Play The Diplomat’s Quiz: January 8, 2017 Edition

The Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) program, formerly known as the Ohio-class Replacement Program, is officially entering the next stage in the long and drawn out Department of Defense acquisition process by passing a so-called Milestone B review on January 4, USNI News reports.

That means U.S. shipbuilder General Dynamics Electric Boat can now commence detailed design and engineering work on what is slated to become the U.S. Navy’s priciest and at the same time deadliest ballistic missile submarine class in its history. The Milestone B review was originally scheduled for August 2016, but had to be pushed back due to price, design, and production readiness concerns by the Pentagon.

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The last time a suspension occurred was back in 2013 under then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono following revelations that Australia had been tapping the phones of Indonesian officials including Yudhoyono and his wife. At the time, Indonesia immediately recalled its ambassador to Australia. But relations have been on the uptick of late, however, especially since the emergence of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last September.

The suspension this time appears to be both less clear and more limited. Australian Defense Minister Marisa Payne eventually confirmed Indonesian media reports that the suspension had to do with concerns raised by a TNI official about some teaching materials at an Army language training facility in Australia. But she also indicated that the Australian military had already been investigating the incident and had made this clear to Indonesia privately. That raised the prospect that the incident was more about the lingering grievances of certain individuals, most notably TNI chief Gatot Nurmantyo, rather than a deep diplomatic dispute between the two countries.

One-third of the Afghan population lives below the poverty line (earning less than $2 a day) and a further 50 percent are barely above this line. With a per capita GDP of only $595, Afghans hoped to see $1 billion in annual revenue and at least 8,500 direct jobs and more than 30,000 indirect jobs from the mining sector by 2017. The $1 billion in annual revenue was expected to come from the Mes Aynak copper mine ($350 million) and from the Hajigak iron ore ($550 million), with another $150 million from hydrocarbons and gemstones. This goal was set in the first and second National Priority Programs (NPP) of the infrastructure development cluster, namely the “National and Regional Resource Corridors Program” and the “National Extractive Industries Excellence Program.” The two NPPs were part of the 22 NPP packages that were designed and approved under the Kabul Process in 2010 and reconfirmed at the Tokyo Conference on Afghanistan in 2012. However, the $1 billion revenue target now looks unrealistic in 2017 and perhaps not even attainable by 2020. The problems in the Mes Aynak mine provide an illustrative case study of the difficulties.

Anticipating a growing threat from North Korea, Japan plans to hold its first-ever evacuation drills for an incoming ballistic missile attack this year.

According to the Nikkei Asian Review, specific Japanese municipalities “will be selected in January for participation in the drills, which are to take place as early as March.”

Japan plans to use its nationwide J-Alert warning system to implement procedures for evacuation in the event of an incoming ballistic missile.

According to Nikkei, the government will derive procedures to guide residents in the area under threat in the event of an attack, telling them “what to do in the 10 to 15 minutes it would take for a missile to hit Japan.”

North Korea conducted an unprecedented 24 ballistic missile tests in 2016, in addition to two nuclear tests it claimed involved a thermonuclear bomb.

“We have sacrificed much for the sake of democracy and politics to save Pakistan. We will not leave this Mughal emperor [Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif] to rule,” said Asif Ali Zardari, the co-chairman of the Pakistan’s Peoples Party (PPP) a few days ago after returning to Pakistan from an 18 month long self-imposed exile. Additionally, Zardari also announced that he along with his son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is also the chairman of the PPP, would contest elections to become part of the current parliament.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s trip to Singapore in December marks his eighth visit to a fellow Southeast Asian country since coming to office in June this year. So far, Duterte has toured Laos, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia. This series of visits has preceded the Philippines commencing its chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2017. ASEAN will mark a significant milestone as it celebrates the 50th anniversary since its establishment in 1967.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s fifth new year’s address to kick off 2017 quickly picked up headlines around the world for a reference to the country’s as-yet-untested intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program. Kim noted that North Korea had “entered the final stage of preparation for the test launch of [an] intercontinental ballistic missile” in 2016.

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The reality of this opportunity deficit in Australia’s regional towns is not just an economic concern, but is rapidly becoming a political problem for the government and the other major political parties as well. A distinct cultural division has arisen between the comfortable cosmopolitan urban centers and the more parochial and disaffected regions, which are increasingly expressing their discontent through the ballot box.

This is reflected by data in the Grattan Institute report. According to the report, in the most recent Federal election, around 20 percent of people who live within a 10 km radius of their state’s capital city center gave their vote in the Senate to a party other than the governing Coalition, the Labor Party, or the Greens. This phenomenon rose to 30 percent for those more than 100 km away, and 37 percent for those 1,000 km away. This trend also correlates to education and incomes levels that slide the further away from a city center an individual is.

Yet this regional discontentment is not stemming from a lack of government interest in regional Australia. The report highlights that the economic output of Sydney represents around 22 percent of Australia’s total GDP, yet the city was only allocated around 5 percent of federal infrastructure spending in the decade up to 2015. Yet in the same time frame the rest of the state of New South Wales received 27 percent of federal infrastructure funding, despite only accounting for 8 percent of the country’s GDP.

This week, two Chinese submarines paid a visit to Malaysia in the first naval engagement between the two countries in 2017.

The CNS Chang Xing Dao and CNS Chang Cheng of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA-N) visited Sabah, according to a statement by the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN).

After conducting exercises in both the Bohai and Yellow Seas, the Liaoning, China’s sole carrier, accompanied by five other PLAN vessels, made its way south and — perhaps more significantly — east.

The Japanese Ministry of Defense released a statement acknowledging that its surveillance aircraft tracked six vessels in total — including the Liaoning — approach the Miyako Strait on December 25.

According to the Japanese Ministry of Defense, the Liaoning was accompanied by the PLAN Linyi and PLAN Yantai, Jiangkai-II-class (Type 054A) frigates with the PLAN’s North Sea Fleet, and the PLAN Zhengzhou, PLAN Haikou, and PLAN Changsha, Luyang-III-class (Type 052D) destroyers. The  Changsha and Haikou are part of the PLAN’s South Sea Fleet while the Zhengzhou is part of the East Sea Fleet.

For the first time ever, the Liaoning, on Sunday, entered the Western Pacific, transiting the Miyako Strait — a strategically significant international waterway south of the major Japanese island of Okinawa. The Liaoning‘s current training expedition is the first to incorporate live-fire drills including the carrier’s air wing.