This summer, the largest international naval exercise in the worldwill see Canada's navy take on the second-largest role and Canadianofficers share key commands a remarkable prominence that Ottawaseems uncharacteristically reluctant to boast about. Why so shy? Well, the exercise is called Rim of the Pacific orRIMPAC 2012. It is held every two years and is primarily concernedwith a potentially hostile China and Beijing is hardly pleased. China's antipathy toward this exercise may explain why highlyinformed Canadian reporters, such as David Pugliese of DefenceWatch, have complained of an almost total clampdown on informationabout Canada's impressive participation. The federal government no doubt finds it a bit sensitive to bewooing Chinese business interests one moment, while embracingefforts to contain China's naval ambitions the next.



Of course the 22 nations, which are sending 47 surface ships andsubs as well as possibly 200 aircraft and 25,000 personal, denythat their combined five-week exercises, beginning June 29, hasChina's rapidly expanding navy in mind. But no one is fooled, least of all Beijing. China and North Korea are the only countries excluded from theexercise at Washington's insistence. Even Russia is to take partfor the first time. Obama's 'pivot' RIMPAC is held every two years, but this one is significantlylarger than the last and shows the growing strategic interest inthe Pacific by a number of countries, the U.S.



in particular. China's defence spending, the second highest after the U.S., is setto rise 11 per cent in 2012 to $106 billion, according to recentreports. (Reuters) January saw President Barack Obama set out his famous "pivot" inU.S. foreign policy, designed to turn America's strategic interestsaway from its traditional preoccupations with Europe and the MiddleEast and toward the Pacific.



It is a shift in which Canada may decide it has little choice butto follow suit, and RIMPAC would show the way. A decade ago, under the Liberals, Canada sent only three smallmine-clearing vessels and a few aircraft to this exercise. This summer it is sending six surface vessels including a fastdestroyer and frigate, plus the submarine Victoria, and soldiersfor landing exercises. The air component will include CF-18fighters and a mix of helicopter and patrol aircraft.



This represents, by a substantial margin, the second-largestcontingent larger than Australia, Japan or any other Pacific Rimnation after the giant American force, which will include theaircraft super-carrier USS Nimitz. Sending a message What is also striking about this year's exercise is the way inwhich the U.S. has gone out of its way to involve more nations andspread command responsibilities, usually tightly held by Americans,among the other participants. This, too, is part of the Obama shift that would have other nationsjoin this new U.S.



focus with an increased effort of bridal dresses their own,including shared leadership, to ensure the "security and stability"of Asia. In a nod to Canada's contribution and experience in coalitionwarfare in the past, Canadian officers are being given unusuallyhigh responsibilities including deputy command of the whole taskforce and, for Brig.-Gen. Michael Hood, command of the large aircomponent. In strategic terms, the main point mermaid wedding dresses of these exercises is not somuch about a future all-out war with China.



It's really more to find ways to counter China's ability to use itsgrowing arsenal of anti-ship missiles, aircraft and submarines tonegate the influence of the U.S. and its allies in the WesternPacific. Pentagon planners call it A2/AD for "anti-access/area denial." The way China is progressing, the thinking goes, it may becomestrong enough to checkmate cheap wedding dresses uk U.S. power across the Western Pacificand turn itself into the new maritime warden over some of theworld' s most important sea lanes.



RIMPAC hopes to reassure nervous Pacific nations that a show ofcollective strength can prevent this from happening. Step it up China's defence budget is the world's second largest, behindAmerica's, and big enough to provide, within a decade, for manythousands of new anti-ship missiles, more than 60 conventional subsand six nuclear attack ones to go along with its impressive forceof missile-cruisers and destroyers. But the apparent rush to support RIMPAC this year may also be tiedto heightened jitters over China's recent claims of economicinterest in the South and East China seas, where its ships haveclashed over rich territorial rights with vessels from Japan,Vietnam, South Korea and the Philippines. Given the vital importance of the Pacific region to the wholeglobal economy, and the number of flashpoints there (from thedangerous Korean Peninsula to territorial disputes in South EastAsia and piracy) a growing number of countries are starting toconsider mutual defence alliances.



This is a development predicted in a strategic-options paperwritten by George Petrolekas and Paul Chapin last fall and muchdiscussed in Ottawa defence and foreign policy circles. It raised the question of how Canada should respond to pressure toplay a larger military role in a new Pacific security coalition a pertinent question in that Canada has never really had a clearPacific strategy to begin with. brides maids dresses Chances are the Stephen Harper government will seek to keep any newalliances involving some of those RIMPAC nations informal, but we'dbe foolish not to notice that Washington is gearing up to insistthat we increase our military contributions in the Pacific at thesame time. Canada's sterling service in Afghanistan bought Ottawa a respitefrom Washington's repeated tongue-lashings over our puny defencespending (never more than 1.3 percent of GDP, despite our NATOpledge of two per cent). But with Afghanistan now yesterday's news and the Pacific the newfocus for Washington, the U.S.



ambassador to NATO recently blastedCanada, specifically, and other alliance slackers for placing "anunfair burden on those who spend the resources." Ottawa best get used to such dressing downs, along with the strongmessage that positioning more of our ships and planes in thePacific would be the best way to meet our coalition obligations. Caught between Washington's nagging and Beijing's displeasure, thefederal government understandably wants to say as little aspossible at this point about our Pacific commitments. But in the world of military alliances, actions always speak farlouder than words. I am an expert from Gifts & Crafts, usually analyzes all kind of industries situation, such as picture frames 11x14 , french horn players.