Play The Diplomat‘s Quiz: July 12, 2015 Edition

India’s oldest aircraft carrier INS Viraat will be decommissioned in 2016 and turned into a docked museum ship after 57 years of continuous service, first as the Royal Navy’s HMS Hermes and then, after entering the Indian Navy in 1987, as the Viraat. The Viraat was the flagship of the Indian Navy until its successor the INS Vikramaditya was commissioned two years ago. The Viraat‘s decommissioning will primarily mark a symbolic moment for the Indian Navy—its contribution to India’s Naval aviation was modest with a limited group of British Aerospace Sea Harrier jets and indigenously designed utility helicopters. Earlier this year, The Hindu noted that the carrier’s decommissioning was spurred by the deteriorating condition of the aging Harrier jets.

In the case, the Philippines is asking the court to rule on the validity of China’s nine-dash line as a maritime claim; the status of individual features that China occupies; and Beijing’s interference in Philippine activities in the South China Sea.  If, in the best case scenario, the court largely rules in Manila’s favor on these questions, it may push China to significantly redefine its illegal nine-dash line. Since other South China Sea claimants have also registered their opposition to or sought clarification about China’s claims in this respect, the decision would benefit them as well in trying to settle their disputes with Beijing further down the line. It also has broader importance for other actors like the United States and Japan, since China’s claims and the way it secures them has increased tensions over freedom of navigation and overflight

China’s stock market has lost over $3.2 trillion in value in the past month. The Shanghai Composite rose 130 percent between last September and June 12, when it entered a downward spiral that has wiped off more than thirty percent of market value to date, an amount roughly twice the size of the entire Indian stock market.

Leaders from the BRICS countries and members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are arriving in Ufa, Russia for their twin summits. Russian media is also reporting a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) countries. RT is live-blogging, Modi tweeted a picture shortly after arriving and the Chinese released a handy explainer cartoon complete with a bicycle built for nine (ridden by the leaders of the BRICS and SCO). The festive atmosphere—RT reports that 10,000 visitors are expected to come through Ufa—belies serious questions of what direction the various organizations are moving in, how much, if at all, they matter, and how the Russo-Chinese relationship will shape the region’s future.

The meeting in Ufa is being heralded as a breakthrough by India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but we’ve seen this story before. In concrete terms, the Modi-Sharif meeting in Ufa had a clear list of outcomes. The most contentious is the announcement that Modi will head to Islamabad next year on the occasion of the 19th SAARC Summit. If that visit goes through, it will mark the first time an Indian Prime Minister has traveled to Pakistan since Modi’s BJP predecessor, Atal Behari Vajpayee, did so in 2004. It appears that Modi’s intention to go to Islamabad has not been linked to any broader issues in the relationship, such as Pakistan’s treatment of the terrorists who masterminded the devastating November 26, 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai that killed over 150, including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.

After years of development, China’s Gaoxin-6, a four-engine, fixed-wing, anti-submarine patrol aircraft, was commissioned into the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) North Sea Fleet. The aircraft will be a major boon to the PLAN’s anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities, a neglected area despite China’s broader naval modernization. The Gaoxin-6 is, in essence, a heavily modified Shaanxi Y-8 transport aircraft and reports over the years have noted that China’s goal with this aircraft was to emulate the form and function of the United States’ Lockheed P-3C Orion patrol aircraft, the most widely deployed anti-submarine aircraft in the world. The Gaoxin-6′s commissioning, along with China’s growing fleet of anti-submarine corvettes (specifically, the Type 056 Jiangdao-class), marks a milestone in the PLAN’s ASW capabilities.

On Thursday, Thailand confirmed that it had deported more than 100 Uyghurs to China. While such deportations are fairly routine, the sheer number drew international attention from human rights groups and the Turkic-speaking community, particularly in Turkey. In Istanbul, Thailand was forced to close its consulate after protesters stormed in, the BBC reports that the embassy in Ankara was also closed as of Friday. Protesters clashed with police outside the Chinese embassy as well.

In March 2014, Thailand detained over 200 Uyghurs who had reportedly been living in a jungle camp in Songkhla province. “Once Thai authorities caught them, they claimed Turkish citizenship, but China said that they are Chinese so there was something of a custody dispute,” Thomas Nelson, an independent researcher and author of Uyghur Update, told The Diplomat.

One of the most startling findings was that only 24 percent of Australians reported that they felt “very safe” in their country. The figure is the lowest since polling began a decade ago, with those who reported feeling “safe” dropping by 12 percentage points since 2010.

Of the biggest concern for Australians were terrorism threats. As Lowy Institute director Michael Fullilove and the poll’s architect Alex Oliver noted: “Terrorism-related risks rank first, second and third in Australians’ threat perceptions.” It is unsurprising then that most Australians polled (69%) supported Canberra’s military involvement in Iraq to combat ISIS, with an equal number seeing ISIS as a high risk to Australia’s security.

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In what was the lowest response in more than five years, only 39 percent believed that in the next 20 years Beijing would become a military threat to Australia. Similarly, on a list of eight possible threats, the two relating to maritime disputes with China ranked amongst the lowest. This likely reflects improved perceptions of China after much talk on the signing of a free trade agreement with Beijing (formally signed in June), an assumption that is supported by 77 percent agreeing that Beijing is an economic partner.

Japan will offer the United Kingdom its first indigenously developed and built maritime patrol aircraft, the Kawasaki P-1, and will send two jets overseas for the first time to participate in UK’s  Royal International Air Tattoo – the world’s largest military airshow – according to media reports.

The Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) will dispatch two P-1s, part of the JMSDF’s 51 Air Development Squadron, from the Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Kanagawa Prefecture on July 10, according to the Japanese Ministry of Defense. One aircraft will be on static display, whereas the second plane will perform a flight demonstration at the airshow from July 17-19.

China has nominated Jin Liqun, the secretary-general of the multilateral interim secretariat of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), for the presidency of the AIIB.  “The Chinese government has officially nominated Jin Liqun to be China’s candidate for the presidency of the AIIB,” the Chinese finance ministry noted in a statement. Jin will be considered for the presidency under the selection process agreed to in a framework when the bank’s founding members met in Beijing last week.

Jin, vice minister of finance in China and a well-known bureaucrat with experience managing China’s sovereign wealth fund, will almost certainly be appointed as the first president. China’s voting shares within the AIIB will grant it an effective veto over any competing candidates. The president of the AIIB, per the organization’s charter, will require a 75 percent majority.