Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, middle right, sits across from Russian President Vladimir Putin during talks in Beijing in February 2022 that led to a joint statement of cooperation. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FALK TETTWEILER, MARSHALL CENTER RESEARCHER AND ANALYST The China-Russia joint statement of February 2022 has widely been interpreted as a signal of deeper cooperation between the countries, which are the major challengers to the world order. Some have gone so far as to assess it as a sign of an institutional axis, or even an alliance. However, the lack of official People’s Republic of China (PRC)…
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The Mexican Navy (SEMAR) opened a new naval base in the state of Nayarit on Mexico’s central Pacific coast in September 2024. SEMAR THE WATCH STAFF The Mexican Navy (SEMAR) inaugurated a new naval base in Nayarit in September 2024 that will host the Navy’s Marine Infantry Battalion No. 34, a search, rescue and maritime surveillance unit and a dredging vessel. The base is designed to increase security in a region increasingly frequented by international tourists and home to powerful transnational criminal organizations (TCO). The new base, Boca de Chila, will cover an area with a burgeoning tourist industry centered…
Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos has battled illegal trafficking in the southern approaches to the U.S. since 1982. Recent operations have uncovered increasing links between the smuggling of human beings and illegal drugs. U.S. COAST GUARD THE WATCH STAFF The Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) police and military collaborated with the U.S. Coast Guard in August and September 2024 to seize more than $3 million in marijuana on the southeastern seaborne approaches to the United States. The cooperating forces detained 212 undocumented migrants in one bust in which they also seized more than $2 million in marijuana, a combination that…
A U.S. congressional investigation raises concerns about Chinese-made cranes in U.S. ports. AFP/GETTY IMAGES THE WATCH STAFF Two United States congressional panels have concluded that cranes used in U.S. ports and manufactured by companies linked to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) government pose significant national security risks. The yearlong probe by the House Homeland Security Committee and the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party concluded that the Chinese company ZPMC pressured port operators to allow the company to maintain remote access, potentially allowing the PRC to malignly influence the operation of critical domestic infrastructure. “Some ports insist on…
Finnish President Alexander Stubb said Russia should be expelled from the U.N. Security Council for engaging in an illegal war against Ukraine. AFP/GETTY IMAGES THE WATCH STAFF Finnish President Alexander Stubb called for Russia to be expelled from the U.N. Security Council for its illegal invasion of Ukraine. Stubb, who as president oversees Finnish foreign policy, made his remarks in September 2024 shortly before leaving for the meeting of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Any member state in the U.N.’s most powerful body engaged in an illegal war “such as Russia is in right now in Ukraine,” should…
Kenyan President William Ruto visited Haiti in September 2024 to meet with 450 Kenyan police officers who are spearheading a U.N. mission in the Caribbean country. AFP/GETTY IMAGES THE WATCH STAFF The Bahamas is readying 150 Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) members to deploy to Haiti as part of the U.N. security mission being led by Kenya. Prime Minister Wayne Munroe said the departure date of the three platoons is still uncertain, according to a September 18 report by ZNS, the state television broadcaster. The Bahamas committed the RBDF force in 2023 after the U.N. authorized the mission to stabilize…
LT. COL. (RET.) WILLIAM HAGESTAD II/U.S. MARINE CORPS The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) economic and political position in Europe is extremely important to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and effort is being made to enhance that position. The PRC engages in political alignment, intelligence gathering, information control and measured military cooperation to facilitate the expansion of its influence across the European landscape. Beijing leverages all instruments of national power to further its interests in the region. The DIME (diplomatic, information, military and economic) philosophy is a conceptual framework to analyze and understand the multifaceted elements of a nation’s power…
U.S. Soldiers with Alpha Battery, 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment (Long Range Fires Battalion), 1st Multi-Domain Task Force set up a M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System on Shemya Island on September 12, 2024. ARMY SPC. BRANDON VASQUEZ/U.S. ARMY THE WATCH STAFF The U.S. Army deployed paratroopers, radar operators and at least one M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) to Shemya Island in the Aleutian Islands chain in September 2024 to monitor a combined People’s Republic of China (PRC)-Russia exercise nearby. The quick response highlighted the mobility and readiness of U.S. forces and their ability to respond rapidly…
U.S. Navy SEALs and Special Warfare Combat Crewman conduct Maritime Interdiction Operation demonstrations off the USS JOHN L. CANLY, a U.S. Navy Expeditionary Sea Base ship, as part of Operation POLAR DAGGER 24. AIRMAN 1ST CLASS JOHNNY DIAZ/U.S. AIR FORCE THE WATCH STAFF United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), U.S. Special Operations Command North (SOCNORTH), and the U.S. Navy have rapidly deployed 150 U.S. Special Operations Forces (USSOF) aboard USS John L. Canley (ESB 6) to conduct multi-domain maritime operations in the North American Arctic as part of Operation POLAR DAGGER 24 (OPD24) during July and August 2024. Operating in the…
The 399-foot U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Star opens a channel to Greenland. U.S. COAST GUARD The Watch Staff The recent agreement involving Canada, Finland and the United States to produce icebreakers will help maintain the international rules-based order in the Arctic and is an important step to counter growing cooperation between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Russia, experts contend. The pact will also provide lower costs and technological transfers among the allies, which will aid more broadly in NATO’s defense of its northern flank, according to two U.S. experts on the PRC who examined the issue in Foreign…