Category: East Asia & Pacific

ANA service to Istanbul and expanded partnership with Turkish would need balance with Lufthansa

Asian airlines are expanding partnerships and collaboration with new hubs. Following Singapore Airlines’ expanded partnership with Turkish Airlines and Cathay Pacific’s with Qatar Airways, All Nippon Airways – now Japan’s largest international carrier – is likely to open a service from Tokyo to Istanbul and deepen its partnership with fellow Star carrier Turkish Airlines. This would be the first Japanese service to Turkey, complementing those from other Asian countries including Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. It would also be the first strategic partnership between a Japanese carrier and an airline from a new hub in Turkey/the Gulf.

The rationale is clean cut. Turkey has become a popular tourist point for Japanese passengers, who would pay a premium to fly on a Japanese carrier to Istanbul. ANA can use Istanbul to open new destinations in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa that it and competitor Japan Airlines cannot reach but Middle East Gulf carriers can.

ANA’s challenge is tapping these new markets while sustaining its important relationship with the Lufthansa Group, whose seven daily flights to Japan are under a JV with ANA. An expanded Turkish Airlines partnership would have sensitivity in its overlap with Lufthansa, which has recently very publicly terminated most of its cooperation with Turkish as the fast growing “fourth Gulf airline” increasingly challenged its hub role.

via ANA service to Istanbul and expanded partnership with Turkish would need balance with Lufthansa | CAPA – Centre for Aviation.

June 13, 2014
Turkey to ban alcohol at Gallipoli

Turkey is looking to crack down on boozy Aussies and Kiwis at Gallipoli by banning alcohol in the historic area.
Turkish politicians have backed plans to ban alcohol for Aussies and Kiwis at the Gallipoli site. (AAP)

Turkish politicians have backed plans to ban alcohol for Australians and New Zealanders who come every year to honour those killed in the World War I Gallipoli campaign.

Thousands of Antipodeans, many of them young backpackers, gather every April at the historic Gallipoli peninsula to honour their ancestors killed in the 1915 battle of Gallipoli.

A parliamentary committee on Wednesday voted in favour of a bill introduced by the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) that would change the status of the Gallipoli peninsula from a national park to a historical area, where consuming alcoholic drinks is strictly banned.

The bill still needs to be passed by parliament, but the AKP holds a comfortable majority there, a parliamentary source told AFP.

The dawn ceremony on April 25 marks the first ANZAC landings at the Gallipoli peninsula in the ill-fated Allied campaign to take the Dardanelles Strait from the Ottoman Empire.

In the ensuing eight months of fighting, about 11,500 ANZAC troops were killed, fighting alongside British, Indian and French soldiers.

Close to 4500 people made the journey this year for the commemorations, with many spending a boozy night on the beach as they waited for the moment the first shots were fired.

The proposed bill imposes a fine of 5000 Turkish liras ($A2600) against offenders who drink alcohol outside licensed venues.

The AKP, which has angered secular Turks by restricting alcohol sales, said the move was in keeping with global standards.

“We just want to follow the international standards in the ceremony, which is attended by the leaders of 39 countries every year,” Culture Minister Omer Celik said, without elaborating.

But Ali Saribas, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), accused the government of not respecting the culture of people “who come all the way from Australia”.

“Drinking wine is part of their culture, it’s their heritage. But the government has no respect for it,” he told AFP.

“I am sure they can find a way of allowing people to make their commemorations as they want, but I doubt they will.

“These people have been coming here for years and have never bothered the locals. They will either stop coming or try to cover their wine or beer bottles, which will make Turkey look very ridiculous,” he said.

via Turkey to ban alcohol at Gallipoli | SBS News.

June 7, 2014
NSW Parliament violates UN and Commonwealth laws

New South Wales – Australian MPs at Nagorno Karabakh parliament

In 2012, under the leadership of New South Wales (NSW) Premier, the Hon. Barry O’Farrell, the state parliament of NSW became the first legitimate parliament in the world to pass a motion (in violation of International and Commonwealth laws) granting the illegal occupiers of Nagorno Karabakh the right to self determination, and called upon the Australian government to follow suit.

