SYRIAN CONFLICT AND CYPRUS’S STRATEGIC ROLE IN TIMES OF TENSIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

CYPRUS: NATURAL “AIRCRAFT CARRIER” IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Just as was the case during the two GULF wars, the civil, 1982 and 2006 wars in LEBANON and last but not least, LIBYA , CYPRUS has always played a key role as a forward logistic and operational base for NATO (RAF base Akrotiri WSBA) and US forces to launch their reconnaissance, tactical  logistic operations from the island. But not only has the military utilized CYPRUS as a forward base during periods of conflicts in the MIDDLE EAST, but also the international press core usually operates out of CYPRUS. 

During the civil, 1982 and 2006 war in LEBANON and the two GULF wars, CYPRUS was host to all major International News Networks and media outlets.

The BRITISH maintain two Sovereign base areas on CYPRUS, one being the WSBA (Western Sovereign Base Area) which accommodates the RAF- NATO airbase Akrotiri and BRITISH Forces CYPRUS Headquarters in Episkopi. 

 

Two British Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus

BRITISH SIGNALS OUTPOST 

The second being the ESBA (Easter Sovereign Base Area) in the East of CYPRUS with Dekehlia being the ESBA Garrison HQ for a logistic Battalion, a BRITISH Army Air Corps Unit as well as the Royal Signals Regiment located further east in Ayios Nikolaos, which houses top of the art radio, satellite and cyber communication listening and observation devices which are able to monitor SYRIA, LEBANON and even penetrated as far as IRAQ, JORDAN and KUWAIT. 

ESBA Cyprus

BRITAIN also operates a high tech Radar station on top of Mount Olympus, (1,952 m) the highest peak of the Trodos mountain range in CYPRUS. Last but not least the tiny island of CYPRUS houses 8 airports, two of which are defacto NATO airbases, RAF Akrotiri in the South and Gonyeli AB in TURKISH occupied north of the Island, showcasing the strategic significance of the Eastern Mediterranean Island.

The entire list of airports  in CYPRUS are:

Larnaka International Airport

Ercan International Airport located in TURKISH occupied northern Cyprus

Paphos International Airport and GREEK and National Guard Air force base, recently also used by the IDF

Akrotiri WSBA (Western Sovereign Base Area) Royal Air force and NATO Air Base

Kingsfield ESBA BRITISH Military (BRITISH ARMY AIR CORPS Base)

Lakatamia Nicosia National Guard Air Base

Gonyeli TURKISH Air Force Air Base in Northern Nicosia

Nicosia International airport abandoned in UN Buffer Zone but can be reactivated 

WSBA Cyprus with RAF AB Akrotiri

Read comlete article: CYPRUS AT ODDS WITH BRITAIN OVER SOVEREIGN BASE AREAS AND ITS GEOPOLITICAL IMPACT FOR THE REGION. At:

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2012/03/cyprus-emerging-geo-strategic-key.html

Royal Signals Regiment communication outpost in Ayios Nikolaos

BRITISH GCHQ’S CYPRUS LISTENING POST TO PLAY KEY INTELLIGENCE ROLE AHEAD OF ANY US –LED SYRIA INTERVENTION 

Source: GCHUK

GCHQ facilities in CYPRUS are expected to play a key role in collecting intelligence which will inform any military strike against SYRIA despite Parliament last week voting against the UK joining in with any potential attack.

The Cheltenham-based listening post has a presence on the island which is used to intercept messages from across the Middle East.

UK radar facility on Mount Olympus, Cyprus

The information gathered by the island facility, which is just 100 miles off the coast of SYRIA, is likely to be handed over to the US military ahead of any missile strike against President Bashar al-Assad.

Whitehall sources have said that the MP vote last week only covered direct military intervention and did not cover sharing intelligence which will continue.

The US government contributes to the island post’s costs.

The news comes as Cheltenham’s Liberal Democrat MP, Martin Horwood, writes in his Echo column he “regrets” the way the Parliament vote went.

“Parliament was drawn into party political divisions over a grave issue and allowed the spectres of Tony Blair and IRAQ to paralyse its response to a monstrous atrocity,” he writes.

