time when migrant arrests are near an historic low. Along the international boundary, Reuters saw warning signs posted inside the United States around 45 feet north of the border barrier around every 100 meters, facing south. That meant if you had crossed the border and could read them, you were already in the zone. Migrants caught illegally crossing the border into the zones face new trespassing charges on top of unlawful entry to the country, with combined penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment. Attempts to prosecute them for trespassing have floundered. Starting in May, federal judges in Texas and New Mexico have dismissed trespassing charges against migrants caught within the area and acquitted a Peruvian woman brought to trial, ruling there was no evidence they saw signs before entering the zone. Illegal border crossings fell to a record low in March after the Biden administration shut down asylum claims in 2024 and Mexico tightened immigration controls. Trump, who banned people from claiming asylum on the southern border shortly after starting his second term in January, nonetheless says the military areas are needed to repel an "invasion" of human traffickers and drug smugglers. In the past four months Trump raised the number of active-duty troops on the border to 8,000 from 2,500 at the end of the Biden administration, according to the U.S. Army. Presidents since Richard Nixon have used regular troops and reservists for support roles on the border. Trump has taken it a step further. The Bureau of Land Management in April transferred 110,000 acres (172 square miles) of land in New Mexico, an area seven times the size of Manhattan, to the U.S. Army for three years to establish a first zone. A second was created in May with a transfer of International Boundary and Water Commission land in Texas. The areas are satellites of the Fort Huachuca and Fort Bliss Army bases in Arizona and Texas, respectively. That gives troops the right to hold and question civilian trespassers without the need for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. The law lets a president deploy federal forces domestically during events like civil unrest. Some 105 Stryker combat vehicles and around 2,400 troops from the 4th Infantry Division deployed from Colorado Springs in March. They rove in armored personnel carriers across New Mexico, Texas and Arizona. Reuters saw Strykers concentrated in a roughly 20-mile ribbon from El Paso west to Santa Teresa, one of the 2,000-mile border's busiest and most deadly areas for migrant crossings. The 8-wheeled vehicles, used by Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now by Ukraine in its war with Russia, can be seen parked under a bridge to Mexico, atop a landfill and on a ridge above a gap in the border wall. Their engines run 24/7 to cool crews in the 100 F. (38 C.) plus heat. Vehicles are unarmed but soldiers have personal weapons. Crews take shifts operating the joystick-controlled camera systems that can see for two miles (3.2 km) and have night vision, according to the Army. A person familiar with Strykers, who asked not to be named, said the work was 'monotonous' but said it gave soldiers 'a sense of purpose.' Troops have alerted Border Patrol to 390 illegal crossings in the nearly two months since the first zone was established. They made their first detentions on June 3, holding 3 'illegal aliens' in New Mexico before handing them over to Border Patrol, according to Army spokesperson Geoffrey Carmichael. Border Patrol arrested 39,677 migrants in the El Paso sector in the fiscal year to April, down 78% from the year-earlier period. Sitting outside his juice bar in Sunland Park, Harold Gregory says he has seen a sharp drop in migrants entering his store or asking customers for a ride since Strykers arrived. "We feel safer," said Gregory, 38. "They do kind of like intimidate so there's not so many people come this way." In neighboring Santa Teresa, trade consultant Jerry Pacheco says the optics of combat vehicles are not good as he tries to draw international firms to the town's industrial park. 'It's like killing an ant with a sledgehammer,' says Pacheco, executive director of the International Business Accelerator, a nonprofit trade counseling program. 'I think having the military down here is more of a political splash.' About 90 miles (143 km) west, New Mexico rancher Russell Johnson said he saw five Strykers briefly positioned in a gap in the border barrier on his ranch. He welcomes the zone as an extra layer of security and has testified to the U.S. Congress on illegal border crossers destroying barbed wire fences, cattle thieves driving livestock into Mexico and a pickup stolen at gunpoint by drug smugglers. He is unsure if his home, or over half his ranch, is inside the area but has been assured by U.S. Border Patrol he can continue to work land ranched by his family since 1918. 'I don't know, I don't think anyone knows,' says Johnson, 37, a former Border Patrol agent, of the zone's boundaries. He says the Army has not communicated rules for hunters with permits to shoot quail and mule deer this fall in the military area, or hikers who start or end the 3,000-mile (4,800 km) Continental Divide Trail within it. The Army has been seeking memoranda of understanding with local communities and agencies to continue activities in the New Mexico zone, said Nicole Wieman, a U.S. Army spokesperson. "The MOU process for commercial and recreational activities, such as hunting, mining and ranching, is complex," Wieman said. Jenifer Jones, Republican state representative for Johnson's area, said Americans can keep doing what they did before in the zone. 'They can carry their firearms as they would have prior,' said Jones, who welcomed the troops to her 'neglected' area where only a barbed-wire fence separates the two countries in places. To the east in Las Cruces, the state's second largest city, State Representative Sarah Silva, a Democrat, said the zones have created fear and apprehension 'I see this as an occupation of the U.S. Army on our lands,' said Silva. Back in desert west of Santa Teresa, Battalion Search and Rescue leader Abbey Carpenter, 67, stands among dunes where the group has discovered the remains of 24 migrants in 18 months, mostly women. She is concerned the area could be absorbed into the military zone. "Who's going to look for these remains if we're not allowed out here," she said, showing the jaw and other uncollected bones of a woman her group reported to local authorities in September. "Will they just be covered up by the desert sands?"