It also became the first legitimate parliament in the world to send an official delegation to Nagorno Karabakh, sanctioned by the NSW Premier the Hon. Barry O’Farrell.

February 9, 2014
GCHQ chief to step down by year’s end following Snowden leaks

Iain Lobban the director of GCHQ (Reuters/UK Parliament via REUTERS TV)

The head of GCHQ, Britain’s electronic intelligence agency, will step down by year’s end, the Foreign Office said. Officials denied his departure was linked to public outrage over mass surveillance revelations by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Iain Lobban, 53, has served as GCHQ’s director since June 2008. His departure was officially described as a long-considered move, but comes just a few weeks after he was summoned to answer MPs’ questions about surveillance operations in an unprecedented televised open session of the UK parliament’s intelligence and security committee, along with the heads of MI5 and MI6.

“Iain Lobban is doing an outstanding job as director of GCHQ,” a spokesperson said. “Today is simply about starting the process of ensuring we have a suitable successor in place before he moves on, planned at the end of the year.”

Officials dismissed suggestions his decision was influenced by revelations made by Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, whose leaks revealed details of a massive global surveillance network run by the NSA and other members of the so-called Five Eyes alliance – the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Despite accounting for the bulk of Britain’s three intelligence agencies’ combined budget of £2 billion, GCHQ had previously attracted far less public attention than MI5 or MI6.

It was damaging media revelations regarding wide-scale collaboration between GCHQ and the NSA that resulted in Lobban being called to appear before the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee alongside the heads of MI5 and MI6 in November.

At the hearing, Lobban accused Snowden’s disclosures of seriously damaging Britain’s counter-terrorism efforts, saying extremists had discussed changing their communication methods following the revelations.

Critics, however, have accused GCHQ of working hand-in-hand with the NSA in massively intruding on the private communications of millions of citizens.

In June, the Guardian reported the NSA had secretly gained access to the network of cables which carry the world’s phone calls and internet traffic, and, by 2010, was able to boast the “biggest internet access” of any member of the Five Eyes alliance.

According to media reports, the NSA and GCHQ had a particularly close relationship, sharing troves of data in what Snowden called “the largest program of suspicionless surveillance in human history.”

Around 850,000 NSA employees and contractors with top secret clearance had access to the GCHQ databases, allowing them to view and analyze information garnered from such subtly titled programs as ‘Mastering the Internet (MTI)’ and ‘Global Telecoms Exploitation (GTE).’

Lobban, who first joined GCHQ in 1983, insisted in November that GCHQ did not spend its time “listening to the telephone calls or reading the e-mails of the majority” of British citizens.

Sir Iain’s counterpart at the NSA, General Keith Alexander, alongside his deputy, John Inglis, are also stepping down later this year.

There is also an ongoing campaign pushing for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to resign for lying under oath by telling Congress the NSA did “not wittingly” collect data on hundreds of millions of Americans.

RT, 29.01.2014

January 30, 2014
Russia bans Australia beef products

According to AFP, Russia on Monday imposed a ban on Australian beef byproducts such as offal over the use of a growth stimulant allowed in some nations but that Moscow considers unsafe.

The temporary restrictions also affect Belarus and Kazakhstan — two ex-Soviet nations that are part of a Moscow-led Customs Union.

Australia Beef

Australia is the world’s third-largest exporter of beef after the United States and Brazil. It reported shipping 30,000 tonnes of beef to Russia in 2013.

The Interfax news agency said Australia had sent 13,000 tonnes of beef byproducts to ex-Soviet countries in the first 10 months of last year — most of them to Russia — worth $21.3 million.

Russia’s agriculture watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said the ban was imposed after the discovery of the growth stimulant trenbolone “in several shipments” of Australian beef byproducts.