He goes on to state that “dictators worldwide will feel slightly freer to get away with murder” as a result of the vote.

Mr Horwood also hits out at Ed Milliband writing that “the chance to damage the coalition mattered more” to the leader of the Labour Party than the issue at stake.

US AND CHINA BATTLE IT OUT FOR LATIN AMERICA

LATIN AMERICA AND ITS ABUNDANCE OF NATURAL RESOURCES

By Robert Valencia via ISN Security Watch 

Apparently CHINA is vying for greater economic influence in LATIN AMERICA, which includes the possibly constructing and operating an alternative ‘PANAMA Canal’ through NICARAGUA. One unanticipated consequence of this burgeoning US-CHINA rivalry is that it might push LATIN AMERICAN countries closer together.

Background Information: http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/06/china-and-nicaragua.html

U.S. President Barack Obama and CHINESE President Xi Jinping met in California to discuss cyber espionage and territorial claims in the Pacific Rim. While tension on these topics has hogged the headlines, the fight for influence in another area could be even more important—LATIN AMERICA.

Other emerging markets in AFRICA, where CHINA has an overwhelming influence due to foreign direct investment in mining and oil, also offer economic opportunities, but LATIN AMERICA has an abundance of natural resources, greater purchasing power, and geographic proximity to the UNITED STATES, which has long considered LATIN AMERICA as its “backyard.”

Background Information: http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2012/12/usa-china-and-africa.html

The key question now is will LATIN AMERICAN countries lean more toward CHINA or the UNITED STATES, or will it find a way to balance the two against each other? Right now, LATIN AMERICAN countries are increasingly confident thanks to burgeoning economic and political integration by way of trading blocs, and they're demanding to be treated as an equal player.

CHINA’S ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT IN LATIN AMERICAN GEOPOLITICS

As a sign of its growing importance, CHINA and the UNITED STATES have courted LATIN AMERICA more than usual. In May, the US President visited MEXICO and COSTA RICA while the US Vice President visited COLOMBIA, BRAZIL, and TRINIDAD and TOBAGO. Shortly after these trips, President Xi went to MEXICO and COSTA RICA to foster economic cooperation.

Background Information: http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/03/latin-america-and-europe.html

CHINA’S active involvement in LATIN AMERICAN geopolitics can be traced back to 2009. Chinalco, CHINA’S largest mining company signed a $2.2 billion deal with PERU to build the Toromocho mine and a $70 million wharf in the Callao port. Since then, PERU has sent 18.3 percent of its exports to CHINA, making CHINA PERU’S largest trading partner. CHINA’S imports to PERU, however, rank second with 13.7 percent of the market while the UNITED STATES holds first place with 24.5 percent.

China has the upper hand with the LATIN AMERICAN leftist countries in terms of infrastructure and technology. In 2009, CHINESE telephone manufacturer ZTE played an instrumental role in assembling the first mobile phone in VENEZUELA known as “El Vergatario” (VENEZUELA slang for optimal). VENEZUELA introduced this new phone to low-income families making it the world’s cheapest phone ($6.99 for a handset). Additionally, CHINA landed rail construction projects in ARGENTINA and VENEZUELA and has become a major buyer of farm products and metal in SOUTH AMERICA. 

ARGENTINA’S SOARING SOY EXPORT TO CHINA

Between 2011 and 2012, CHINA purchased nearly 58.02 million tons of soy from ARGENTINA, up from 52 million in 2011 and 2010.

CHINA has also maintained an active market with BRAZIL. CHINESE Oil Company Sinopec and CHINA Development Bank offered BRAZILIAN oil company Petrobras a $10 billion loan in 2009 in return for hundreds of thousands of barrels per day. In 2011, three CHINESE metal companies purchased BRAZILIAN mining company Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineracao.

Background Information: http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/03/latin-american-economics.html

CHINA’S boldest move in the region is the possible construction of a massive CANAL IN NICARAGUA. NICARAGUAN President Daniel Ortega pushed the National Assembly to approve the multi-billion dollar plan in June. The NICARAGUAN canal would have a larger draft, length, and depth than the PANAMA and SUEZ canals, and the enactment granted a HONG KONG-based company permission to build and control the canal for nearly 100 years. The approval of this plan, however, raised the ire of environmentalists and neighboring COLOMBIA, which recently lost 70,000 square kilometers of its CARIBBEAN maritime territory to NICARAGUA before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). 

