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Nine arrested during protest against Israel arms exports

London’s Metropolitan Police said protesters arrived outside Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and blocked pedestrian and vehicle access. Police then said the protest could only continue if it left the central arch of the street clear…reports Asian Lite News

British police on Wednesday arrested nine people during a protest against arms exports to Israel that briefly blocked the street outside the foreign ministry, highlighting pressure on the new Labour government over its stance on the Gaza war.

Pro-Palestinian protesters in Britain have been campaigning for a government ban on arms sales to Israel following its offensive on Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 attack.

Last week new Foreign Minister David Lammy, who has said he wants a balanced position on Israel and Gaza, said a blanket ban on arms exports to Israel would not be right, but he would follow a quasi-judicial process in assessing whether sales of offensive weapons that could be used in Gaza could proceed.

London’s Metropolitan Police said protesters arrived outside Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and blocked pedestrian and vehicle access. Police then said the protest could only continue if it left the central arch of the street clear.

“When the group failed to comply with the conditions, officers intervened and made nine arrests, quickly restoring access,” a Met Police spokesperson said.

While in opposition, Lammy earlier this year said the government should suspend the sale of UK arms if there were a clear risk they might be used in a serious breach of humanitarian law.

Now in government, he said last week he requested on his first day in office an assessment of the legal situation and that he hoped to be able to communicate any decisions with “full accountability and transparency”.

Labour was elected with a huge majority earlier this month, but lost some seats to pro-Gaza candidates.

Campaign group Workers for a Free Palestine, which organised the protest, said that was a sign the government should take a stronger stance on restricting arms sales, and called on Lammy to “practice what he preached in opposition”.

While the previous Conservative government was a strong supporter of Israel’s right to defend itself following the Oct. 7 attack, Reuters found that the value of Britain’s approvals of new arms licences dropped sharply after the start of the war.

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-Top News Arab News USA

US House Passes Bill to Resume Arms Deliveries to Israel

The US is currently withholding a delivery of ammunition due to Israel’s actions in the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip…reports Asian Lite News

The US House of Representatives has voted in favour of a bill aimed at forcing President Joe Biden to resume arms deliveries to Israel which had been paused.

The text was passed on Thursday with 208 Republican votes and 16 votes from Biden’s Democrats, but is likely to fail in the Senate, where the president’s party has the upper hand.

Biden had previously announced that he would veto the bill should it pass Congress. The text calls on his administration to swiftly implement all arms transfers to Israel that have already been authorised by Congress.

The US is currently withholding a delivery of ammunition due to Israel’s actions in the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.

The White House has repeatedly made it clear that it rejects a major offensive by the Israeli army in the city, which is overcrowded with internally displaced people from other parts of the Gaza Strip.

Last week, Biden threatened Israel that a major ground offensive could have consequences for US arms supplies. Subsequently, senior administration officials tried to appease Israel and made it clear that the US was behind Israel and that it was only about this one delivery.

At the same time, there were reports of a new arms delivery to Israel.

“We have been very loud and clear about our concerns about a major military operation in Rafah for weeks — for months,” confirmed Biden’s spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday. “This is something that we are concerned about,” she said.

She said the White House still accepts Israeli assurances that the current deployment of the Israeli military in Rafah is “limited.”

The Republican chairman of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, accused Biden of having turned his back on Israel.

“The Biden Administration’s decision to withhold weapons is catastrophic and goes directly against the will of Congress,” Johnson wrote on the social media platform X.

“With the passage of the Israel Security Assistance Support Act, we send a clear message of solidarity and support to Israel and demand the urgent delivery of defence weapons to our most important ally in the Middle East,” he wrote.

He called Biden’s threat to veto the legislation an “act of betrayal to our closest ally in the region.”

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-Top News UK News

Britain’s arms sales reach record £8.5bn

Guam: This photo provided by U.S. Pacific Air Forces on Oct. 10, 2017, shows a B-1B Lancer supersonic bomber taking off from an air base in Guam. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said two B-1B Lancers staged simulated air-to-ground missile firing drills with two F-15K fighters over the East Sea and the Yellow Sea the same day in a show of force amid the standoff over North Korea's weapons program. (Yonhap/IANS)

The Saudi-led coalition that first intervened in the war in Yemen in 2015 is accused of repeatedly bombing, killing and injuring civilians, using aircraft and guided missiles supplied by countries including the UK…reports Asian Lite News

British arms exports doubled during 2022 to a record £8.5bn according to the only publicly available official figures, reflecting escalating geopolitical uncertainties and fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The largest destination for UK-made weaponry was Qatar, which bought £2.7bn-worth, and 54% went to countries designated as “not free” by the human rights group Freedom House. These include Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as well as Qatar.

The £8.5bn recorded in 2022 is comfortably a record since the UK began publishing export data in 2008, and is more than double the £4.1bn recorded in 2021. The previous high was £6.9bn in 2015, a time when Syria had collapsed into civil war.

“The latest export licence figures for 2022 show that the UK arms industry is working overtime to arm some of the world’s most authoritarian regimes,” said Sam Perlo-Freeman, a researcher at Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), “as well as countries engaged in armed conflict, with the UK government’s full approval.”