Rosselkhoznadzor chief Sergei Dankvert told Interfax that the ban applied to beef byproducts because they accumulate the steroid in greater quantities than regular meat.

Russia has frequently imposed temporary bans on meat products over the use of hormones that are allowed in nations such as the United States but restricted by Moscow’s more stringent regulations.

January 27, 2014
AIRSHOW-Turkey’s Chinese missile system won’t work with US, NATO- US official

BY ANDREA SHALAL-ESA

DUBAI Thu Nov 21, 2013 7:02am EST

Nov 21 (Reuters) – If Turkey buys a missile defense system from China, it would not be able to integrate it with NATO or U.S. systems and would miss out on decades of training, support and upgrades that come with U.S. systems, a top U.S. official said at the Dubai Airshow.

Heidi Grant, Air Force deputy undersecretary for international affairs, said Turkey was a sovereign country and had the right to spend its funds on whatever it liked.

But U.S. officials have explained to Turkey that proceeding with a decision to purchase a system made by a Chinese firm under U.S. sanctions would reduce its ability to coordinate missile defense activities with NATO and the United States.

“If they select a system that’s not inter-operable, that’s their choice. They’ve chosen not to be inter-operable,” Grant told Reuters in an interview. “Our role is to make sure they’re informed of our recommendation of the best systems to be inter-operable with the U.S.”

Grant said military officials around the world were clamoring for increased ability to operate in coalitions with the United States and other partners.

“In the dialogues I have, the partners want to be part of us,” Grant said. “They know that our technology is the most capable technology. They know that we’ll be there for 20-plus years for the sustainment, for the training, for the (concept of operations), and for the upgrades. We’re a trusted partner.”

General Akin Ozturk, the head of the Turkish air force, on Saturday told an air chiefs conference his country’s decision to buy a $3.4 billion missile defense system from a Chinese company was not final, and could still change.

Turkey announced in September it had chosen the FD-2000 long-range air and missile defense system built by China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp over rival offers from Franco-Italian Eurosam SAMP/T and Raytheon Co.

It said China offered the most competitive terms and would allow co-production in Turkey, but the decision caused alarm in NATO countries worried about China’s growing clout. The Chinese firm is also under U.S. sanctions for violating the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act.

Reuters reported last week that Raytheon and Lockheed Martin Corp are considering ways to sweeten their offer to build a Patriot missile defense system for Turkey, although no decisions had been made.

Industry executives familiar with the matter this week told Reuters that U.S. government officials had been very pro-active in terms of trying to understand Turkey’s decision and what changes could be made to the U.S. offering.

“The question is what does Turkey want, what does Turkey need to change the decision. That’s really the root of the issue and that is being assessed by the U.S. government right now. It’s truly government led,” said one industry executive who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Industry executives said Raytheon’s Patriot offering was over $1 billion more expensive than the Chinese system chosen by Turkey, but China also offered higher levels of technology transfer and co-production.

“The gap is uncloseable with a price reduction,” said one of the executives.

Turkey’s choice of a Chinese system is complicated by the fact that the manufacturer is under U.S. sanctions for shipping equipment to banned countries.

Turkey has dismissed the notion that any of its defence firms would be blacklisted if they work with CPMIEC.

Murad Bayar, Turkey’s Undersecretary for Defence Industries, told Reuters at a NATO industry forum last week that Turkish firms had worked with China on past weapons deals and he did not expect them to face sanctions given strict rules aimed at ensuring compliance with NATO regulations.

“The procedures on clearance are seriously followed by these companies and we don’t see a big risk in this regard,” Bayar said, adding that Turkey “vigorously” applied the rules.

“The U.S. sanctions on CPMIEC are a result of U.S. legislation and concern the U.S.’s own procurement. This could only involve Turkish companies if there is a violation,” he said. “But … we don’t think such a risk would materialise.”

via AIRSHOW-Turkey’s Chinese missile system won’t work with US, NATO- US official | Reuters.

November 22, 2013