Last May, COLOMBIAN diplomat Noemi Sanin claimed that CHINA had influenced ICJ’s decision. According to Sanin, CHINESE justice Xue Hanqin knew beforehand about NICARAGUA’S intention to grant the canal construction to CHINA since Xue was a colleague of Carlos Arguello, a role-player in the maritime case. There is no evidence for this, but it shows COLOMBIA’S anxiety of CHINA’S growing clout in the region and how it can upset balances of power.

USA STILL TOP TRADE PARTNER OF LATIN AMERICA

The UNITED STATES hasn’t lost LATIN AMERICA, and is unlikely to lose it completely. It is still the region’s top trade partner. The UNITED STATES has recently signed free-trade agreements with COLOMBIA and PANAMA, and maintains other trade agreements with PERU, CHILE, and MEXICO. CENTRAL AMERICAN and several CARIBBEAN countries rely upon U.S. military cooperation in an attempt to curtail drug trade. Nevertheless, the post 9/11 years severely eroded U.S.-LATIN AMERICAN relations as the Bush administration focused heavily on the war on terror, often ignoring issues in LATIN AMERICA.

CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES ARE ALSO ENCOUNTERING A MORE CONFIDENT AND MORE UNIFIED LATIN AMERICA. 

It is a region that has sought autonomy in its own affairs by way of rising blocs such as the Community of LATIN AMERICAN and CARIBBEAN STATES, MERCOSUR, and the BOLIVARIAN Alliance for the AMERICAS (ALBA), among others. BRAZIL, LATIN AMERICA’S largest economy, also seeks a prominent role the region with large investments in research and development and the introduction of social programs to revamp the middle class. BRAZIL has jumped into the global economic debates, calling out CHINA, the UNITED STATES, and other industrialized countries over the so-called “currency wars." In 2010, BRAZILIAN Finance Minister Guido Mantega criticized these nations for policies that weakened exchange rates that in turn affected the real currency value and BRAZILIAN exports. Since then, BRAZIL has pursued a more significant role among the world’s 20 most advanced countries known as the G-20.

Background Information: POLITICAL IGNORANCE REGARDING LATAM

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2011/07/global-financial-monopoly-game-part-2.html

LATIN AMERICAS EMERGING PACIFIC ALLIANCE

Both the UNITED STATES and China use infrastructure investment, diplomacy, and trade as leverage, but LATIN AMERICA wants to be seen as a socioeconomic partner, not a subordinate. The PACIFIC Alliance, for example, hopes to become a powerful bloc that can stand up to the world’s two super powers. Comprised of COLOMBIA, PERU, CHILE, COSTA RICA, MEXICO, and possibly soon PANAMA, the PACIFIC ALLIANCE is a new economic bloc that seeks economic integration oriented toward ASIA-PACIFIC markets. 

Background Information: http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/05/south-america.html

Additionally, the PACIFIC ALLIANCE can become a springboard for other LATIN AMERICAN nations with a Pacific shore to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed free-trade agreement among ASIA-PACIFIC, MEXICO, PERU, CHILE, CANADA, and the UNITED STATES. Being part of the PACIFIC ALLIANCE is significant, because for countries like COSTA RICA, it would otherwise be an unlikely candidate for the TPP. Taken together, the PACIFIC ALLIANCE’S GDP totals $3 trillion, making it easier to integrate itself to the TPP and for it to fight for better terms. The UNITED STATES will still hold the lion’s share of the TPP with an economy that hovers around $13 trillion—but an alliance worth $3 trillion will give it more leverage than it would otherwise have. The battle for influence in LATIN AMERICA may have the effect of pushing the countries closer together, allowing them to stand up to both the UNITED STATES and CHINA.

More articles on CHINA'S foreign policies:

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/07/china-and-its-relation-with-africa-and.html

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/07/mali-and-chinas-western-foreign-policy.html

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2012/09/chinas-winning-strategy-in-africa.html