The two largest arms buyers were in the Gulf. Qatar bought £2.4bn worth of Eurofighter Typhoons and related equipment from BAE Systems during 2022, the first of which was delivered last August, a few months before the winter World Cup.

Saudi Arabia, traditionally the UK’s most significant customer, bought £1.1bn of UK arms, including £964m of missiles and related components, arms of the type used previously by its air force to conduct bombing missions in Yemen.

Arms sales to Saudi of weapons that could have been used in Yemen were briefly halted by the UK after a successful legal challenge brought by CAAT. The decision to resume is being challenged in the courts by the campaign group.

The Saudi-led coalition that first intervened in the war in Yemen in 2015 is accused of repeatedly bombing, killing and injuring civilians, using aircraft and guided missiles supplied by countries including the UK.

At least 87 civilians were killed by airstrikes from the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen using weapons supplied by the UK and US between January 2021 and February 2022, according to an analysis by Oxfam. Air raids, however, halted in March 2022.

Ukraine itself received £401m-worth of exports, although most of the £2.3bn of weapons the UK supplied to Kyiv in 2022 were from stocks held by the British military, and so did not require an export licence.

Export figures are based on an analysis of official data released by the Department of Business and Trade produced by CAAT. The other two leading destinations for arms were the US (£860m) and Turkey (£424m).

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-Top News Europe

Arms imports to Europe surge despite global decline

European North Atlantic Treaty Organisation states increased their arms imports by 65 per cent mainly due to the Russia-Ukraine war…reports Asian Lite News

European states’ imports of major arms over the five years between 2018 and 2022 surged significantly compared with that of the 2013-2017 period, despite the global arms transfers decreased during the same period, a Swedish research institute said.

In its latest report of global arms sales, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Monday said during the 2018-2022 period, the imports of major arms by European states increased by 47 per cent from the five years between 2013 and 2017, while the global arms transfers decreased by 5.1 per cent during the same period.

During the stated period, arms imports in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania, and the Middle East fell by 40 per cent, 21 per cent, 7.5 per cent and 8.8 per cent respectively, according to the report.

Meanwhile, European North Atlantic Treaty Organisation states increased their arms imports by 65 per cent mainly due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

The report also said that the US dominance of the global arms trade increased, as its share of global arms exports surged from 33 to 40 per cent while Russia’s share fell from 22 to 16 per cent.

In the Asia-Pacific region, South Korea, Japan and Australia’s arms imports soared 61 per cent, 171 per cent and 23 per cent respectively, with the US as the main supplier to the three countries. In the Middle East, the largest arms supplier is also the US, providing 54 per cent of the region’s arms imports.

As a result of military aid from the US and many European states following the Ukraine crisis in February 2022, Ukraine became the third biggest importer of major arms during 2022.

“Even as arms transfers have declined globally, those to Europe have risen sharply due to the tensions between Russia and most other European states,” said Pieter D. Wezeman, senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme, in a press statement.

Headquartered in Stockholm, SIPRI’s research covers international conflicts, armaments, arms control and disarmament.

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-Top News India News

India remains world’s top arms importer

It said France’s arms exports increased by 44 per cent between 2013-17 and 2018-22 and most of these exports were to countries in Asia and Oceania and the Middle East…reports Asian Lite News

India remained the world’s top arms importer, but its imports declined by 11 per cent between 2013-17 and 2018-22, according to a report released on Monday by Stockholm-based defence think-tank SIPRI.

The decline was linked to a complex procurement process, efforts to diversify arms suppliers and attempts to replace imports with local designs, the report said.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said the five largest arms importers in the world during 2018-22 were India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Australia and China.

The five largest arms exporters were the United States, Russia, France, China and Germany.

The imports by Pakistan, the world’s eighth-largest arms importer during 2018-22, increased by 14 per cent, with China as its main supplier, the report said.

It said France’s arms exports increased by 44 per cent between 2013-17 and 2018-22 and most of these exports were to countries in Asia and Oceania and the Middle East.

The report said India received 30 per cent of France’s arms exports during 2018-22 and France displaced the US as the second-largest supplier of arms to India after Russia.

“France is gaining a bigger share of the global arms market as Russian arms exports decline, as seen in India for example,” said Pieter D Wezeman, senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme.

“This seems likely to continue as by the end of 2022, France had far more outstanding orders for arms exports than Russia,” he said.

The report compared two five-year periods and noted that Russian arms supplies to India are declining.

It said the United States’ share of global arms exports increased from 33 to 40 per cent, while Russia’s fell from 22 to 16 per cent.

“Even as arms transfers have declined globally, those to Europe have risen sharply due to the tensions between Russia and most other European states,” said Wezeman.

“Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European states want to import more arms, faster. Strategic competition also continues elsewhere: arms imports to East Asia have increased and those to the Middle East remain at a high level,” he added.

The report said three of the top 10 importers during 2018-22 were in the Middle East — Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt.

Saudi Arabia was the world’s second-largest arms importer during 2018-22 and received 9.6 per cent of all arms imports in the period, it said.

