'CHANGE' - China confirms joint naval exercise with Russia in Mediterranean Mid-May.

China confirms joint naval exercise with Russia in Mediterranean Mid-May. (IMRA).


Chinese Defense Ministry's regular press conference on April 30, 2015 Senior Colonel Geng Yansheng, spokesman of the Ministry of National Defense (MND) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), answers reporters' questions at a regular press conference on April 30, 2015: http://eng.mod.gov.cn/TopNews/2015-04/30/content_4582748.htm ...

Question:...According to Russian media reports, the navies of China and Russia will hold a joint military exercise near the Black Sea in May. Could you please confirm that? ...

Answer:...As for the third question, according to the annual military exchange plan between China and Russia, the navies of the two countries are going to conduct a joint exercise code-named “Joint Sea 2015-I” in the waters of the Mediterranean in mid-May. 

Nine surface ships from the Chinese and Russian navies will take part in the joint exercise. China will send three ships of 19th Chinese naval escort taskforce to take part in the joint exercise. The three ships, namely, the Linyi ship, Weifang ship as well as the Weishanhu ship, have just completed their escort mission in the Gulf of Aden and waters off the Somali coast.

The subject of the joint exercise is protection of navigation safety in the far seas. The drilling items in the exercise include maritime defense, maritime replenishment, escort actions, joint operations to safeguard navigation security as well as real weapon firing drill.

The purpose of the exercise is to strengthen the pragmatic cooperation between China and Russia and to improve the capabilities of the two navies to deal with maritime threats. What needs to be stressed is that, the joint exercise is not targeting any third party and not related to the regional situation. ...

Question: Regarding the naval exercise with Russia, is this the first time the Chinese and Russian navies to hold joint exercise in the waters of the Mediterranean? And is this exercise related to the situations in the countries such as Syria and Libya?

Answer: As far as I know, it is the first time for the navies of the two countries to conduct a joint exercise in that area. As I’ve mentioned in my previous answer that this joint exercise is to be held according to the annual exchange plan and is not related to regional situation and does not target any third party.

Erdogan's flying financial carpet unravels.

Erdogan's flying financial carpet unravels. (AsiaTimes).

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a growing list of enemies. "Among his targets" at a recent address to a Turkish business group "were The New York Times, the Gezi events of 2013, credit rating agencies, the Hizmet movement, the Koc family and high interest rates," Zaman reported September 18.

Erdogan earlier had threatened to expel rating agencies Moody's and Fitch from Turkey if they persisted in making negative comments about Turkey's credit.

Turkey's financial position is one of the world's great financial mysteries, in fact, a uniquely opaque puzzle: the country has by far the biggest foreign financing requirement relative to GDP
among all the world's large economies, yet the sources of its financing are impossible to trace. I have analyzed sovereign debt risk for three decades - including stints as head of credit strategy at Credit Suisse and head of debt research at Bank of America - and have never seen anything quite like this.

At around 8% of GDP, Turkey's current account deficit is a standout among emerging markets. It is at the level of Greece before its near-bankruptcy in 2011. Where is the money coming from to cover it?

A great deal of it is financed by short-term debt, mainly through borrowings by banks.

Analysts close to Turkey's ruling party claim that the unidentified flows represent a political endorsement from Turkey's friends in the Gulf States.

If mystery attends Turkey's past economic performance, the future is all the cloudier. Erdogan's power rests on his capacity to deliver jobs.

Despite the largesse of the Gulf States, Turkey is locked into a vicious cycle of currency depreciation, higher interest rates, and declining economic activity.

If the Turkish lira drops sharply, the cost of debt service to Turkish companies will become prohibitive, while the cost of imports and ensuing inflation will depress Turkish incomes. By some measures Turkey already is in a recession, and it is at risk of economic free-fall.

That explains Erdogan's propensity to shoot the messengers: the rating agencies, the central bank, and even the New York Times. For the past dozen years he has made himself useful enough to his neighbors to stay in business. His magic carpet is unraveling, though, and his triumph in the March elections may turn out to be illusory much sooner than most analysts expect. Read the full story here.



