Estonia has also been providing Ukraine with Stingers since January, and in order to do that had to get US permission….reports Asian Lite News
The US for the first time has approved the direct delivery of Stinger missiles to Ukraine as part of a package approved by the White House on Friday. The exact timing of delivery is not known, but officials say the US is currently working on the logistics of the shipment.
The officials agreed to discuss the development only if not quoted by name. The exact timing of delivery is not known, but officials say the US is currently working on the logistics of the shipment.
The decision comes on the heels of Germany’s announcement that it will send 500 Stinger missiles and other weapons and supplies to Ukraine. The high-speed Stingers are very accurate and are used to shoot down helicopters and other aircraft. Ukrainian officials have been asking for more of the powerful weapons.
Estonia has also been providing Ukraine with Stingers since January, and in order to do that had to get US permission.
Abe questions US over Taiwan
Meanwhile, Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe asked the US to ditch its strategic ambiguity over Taiwan and make it clear that it would defend Taipei from a Chinese invasion.
The still very influential politician made it clear that a Taiwan contingency is a Japan contingency as the westernmost island of Yonaguni is mere 110 km from Taiwan’s main island. “If China were to secure wide air superiority, it would also cover Japanese airspace,” and added that PLA operations would also affect Japanese territorial waters.
Abe’s statement, made during an interview to Japanese TV, poses not only a question to the Joe Biden administration but also to the government in Tokyo, which is still to junk its pacifist doctrine and continues to have serious USD investment in mainland China.
With Russia invading Ukraine on the pretext of civilizational linkages with Kyviv, China can surely follow suit and repeat Ukraine in Taiwan. After all, this month, President Xi Jinping got a written assurance from Russian President Putin that Taiwan was part of China on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics.
The blunt ask from the US by Abe can be seen in the context of the Ukraine invasion, where Putin has shown the mirror to Europe, which till recently wanted to distance itself from the US, and the US for its inability to protect an ally who had roots in the Biden administration.
Just as German and French corporates are compromised with Russia and China, the US honchos including the media are still wary of upsetting Beijing for the fear of supply chains being cut. Being the autocrats that they are, both Putin and Xi clearly mean what they say as they don’t have to cater for domestic audience and political compulsions for furthering the so-called nationalistic agenda. Biden, Europe, and Japan, on the other hand, will have to run their decisions through domestic audiences and legislatures.
The same problem is faced by a raucous democracy like India, where the old guard still living in the 1970s is in favour of Putin, and the younger lot in favour of the US and Ukraine.
Fact is that after its disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, the US and Europe have been hit the second time by their inability to deter Putin from invading Ukraine with the sole purpose of expanding the Russian sphere of influence and installing a pro-Russia political regime in Kyviv. One must remember that Ukraine was born out of the defeat that the erstwhile Soviet Union faced at the hands of US-supported Afghan jihadis which led to final troop withdrawal in 1989.
The point that Abe has raised is significant as mere diplomatic vocabulary from the US or the west is not going to deter China from capturing Taiwan but boots and weapons on the ground.
This question must be mulled by the QUAD leaders also seriously so that the grouping does not become another talk shop like the UNSC. The Ukraine situation is also a red rag to the ASEAN countries particularly Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore, which have been playing all sides since China declared its nine-dash line in the South China Sea to the UN in 2009.