International cooperation twists and turns

[davidbfpo]

Not sure where this should fit, so it here for now. This thread is for vignettes or glimpses into how international cooperation / liaison can twist and turn. Not the ANZUS links, more the unexpected.

All prompted by this passage in an obituary of a senior RAF officer, who commanded the Harriers that went to the Falklands, alas behind a pay-wall:

In March 1981 Squire assumed command of No 1 Squadron based at RAF Wittering.....Over the next three weeks the Harriers were modified to operate from aircraft carriers, air-to-air missiles were fitted and the pilots flew practice combat missions at Wittering against French air force Mirage and Etendard aircraft; two types that equipped the Argentinian air force.

Link:https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituari...taff-obituary/

I know there were reports post-Falklands that the French Navy Super Etendard, which carried the Exocet ASM, practiced attacks on the Royal Navy as they journeyed south as far as Dakar, West Africa.

[davidbfpo]

Two years ago there were stories that a Chinese navy officer had assumed command of the shore-based HQ for the international operation in the Indian Ocean / Gulf of Aden. Command had been shared on a six month rotation between contributors, the PLAN had become a member and a wise person suggested they had a turn. Alas no-one read the "small print" as the rotation was not written down and the PLAN CO just stayed put!

[davidbfpo]

Spotted in the RUSI Journal in October 2017 a Chinese academic foreign affairs professor on this previously unknown co-operation between China and Japan over abandoned chemical weapons scattered across the PRC. The article is behind a pay-wall alas:https://rusi.org/publication/rusi-jo...lated=0&page=9

This is an Abstract from another journal:

For more than two decades, China and Japan have worked to eliminate the chemical weapons that Japan abandoned in China at the end of World War II. The process has involved numerous challenges, such as excavating corroded munitions that had been buried in the city of Beian along with sensitive explosives; working in the aftermath of an accident that sickened more than 40 people in Qiqihar; establishing innovative destruction technologies in Nanjing; and, at Haerbaling Mountain, embarking on the clean-up of the largest burial site for abandoned chemical weapons in China. Though bilateral tensions have sometimes strained the destruction process, Sino-Japanese cooperation has ultimately provided a useful model for nations elsewhere engaged in the disposal of abandoned chemical weapons.

Link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/...nalCode=rbul20

The Japanese Cabinet Office explain why:http://wwwa.cao.go.jp/acw/index-e.html

A task that has no end in sight and from a 2014 press article:

In 1999 Tokyo and Beijing agreed to destroy the devices, with Japan providing all necessary funds, technology, experts and other resources. Originally the process was meant to be completed by 2007, a deadline later pushed back to 2012. It has since been delayed further.

Link:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp...ion-China.html

[davidbfpo]

What a tale:

The team — a mix of American, British, Norwegian and Chinese experts, along with Czech and Russian contractors — were supposed to head into the Kaduna region of Nigeria to remove highly enriched uranium from a research reactor that nonproliferation experts have long warned could be a target for terrorists hoping to get their hands on nuclear material.

Why do this?

Across the globe, the IAEA and its partners have worked to swap out weapons-grade material with lightly enriched uranium, or LEU, which is enriched at less than 20 percent, and hence unusable for weapons. In all, 33 countries have now become free of HEU, including 11 countries in Africa. With just over 1 kilogram of HEU, the Nigerian material, if stolen, would not be nearly enough to create a full nuclear warhead. However, a terrorist group would be able to create a dirty bomb with the substance or add the material into a stockpile gathered elsewhere to get close to the amount needed for a large explosion.

Link:https://www.defensenews.com/news/pentagon-congress/2019/01/14/how-the-us-and-china-collaborated-to-get-nuclear-material-out-of-nigeria-and-away-from-terrorist-groups/?