Play The Diplomat’s Quiz: November 15, 2015 Edition

Australia has on order 72 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) planes. The problem? For years many have been saying that they’re simply… not very good. Yet public debate over this large purchase has been largely absent, though Canada’s rethink could drive up costs further for other nations.

Defense procurement stories from Australia in 2015 have largely been submarine, submarine, submarine, naval destroyer, submarine. However, between the back-to-back sea defense news and opining there’s one air story worth paying attention to: the large F-35 purchase. Australia is due to buy another 58 after a commitment from Tony Abbott last year, upping the force to a total of 72, at a cost of around A$98 million ($70 million) per plane. The total purchase cost will be, according to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), around A$12.8 billion, and the same again for upkeep. The F-35s are to replace the RAAF’s 71 Hornets (six Super Hornets are currently in Syria and Iraq).

Fresh out of his party’s defeat in the Bihar elections — a result that may have shaken foreign investor faith in his government’s ability to pursue swift reform — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent the better part of this week in the United Kingdom for his first state visit there as India’s head of government. Modi and his counterpart, David Cameron, issued a joint statement on their “global partnership.” Additionally, Modi and Cameron issued a joint statement (PDF) outlining a range of agreements between the two countries, specifically on the issue of climate change. Modi also addressed the British parliament, becoming the first Indian head of government to do so.

The headlining deal of Modi’s state visit is an agreement on increasing bilateral cooperation on civil nuclear cooperation, finalizing a 2010 bilateral agreement. “The two prime ministers welcomed the successful conclusion of negotiations on a bilateral Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement providing a framework for further cooperation, and announced the signing of a MoU between the U.K. and the Indian Department for Atomic Energy to encourage joint training and experience sharing on Civil Nuclear with the Indian Global Center for Nuclear Energy Partnership,” Modi and Cameron noted in Thursday’s joint statement on energy and climate. “The conclusion of the civil nuclear agreement is a symbol of our mutual trust and our resolve to combat climate change,” Modi said.

Kabul witnessed unprecedented protests on Wednesday, when thousands of demonstrators marched to the presidential palace protesting against the brutal killing of seven Hazaras in Zabul province.

Braving rain and cold, people angrily demonstrated for hours, demanding the resignation of President Ashraf Ghani’s government for its failure to protect ethnic minorities from insurgent groups. Though predominantly a Hazara crowd, many from other ethnic groups also joined the demonstration.

The chief of the general staff of China’s People’s Liberation Army, General Fang Fenghui, visited Djibouti this week, where he met with the president, foreign and defense ministers, and the chief of staff of the Djibouti Armed Forces. China Military Online has an outlineof Fang’s visit.

The trip sparked more speculation that China is moving to opening its first overseas military base in Djibouti, as detailed in this DefenseNews story. Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh has been open that the two sides are discussing a Chinese military base, although no Chinese officials have confirmed the reports. China regularly participates in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden; having a military base in Djibouti would provide easy access to resupply and support facilities. The United States, Japan, and France already have military bases in Djibouti, which is strategically located at the junction between the Gulf of Adan and the Red Sea.

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The fact that China carried out four tests of its hypersonic vehicles in a span of just 18 months demonstrates the commitment of Beijing to the development of the technology. Once operational, these capabilities would be sufficient to neutralize U.S. strategic missile defenses; they will be able to avoid triggering early-warning systems or detection by radar. The critical military value of hypersonic systems lies in this ability to strike with unprecedented speed and precision.

Four other countries in Asia are known to be developing civilian or military programs for supersonic and hypersonic systems: Japan, India, South Korea and Taiwan. Russia is also pursuing hypersonic capabilities and aims to acquire an operational hypersonic missile by 2030.  India and Russia also worked together on the hypersonic BrahMos-2.

On Thursday, U.S. officials confirmed that two U.S. B-52 Stratofortress long-range strategic bombers were contacted by Chinese air traffic controllers earlier this week while flying over the South China Sea, near disputed islands. Reuters reports that the U.S. bombers continued undeterred.

Myanmar’s opposition party led by Aung San Suu Kyi has officially won a majority of seats in Myanmar’s first openly contested general election in a quarter century, trashing the ruling military-backed government and giving it the power to both form a new government and choose the next president.

Though there were clear indications that the National League for Democracy (NLD) was heading for a landslide victory in the November 8 election over the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) as early as Monday, observers were waiting for election results – disclosed in a series of rounds over the week – to clinch an unassailable majority of more than 329 seats. The seat total would give the party a strong control of both houses of parliament as well as the power to form a government and handpick the country’s next president.

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo will skip a key summit in the Philippines next week in a move that will raise further questions among some about his administration’s commitment to regional multilateralism.

According to Ari Dwipayana, a member of the presidential communications team, Vice-President Jusuf Kalla is scheduled to take Jokowi’s place in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Manila from November 17 to 20, where confirmed state leaders in attendance include U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

On Wednesday, Chinese Overseas Ports Holding Company Ltd (COPHCL), a Chinese state-owned enterprise, officially took control of the strategically important port at Gwadar in Pakistan. The Chinese firm officially signed a 40-year lease for over 2,000 acres of land in Gwadar, marking a milestone in the implementation phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a major bilateral initiative to build transportation and other infrastructure along the length of Pakistan, connecting the country’s Arabian Sea coast with the Himalayan border with China. CPEC was unveiled during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s April 2015 state visit to Pakistan, where Gwadar was high on the agenda.

Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal handed over the lease to Wang Xiaodao, the vice chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission. Gwadar is a designated free-trade zone by the Pakistani government. The designation will last for 23 years. Additionally, because of Gwadar’s location in the restive southern Pakistani province of Balochistan, the Pakistani government has created a protection force for Chinese workers who will be working on CPEC projects, including at Gwadar.

A Russian military delegation arrived in Pyongyang on Monday to conduct a military-to-military dialogue with the command of the Korean People’s Army TASSreports.

The Russian delegation, headed by First Deputy Chief of Russia’s General Staff Nikolay Bogdanovsky, is slated to begin talks with their North Korean counterparts this Wednesday and will stay in North Korea until November 13.