Australian National University News

Every day, nearly 60 fully loaded very large crude-oil carriers sail between the Persian Gulf and Chinese ports, carrying about half of the oil that powers the world's second-largest economy.As the vessels enter the South China Sea, they ply waters increasingly controlled by China's growing military, from the missile batteries and airfields at its bases on disputed islands to its stealthy Type 055 destroyers.But when crossing the Indian Ocean, joined by others headed to China from Africa and Brazil…

The United States opened international aid offices in the Pacific Islands this week, bolstering support for the strategic region and pitting it more forcefully against China, which has been providing infrastructure loans to the area for years.The vast ocean region, pivotal in World War Two, is in the spotlight again amid tensions over Taiwan. Taiwanese officials this week said China, which claims the island as its territory, could launch military drills soon to intimidate voters ahead of an election next year.On Wednesday…

The Solomon Islands has awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to a Chinese state company to upgrade an international port in Honiara in a project funded by the Asian Development Bank, an official of the island nation said on Wednesday.The United States and its allies, including Australia, New Zealand and Japan, have held concerns that China has ambitions to build a naval base in the region since the Solomon Islands struck a security pact with Beijing last year."This will be upgrading the old international port in Honiara and two domestic wharves in the provinces…

Australia's nuclear-powered submarine program with the United States and Britain will cost up to A$368 billion ($245 billion) over the next three decades, a defense official said on Tuesday, the country's biggest single defense project in history.U.S. President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday unveiled details of a plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines, a major step to counter China's…

After a five-day search, wreckage from Indonesia’s missing submarine KRI Nanggala has been discovered at a depth of more than 800 meters in the Bali Sea.With no survivors from the 53-person crew—and no certainty the cause of disaster will ever be confirmed—the Indonesian Navy will need to decide how much effort it devotes to examining and salvaging the wreckage.Footage from a deep catastropheInitial examination of the sunken vessel suggests the wreckage is in three pieces, with the boat’s hull and stern separated.The Indonesian Navy (TNI-AL) has released video footage…

Satellite images show new missiles on Woody Island; China says entitled to necessary self defence facilities. China has deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile system to one of the disputed islands it controls in the South China Sea, Taiwan and U.S. officials said, ratcheting up tensions even as U.S. President Barack Obama urged restraint in the region. Taiwan defence ministry spokesman Major General David Lo told Reuters on Wednesday the missile batteries had been set up on Woody Island. The island is part of the Paracels chain, under Chinese control for more than 40 years but also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam. A U.S. defence official also confirmed the "apparent deployment" of the missiles, first reported by Fox News.

While searching for baby lobsters no bigger than a 50-cent piece, Australian researchers discovered a series of giant volcanoes off the coast of Sydney. The four previously unknown volcanoes, which are now extinct, are situated about 250 kilometres off Sydney in about five kilometres of water. The largest is 1.5 kilometres across the rim and rises 700 metres from the sea floor. They were uncovered by chance when marine biologists on Australia's new research vessel, the 94-metre Investigator, were searching the area for the nursery grounds of larval lobsters. One of the scientists on the voyage, oceanographer Moninya Roughan, said their discovery came as a complete surprise and was serendipitous because the ship was routinely mapping the sea floor.

China has been building artificial islands on reefs in the many disputed areas around the South China Sea. The unprecedented land reclamation currently being conducted by China is increasing tensions with the U.S. and its allies, according to Pacific Fleet Commander Harry Harris. The land reclamation by China in contested islands of the South China Sea is raising serious questions over whether Beijing intends confrontation or cooperation with other regional powers, according to The Wall Street Journal. Nations in the region are furious, and international business is worried that these new islands dominate major shipping lanes. This new phase of the long conflict between China…

As the Indian Ocean theatre becomes an increasing site of global contestation, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to three small neighboring Indian Ocean nations Tuesday to deepen India’s maritime security. Modi is to visit Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. Voice of America says that Modi seeks to ramp up New Delhi’s influence along a strategic maritime route where China’s presence has been growing. Japan Times reports that he wants to prevent China from establishing a military foothold in a region his nation has dominated for decades. Indian foreign secretary, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, said New Delhi wants to tap the “substantive goodwill” for India in these countries.

The Australian Government today announced $21.5 million funding for 12 cutting edge R&D projects that will keep Australia at the forefront of solar research. Parliamentary Secretary for Industry Bob Baldwin made the announcement at an Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) event held at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht said the projects from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), the Australian National University (ANU), CSIRO and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) represented the vanguard of Australia’s solar ingenuity. “These are the top 12 projects from a very competitive round where 110 applications were received, peer-reviewed and ranked against one another,” Mr Frischknecht said.

ExxonMobil's $19 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Papua New Guinea, which is shipping its first cargo, is set to dramatically transform one of Asia-Pacific's most unstable countries, for better or for worse. The LNG venture, which is expected to produce more than 9 trillion cubic feet of gas over 30 years, is the largest private investment in the South Pacific nation's history. ExxonMobil is relying on projects like this one for much-needed production growth, while the Papua New Guinea government hopes it might double its $15 billion dollar economy, now slightly larger than Botswana's. But sharing the spoils of resource projects has previously torn apart a country that is seen as one of the most corrupt in the world…

The Dutch Foreign Ministry has finalised a bank guarantee of 3.6 million euros in compliance with a binding ruling by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) ordering Russia to release the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise and the Arctic 30 protesters. "The Netherlands has now fulfilled its part of the Tribunal's binding order and Russia is obligated to also comply by releasing the ship and the Arctic 30, as the Tribunal so ordered. The Tribunal has ordered both Russia and the Netherlands to report back on progress with their compliance by December 2.