“So You Actually Talk to the New Zealanders” – Obama to Turnbull

President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull discussed the issue when they met on the fringes of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Manila this week.

“The Declaration acknowledges the increasing breadth and depth of our relations, which sets the tone, pace, and direction of our relationship in the years ahead”, he added.

That way, the NT Government and Mr Turnbull can be assured that Mr Obama is always in the loop about developments in the Top End, which of course hosts annual rotations of more than 1000 United States Marines.

Critics say his White House is not doing enough and warn that history will view the conflict in Syria as “Obama’s Rwanda” – where the USA was accused by a few of failing to act in time to stop genocidal bloodletting there.

“The enmities run very deep, but plainly when you look as Daesh or ISIL, its base is a Sunni population that has felt disenfranchised, oppressed in Syria, and with very good reason, and also has felt left out of the new government in Iraq”, he said. “It has no interest in any political settlement and I’m not aware of anyone having any interest in raising it with them”. These are significant assets not only to our defense, but also and more importantly, to our disaster response capabilities. “One of these vessels, in fact, was used in our Navy’s relief operations in the wake of Typhoon Koppu (Lando)”, Aquino said.

“In disaster risk reduction and management, Australia has never failed to extend a helping hand to the Filipino people”.

Turnbull also welcomed Aquino’s pledge to help Australia in fighting terrorism. “The leadership shown by the nations represented there was … solid”.

“We would see a repetition of what we’ve seen before, which is if you do not have local populations that are committed to inclusive governance and who are pushing back against ideological extremes, that they resurface, unless we’re prepared to have a permanent occupation of these countries”.

“We likewise welcome the finalization of the Philippines-Australia Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)”. “Under our legislation, under our law in Australia, the Department of Defence or this Federal Government can step in and take control of infrastructure like this in circumstances where it’s deemed necessary for purposes of defence”. I can understand that, if we are able to achieve a massive disruption of [IS] through airstrikes and targeting the leadership then that should be the priority.