Qatar’s arms imports increased by 311 per cent between 2013-17 and 2018-22, making it the world’s third-biggest arms importer during 2018-22, it added.

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-Top News China PAKISTAN

Islamabad unhappy over quality of Chinese arms

Pakistan Air force has been coping with a series of inferior military hardware imported from China, including combat aircraft and armed drones…reports Asian Lite News

Ties between China and Pakistan, fostered with Beijing supplying a range of modern armaments to Islamabad’s defense forces, have come under strain over unreliable Chinese military hardware and poor, substandard servicing and maintenance.

Writing in a blog post in Al Mayadeen, Nisar Ahmed says that China and Pakistan often extend and express their support for each other’s stance in areas of disputed/occupied territories.

Recently in a display of cooperation, three armed drones, designed by Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group of China and sold by China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation (CATIC), were inducted into the Pakistan Air force (PAF) in January 2021, reported Al Mayadeen.

But, the purchase of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) and its addition to Pakistan’s growing range of military equipment has entered a deadlock. The Chinese-made Wing Loong II Unmanned Aerial Systems (UCAVs) have been grounded due to crippling defects within days of induction, said Ahmed.

Chinese military equipment Pic credits IANS

Amader Shomoy, in its report ‘Pakistan Air Force has nightmares about Chinese drones’, relates that what has added to the Pak Air Forces’ misery is the dismal service and maintenance provided by the Chinese firm.

CATIC has so far been indifferent to desperate calls for repair and maintenance of the grounded drones. The spares supplied by the firm were substandard and mostly unfit for use. The engineers dispatched to Pakistan to make the grounded aerial vehicles operational at the earliest proved to be incompetent.

Pakistani officials have now asked the Chinese firm to send a better-trained group of professionals to tide over the serious crisis, wrote Ahmed.

Equally, the most serious problem was the leakage of nitrogen from Electro-Optical / Infra-Red

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(EO/IR) cameras mounted on the UAVs, which rendered EO/IR systems useless. These imaging systems provide total situational awareness, both day and night, and in low light conditions.

Given its importance, Pakistan Air Force officials wanted an immediate replacement of the EO/IR pods. The Chinese firm was yet to respond to the urgent plea.

The UAV’s rear fuel pump also failed. Interestingly, the spares supplied by the Chinese firm with the drone were a mismatch.

Similarly, the defueling equipment supplied with the drones was found to be unserviceable due to contamination. Its replacement is still awaited by PAF, reported Al Mayadeen.

Another critical failure has been that of SATCOM in some of these drones during the launch and take-off stages. On the ground, the SATCOM antenna failed during the Site Acceptance Test (SAT).

Serious faults were also detected in High-Performance Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) within hours of putting the drones into operation. Faulty SARs leave the unmanned aerial vehicles blinded, unfit for operation.

An excerpt from the BD Pratidin’s story called ‘Pakistan Air Force is in trouble for buying faulty Chinese drones’ reads that this is not the first time that Pakistani military brass is realizing the unreliability of Chinese military hardware and poor, substandard servicing and maintenance.

Pakistan Air force has been coping with a series of inferior military hardware imported from China, including combat aircraft and armed drones, two critical operational components, wrote Ahmed. (ANI)

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-Top News India News USA

India third-largest military spender after US, China

China’s military expenditure, in particular, grew for the 26th consecutive year, with its uninterrupted increase being the largest by far among the top 15 countries over the 2011-2020 decade…reports Asian Lite News.

India is the third biggest military spender in the world, behind United States and China, according to latest data released by global think-tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The total global military expenditure rose to $1,981 billion in 2020, an increase of 2.6% in real terms from 2019 despite the global gross domestic product contracting by 4.4% mainly due to the Covid pandemic’s economic impact, the Times of India reported citing the data.

“We can say with some certainty that the pandemic did not have a significant impact on global military spending in 2020. It remains to be seen whether countries will maintain this level of military spending through a second year of the pandemic,” Dr Diego Lopes da Silva of SIPRI was quoted as saying.

The 10 biggest military spenders were the US ($778 billion), China ($252 billion), India ($72.9 billion), Russia ($61.7 billion), UK ($59.2 billion), Saudi Arabia ($57.5 billion), Germany ($52.8 billion), France ($52.7 billion), Japan ($49.1 billion) and South Korea ($45.7 billion).

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh with the troops who participated in the para dropping and other military exercises at Stankna near Leh. (Photo IANS)

The top five together accounted for 62% of the global military expenditure. China’s military expenditure, in particular, grew for the 26th consecutive year, with its uninterrupted increase being the largest by far among the top 15 countries over the 2011-2020 decade.

Meanwhile, Pakistan ($10.3 billion), was ranked 23rdin the list.

India has to maintain an over 15-lakh strong armed forces because of the two active and unresolved borders with China and Pakistan.

Consequently, the revenue expenditure for the day-to-day running costs and salary bill in the defence budget by far outstrips the capital outlay for military modernization, leaving critical operational shortages on different fronts, ranging from fighters to submarines, according to the TOI report.

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