Mahoney on Top Gun
Mahoney on Top Gun
The success of the sanctions-proof JF-17 in Pakistan as a replacement for theUS F-16 has contributed to China's rise as Pakistan's largest supplier of major !arms, reducing the leverage the US
Featured contributor Prof. Josef Gregory Mahoney was interviewed by Tom Hussain for his new piece in South China Morning Post (SCMP) on recent sales of JF-17 fighter jets to #azerbaijan.
Remarks:
The success of the sanctions-proof JF-17 in Pakistan as a replacement for the US F-16 has contributed to China's rise as Pakistan's largest supplier of major arms, reducing the leverage the US has over one of China's key allies. These developments also favoured both #beijing and #islamabad as the US increasingly favoured India over Pakistan in weapons deals, dating to 2010.
Both China and #pakistan have sought customers worldwide for the JF-17, with four countries including Azerbaijan as buyers, and many others considering acquisitions. On the one hand, this is primarily about commercial interests, on the other hand, there are clear strategic implications, especially when those buyers are in Central Asia
#india and #france are the largest weapons sellers to #armenia and experts have for months worried that French sales in particular would destabilise the region. In fact, Azerbaijan has been considering buying earlier generations of JF-17s since 2008, and the conflict with Armenia is nothing new either. Debating which side is contributing more to instability makes about as much sense as arguing over which came first, the chicken or the egg. In absolute terms, both sides have been locked in an arms race for some time, and the Azeri JF-17 acquisitions are counter balancing recent Armenian upgrades.
#russia and #turkey favour Azerbaijan and to some extent so does Israel. China is sensitive to expanding Indian defence contracts and military cooperation in Central Asia, and China is sensitive to any Western arms sales, in so much as they generally come loaded with various military cooperation schemes. China has worked hard through the #sco to push American interests out of Central Asia, so expanding JF-17 sales could help. That said, these sales are being executed by Pakistan with #china neutral in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In fact, China has strong ties with both Azerbaijan and Armenia. with some experts believing China favours the latter as a resistance to pan-Turkic interests. And, others pointing to Azerbaijan's strong support for the Beijing's position vis-à-vis #taiwan and as a potential corridor for a major expansion of the #bri. In short it's probably safe to say that #beijing favours balancing without leaning too far to one side, with the hope that increased security plus new development, will eventually provide the best means for peace and prosperity.
