SYDNEY: Australia’s defense minister Richard Marles will travel to the Philippines to observe joint training drills focussed on regional security, his office said on Monday, amid tensions between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea.
More than 2,000 Australian and Philippine defense personnel will participate in amphibious landing and air assault drills, with two Australian navy vessels, HMAS Canberra and HMAS ANZAC, having arrived to conduct the bilateral exercises with the Philippines Navy.
Australia holds annual defense exercises in South East Asia, although it is the first amphibious exercise — the movement of ground and air forces from ship to shore — with the Philippines.
Philippines military chief Romeo Brawner told reporters the exercise in Palawan, held on Monday by Australia, the Philippines and a US aircraft, was “not directed against China.”
Palawan is a southwest island province near the South China Sea.
China and the Philippines have been embroiled for years in on-off confrontations at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.
At the bilateral drills in the Philippines, Exercise Alon will involve 1,500 Australian defense personnel, 1,200 Philippine personnel and 150 US Marines who are part of the US rotational force in Darwin in Australia’s north.
An Australian defense statement last week said Exercise Alon will involve a “simulated, combined air assault using [US Marines Corp] Osprey tiltrotor aircraft in Palawan, a combined amphibious demonstration at Zambales and artillery and aviation live-fire serials at Crow Valley” in the Philippines.
Zambales is also near the South China Sea.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said he will make the first visit by an Australian leader to the Philippines in 20 years next month, to discuss defense and security cooperation.
Albanese on Monday played down the Australian navy deployment to the Philippines for training exercises, against the backdrop of the China tensions.
“This is business as usual, Australia conducts activities in our region,” he said.
Marles will also stop in Malaysia to meet his counterpart, his office said.
Australia defense minister to travel to Philippines to observe drills
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Australia defense minister to travel to Philippines to observe drills
- HMAS Canberra and HMAS ANZAC earlier arrived to conduct the bilateral exercises with the Philippine Navy
- Australia holds annual defense exercises in South East Asia, although it is the first amphibious exercise with the Philippines
Activist Peter Tatchell arrested over ‘globalize the intifada’ placard
- Arrest in London during Saturday protest an ‘attack on free speech,’ his foundation says
- Intifada ‘does not mean violence and is not antisemitic,’ veteran campaigner claims
LONDON: Prominent activist Peter Tatchell was arrested at a pro-Palestine march in central London, The Independent reported.
According to his foundation, the 74-year-old was arrested for holding a placard that said: “Globalize the intifada: Nonviolent resistance. End Israel’s occupation of Gaza & West Bank.”
The Peter Tatchell Foundation said in a statement that the activist labeled his Saturday arrest as an “attack on free speech.”
It added: “The police claimed the word intifada is unlawful. The word intifada is not a crime in law. The police are engaged in overreach by making it an arrestable offense.
“This is part of a dangerous trend to increasingly restrict and criminalize peaceful protests.”
Tatchell described the word “intifada,” an Arab term, as meaning “uprising, rebellion or resistance against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
“It does not mean violence and is not antisemitic. It is against the Israeli regime and its war crimes, not against Jewish people.”
According to his foundation, Tatchell was transported to Sutton police station to be detained following his arrest.
In December last year, London’s Metropolitan Police said that pro-Palestine protesters chanting “globalize the intifada” would face arrest, attributing the new rules to a “changing context” in the wake of the Bondi Beach attack in Australia.
“Officers policing the Palestine Coalition protest have arrested a 74-year-old man on suspicion of a public order offense. He was seen carrying a sign including the words ‘globalize the intifada’,” the Metropolitan Police said on X.
According to a witness, Tatchell had been marching near police officers with the placard for about a mile when the group came across a counterprotest.
He was then stopped and “manhandled by 10 officers,” said Jacky Summerfield, who accompanied Tatchell at the protest.
“I was shoved back behind a cordon of officers and unable to speak to him after that,” she said.
“I couldn’t get any closer to hear anything more than that; it was for Section 5 (of the Public Order Act).
“There had been no issue until that. He was walking near the police officers. Nobody had said or done anything.”
