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Reuters reports that the United States has asked Vietnam to stop letting Russia use its former US base at Cam Ranh Bay to refuel nuclear-capable bombers which are engaged in shows of strength over the Asia-Pacific region. General Vincent Brooks, commander of the U.S. Army in the Pacific, says the Russian bombers have conducted "provocative" flights, including around the U.S. Pacific Ocean territory of Guam which is home to a major American air base. Brooks said the planes that circled Guam were refuelled by Russian tankers flying from the strategic bay, which was transformed by the Americans during the Vietnam War into a massive air and naval base. Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed that the airport at Cam Ranh Bay was first used for staging Il-78 tankers for aerial refueling of Tu-95MS bombers in January 2014. Asked about the Russian flights in the region, the State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Washington respected Hanoi's right to enter agreements with other countries but added that "we have urged Vietnamese officials to ensure that Russia is not able to use its access to Cam Ranh Bay to conduct activities that could raise tensions in the region."
Cam Ranh Bay is considered the finest deepwater shelter in Southeast Asia. North Vietnamese forces captured Cam Ranh Bay and all of its remaining facilities in 1975. Vietnam’s dependence on Russia as the main source of military platforms, equipment, and armaments has now put Hanoi in a difficult spot. Russia has pressed for special access to Cam Ranh Bay ever since it began delivering enhanced Kilo-class submarines to Vietnam. "Hanoi is invariably cautious and risk averse in its relations with the major powers," says Carl Thayer. "The current issue of Russian tankers staging out of Cam Ranh pits Russia and China on one side and the United States on the other. There is no easy solution for Vietnam."
(Score: 4, Informative) by tftp on Sunday March 15 2015, @03:46AM
A while ago we had that discussion about the CIA analyst that said that US financial collapse is imminent. The vast majority here called it bunk, but in that video he said that both Russia and China own a lot a US bonds and a lot of gold.
I personally think that the collapse is possible, but far from being imminent. Russia has not that much invested in US paper; China has some, but they are selling the debt off for several years now, buying with it everything that is not nailed down. Physical gold does not represent a significant portion of accumulated wealth.
He was saying that if they start to sell the bonds the value of gold would go up and they would potentially make a profit.
The value of bonds will fall. An ounce of gold buys you a good business suit today, just as it did 100 years ago and probably will do 100 years down the road (unless the robot tailor asks for joules instead.)
I talked to some market guys about it and both of them said gold has no intrinsic value, and that even if it did work they would be left with no customers
The USA represents only 20% of consumers of Chinese industrial output. If those 20% cannot pay for goods in acceptable currency, why to send them these goods at all? Do you think a top notch restaurant is worried that a large number of homeless people, potential customers, are willing to pay for dinner only with empty aluminum cans? Do you think the restaurant will start accepting cans only to have the pleasure of serving those customers?
But on the other hand, WTF is russia doing if it's prepared to destroy its economy over this?
Actually, not much. The USA and EU barged into a process of decay of a previously independent country (Ukraine) and decided to be the judge of what happens in its regions. The destruction of economy was started by sanctions for something that the USA did themselves many times in the history. For example:
On July 25, 1898, during the Spanish–American War, the U.S. invaded Puerto Rico with a landing at Guánica. As an outcome of the war, Spain ceded Puerto Rico, along with the Philippines and Guam, then under Spanish sovereignty, to the U.S. under the Treaty of Paris.
As a more recent example, see how Kosovo was detached from Serbia. As the fear of civil war was growing in Ukraine (and the war did occur, after all) Crimeans were not all that enthusiastic about becoming cannon fodder for the new, unelected government in Kiev. They took their ball and went home. That was easy to do, as Crimea belonged to Russia since Catherine the Great [wikipedia.org]. Today the area is populated by ethnic Russians and Crimean Tatars, not by Ukrainians. Crimea was transferred to Ukraine [wikipedia.org] by one of Soviet rulers, one Nikita Khruschev, in 1954, and legality of that transfer was often questioned.