Fascinating this is now a part of 🇨🇳’s propaganda narrative. On the face of it, an admission of weakness that 🇰🇭 is so awash with PRC deviants and ill-gotten $$$. Yet simultaneously a message of strength, that the CCP’s extra-judicial reach now fills entire airliners abroad.

130! Is this going to be a scheduled service, going forward?

Australia’s southern coastline feels continental in scale.

Sandy cove.

Natural sculpture.

Without any personal criticism of Richard Marles or Pat Conroy, the fact that both have split portfolios means there is no full-time minister dedicated to Defence in Australia. That can’t help on DSR implementation, or anything else that requires ministerial oversight.

One suspects Russia would still be struggling without material aid from China. Short of providing weapons systems, for now, but sufficient to regenerate military capability.

AUKUS SRF-West has firm historical foundations, but also worriesome echoes of Australia’s previous submarine capability gap in the 1930s and 40s. My latest for ASPI

‘It is the first chance for them to vote on policy directions that the coalition led by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has taken, and it may change or consolidate his power’, writes Anouk Ride. aspistrategist.org.au/solomon-island…

For those interested in US alliance adjectival comparisons, President Biden has alao described the US-Japan alliance as “unbreakable” this week. Whereas the Hicks-Conroy readout uses the all-weather “ironclad”: defense.gov/News/Releases/…

Informative post by ASPI colleague Blake Johnson on the ‘secondary’ supportive role that the UK plays in the Pacific islands: aspistrategist.org.au/by-filling-gap…

Senior US officials should maybe pipe down for a bit.

Too many online meetings.

It’s sometimes forgotten that Norway has a border with Russia. But not in Norway.

Lavrov in Beijing, and now the kick-off of China-DPRK friendship year. Judge China by the company it keeps.

Is “the Ukraine issue” part of China’s support for “Russia's development and revitalization”, pray tell?

Unfortunately, the closest Alessio Patalano and I will get to a reunion on his current visit to 🇦🇺, including a stop at ASPI HQ. Photo credit: Alex Bristow 史德礼