Spengler is channeled by David P Goldman. He is Senior Fellow at the London Center for Policy Research and the Wax Family Fellow at the Middle East Forum. His book How Civilizations Die (and why Islam is Dying, Too) was published by Regnery Press in September 2011. A volume of his essays on culture, religion and economics, It's Not the End of the World - It's Just the End of You, also appeared that fall, from Van Praag Press.

Neo-Ottoman 'conquerors' send warship to monitor Cyprus gas exploration

Neo-Ottoman 'conquerors' send warship to monitor Cyprus gas exploration. (WorldBulletin),

Turkey has sent a warship to the island of Cyprus to monitor a drillship that has been sent to search for natural gas reserves off the island's coast.

Italian-Korean consortium ENI/KOGAS has sent the Bahamas flag-carrier Saipem 10000 drillship to the "Onasagoras" gas field in Block 9 of the island's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) on Tuesday.

In response, the Turkish navy has sent its Bafra Korveti warship to observe the drillship's activities. Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides said on Wednesday that hydrocarbon exploration in the region will continue despite Turkey’s objections, calling Turkey's actions 'potential harassment'.

Kasoulides added that the situation was being closely watched and diplomatic moves have been made, Cyprus Mail reported.

The discovery of natural gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean's Levant sea basin, which is found within Cypriot waters, is considered to be a possible alternative to Russian gas.

However, a 40-year political dispute between the island's Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots are proving to be an obstacle to the shipment of the newfound resource.

Although Europe is arguably the favorite to become the island's number one customer for the gas, Turkey insists that the only way it would allow pipelines through its territory to supply Europe is if the Greek Cypriot administration agrees to the UN-backed bi-zonal, bi-communual peace deal with the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

Reluctance on the Greek Cypriot side to agree to a bi-zonal federation has led them to consider other possibilities, including pipelines through Greece, which many experts consider unrealistic.

On the other hand, exports may go to Egypt, which hosts the only Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) plant in the region. Once liquified, exports may be transported to the Asian continent, as Egypt cannot supply its own demand for natural gas with LNG due to its lack of a regasification plant.

Israel has considered plans to begin building an LNG plant in Cyprus in 2016 in order to allow Israel to supply the Asian demand for a cheap price. However, in order to compete with Australia, Mozambique, the US, Canada and Russia, who have already offered to supply the far-east with LNG by 2018-2020, Israel needs to act quickly and therefore cannot afford to wait for the Greek Cypriot administration to complete this project.

The Cyprus peace talks were revived in February after they broke off in 2012 when the Greek Cypriot administration took over the EU presidency, despite Turkey's protests. Turkey was also displeased that the Greek Cypriot administration was signing deals with neighboring countries over the gas reserves while the island of Cyprus remained divided due to an unresolved dispute.

Turkey had argued that Greek Cypriot exploitation of gas reserves in the Levant basin while the Cyprus issue remained unresolved would deny Turkish Cypriots their rights to benefit from the reserves. Turkey therefore began its own exploration project in Turkish Cypriot waters off the coast of Karpaz (Karpassia), which the Greek Cypriot administration argues is illegal. Hmmmm....I said it before and say it again the first 'target' of Turkey will be Cyprus' the second will be Israel.
Read the full story here.



Related: Turkish PM delivered 'Veiled' threat to Cyprus?

“Come and let us make peace today, not tomorrow, this week, not the next, this year, not next year,” Davutoglu .

“Either join us in finding a solution or let us lift the embargo and think of alternatives. We will never leave the Turkish Cypriots alone. This is our message,” the prime minister said. Hmmm....Sound like an 'offer' you better don't refuse to me.


"Run Silent - Run Deep" Israel’s Newest, Most Expensive Weapon: The INS Tanin Submarine.

Hmmm.....Erdogan's BFF and 'Israel's staunchest Ally' Pres Obama is delivering State of the art Torpedoes to Turkey.


 The Mk-48 is a huge 533mm torpedo (19 feet long, 3,500+ pounds) with advanced homing, wire guidance capabilities, and devastating consequences when its 300kg warhead hits a target. It is designed to kill both fast, deep-diving nuclear submarines and high performance surface ships.