Barents Euro-Arctic Council regional council members met in October 2023 to inaugurate new Chairman Markus Hirvonen of Finland. The future of the 30-year-old council is in doubt after Russia’s 2023 exit. THE BARENTS EURO-ARCTIC COUNCIL THE WATCH STAFF The Kremlin’s war of territorial aggression against Ukraine likely has ended a cooperative Arctic council that once hoped to integrate Russia into the region’s framework of a rules-based international order. The Barents Euro-Arctic Council, composed of the foreign ministers of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the European Union, hasn’t had a clear role since Russia’s September 2023 departure from the organization,…
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Relations between Norway and Russia have become strained after repeated sabotage incidents that have been linked to Russia. The latest incidents occurred in the Norwegian Arctic near military installations. AFP/GETTY IMAGES THE WATCH STAFF Norway is responding to repeated acts of sabotage, including at military installations in the increasingly contested Arctic region. Most recently, in early September 2024, a jamming device set up in advance of military testing near Norway’s Andøya Arctic military base was damaged when someone cut a cable. The jammer had been set up at the far northern island as part of an international exercise to test…
Royal Marines and U.S. Coast Guardsmen deploy from the HMS Trent in August 2024 to interdict a drug smuggling boat south of the Dominican Republic. THE ROYAL NAVY THE WATCH STAFF A U.K. Royal Navy vessel conducted the sixth drug seizure in its 2024 deployment to the Caribbean, confiscating $729 million in illegal drugs. The HMS Trent, a River-class off-shore patrol vessel, has been deployed to the Caribbean to curtail illegal trafficking in migrants, drugs, guns and other contraband as the instability in Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela has worsened. The ship’s mission is to increase security in the region, including…
Five Russian LNG tankers, similar to the one pictured, have been deregistered and now operate as a shadow fleet trying to evade sanctions levied after Russia’s 2022 unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. AFP/GETTY IMAGES THE WATCH STAFF A Russian “shadow fleet” of unlicensed tankers trying to circumvent international sanctions traveled near Norway’s territorial waters in September 2024. The Russian fleet is operating outside of the international rules-based order and poses environmental and security risks for NATO members on the alliance’s northern flank as the tankers travel from the Russian Arctic loaded with compressed natural gas to seek illicit sales, which aids…
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken delivers remarks about Russian propaganda activities at the state television network, RT, in September 2024. AFP/GETTY IMAGES THE WATCH STAFF The Russian state television network, RT, is acting as an arm of that country’s intelligence services, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in September 2024 when announcing new sanctions to curb the network’s access to global financing. Blinken’s announcement came just days after the U.S. Department of Justice indicted two RT employees accused of funneling nearly $10 million to a Tennessee video streaming site that pushed Moscow’s propaganda. Blinken said that…
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)…
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…