Play The Diplomat’s Quiz: June 12, 2016 Edition

On June 9, the United States, India, and Japan kicked off the annual exercise Malabar 2016.

The Malabar exercises, which initially began as a bilateral naval exercise between the United States and India back in 1992, have been the subject of interest over the past few years because of their potential for expansion. Last year, Japan participated together with Washington and New Delhi in October as part of a longstanding effort to get Tokyo involved as a permanent member (it had previously joined in 2007, 2009 and 2014 as well). Australia’s inclusion has also been mooted (See: “US Official Calls for Permanent Expansion of Malabar Exercises With India”).

Early last week officers from Papua New Guinea’s police force opened fire on a crowd of university students in Port Moresby. Conflicting reports from the media suggests that either the university students were hampering a police attempt to arrest the head of a student union or that the students were engaged by police as they were travelling to deliver a petition to PNG’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill. Conflicting reports have also been published, some stating that there have been deaths while others indicate that only injuries have been sustained. Regardless of the exact details relating to the incident there are several factors that are undeniably present.

In a rally in the state of Jharkhand in November 2014, Modi was very keen to point out that Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and previous governments had not taken adequate care of the ‘adivasi’ or tribal populations. He accused the JMM of looting the state and pointed to the states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Chhatisgarh, with large adivasi populations, who had voted BJP in large numbers.

At least 10 people are dead in the northwestern Kazakhstan city of Aktobe after a pair of apparent gun-store robberies and an assault on a military facility. Almas Sadubayev, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said the attackers were “followers of radical, non-traditional religious movements.”

On June 5, violence broke out in Aktobe, a prominent oil town about 100 kilometers from the Russian border. According to the Astana Times, citing Sadubayev, the first gun store was attacked at 2:45 pm local time. An hour later a second gun shop was attacked and another group of attackers assaulted a National Guard facility.

A clerk and a security guard were killed at the first gun store, where three policemen were also wounded. At the second store, a customer was reportedly killed before police shot three of the attackers dead. The attackers stole a commuter bus, offloaded the driver and passengers, and then rammed it into the gates of an National Guard base. Three servicemembers were killed along with one attacker. Reportedly seven of the attackers were detained.

Early on Thursday, a Chinese Navy frigate entered the contiguous zone adjacent to the 12 nautical mile Japanese territorial sea around the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.

According to a Kyodo report, citing the Japanese Defense Ministry, a Chinese frigate, identified as a Type 054Jiankai-I-class, ”ship entered the zone northeast of Kuba Island, part of the Senkakus, around 12:50 a.m.” The report adds:

The frigate left the zone from around Taisho Island, another part of the Senkakus, at about 3:10 a.m. and headed north, the ministry said, adding there was no intrusion into Japanese territorial waters.

While Chinese Coast Guard vessels have previously entered the contiguous zone near the Senkakus, which are administered by Japan, this is the first time China has sent a military vessel into the area.

It is unclear if the Chinese frigate engaged in any provocative behavior while in the contiguous zone.

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which both Japan and China have ratified, military vessels are permitted legal passage through territorial waters provided they comply with innocent passage requirements, which prohibit a range of activities, including intelligence gathering.

On Wednesday, Narendra Modi became the sixth Indian prime minister to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress. While four of Modi’s predecessors going back to Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s have also done so—in addition to India’s first premier, Jawaharlal Nehru, in 1949—Wednesday’s speech was a particularly anticipated moment. In Modi’s two short years leading India, the U.S.-India relationship has seen its steady convergence continue, but added considerable breadth and complexity. As Modi’s meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday demonstrated, both sides see immense areas for cooperation. (If you missed it, I have a breakdown of the big takeaways from the Modi-Obama meeting earlier this week.)

Torkham is one of the main border crossings between Afghanistan and Pakistan, located on their porous Durand Line border. The crossing connects the Afghan province of Nangarhar with Pakistan’s Khyber Agency. Torkham is the busiest official border cross between the two countries and serves as a major conduit for trade as well. 15,000 Afghan use the crossing every day and, starting in May, have been required to apply for expensive visas to cross the border.

Earlier this week, IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly confirmed Myanmar’s deployment of armed drones in counterinsurgency roles. Specifically, the Myanmar military is using the drones to enable ongoing counterinsurgency operations in the country’s restive northern areas, where multiple armed groups operate. The drones are Chinese-made CH-3As, built by China Aerospace Long-March International, a division of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

On Monday, the U.S. Navy in Japan ordered all sailors to remain on their bases, and imposed a ban on alcohol consumption on- and off-base. This applies not only to sailors based in Japan, but also those transiting through the island country. Though the Navy does not have the authority to impose this order on civilian contractors or family members, they are asking for a voluntary observation of this restriction.