Thomas Wilkins

Dec 19, 2024 | internationalaffairs.org.au | Thomas Wilkins

Strategic minilaterals like the Quad, AUKUS, and TSD exemplify flexible security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, balancing between governance and military alignment. While unlikely to evolve into formal alliances, their growing integration positions them as adaptable coalitions for regional stability and crisis response.

Aug 12, 2024 | spf.org | Thomas Wilkins

Allies strengthen trilateral bonds in the face of strategic competition While other strategically-oriented forms of minilateral cooperation, such as the US-Japan-Australia-India “Quad” and the Australia-UK-US “AUKUS”, have tended to capture the lion’s share of the attention among security analysts, there is a third strategic minilateral formation in the Indo-Pacific that demands greater scrutiny.[1] Trilateral cooperation between the Tokyo, Washington and Canberra was initiated as far back as...

Apr 30, 2024 | nbr.org | Thomas Wilkins

MAIN ARGUMENTSince its formal establishment in 2002, the TSD has come to function as the inner core of coordination among allies in the face of strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific. It possesses significant capability to shape the regional security environment, as seen in terms of normative efforts at order building under the “free and open Indo-Pacific” banner, and is underwritten by a combined commitment to regional deterrence.

Mar 7, 2024 | eastasiaforum.org | Denghua Zhang |Sinclair Dinnen |H.D.P. Envall |Thomas Wilkins

Following Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) devastating riots in early January 2024, Foreign Minister Justin Tkachenko told journalists that in September 2023 China had offered to provide training, equipment and surveillance technology to the PNG police force. Further, the two countries are in the early stages of negotiations over potential security cooperation.

Jun 15, 2023 | asiatimes.com | Alexander M. Hynd |Thomas Wilkins

The Indo-Pacific is increasingly defined by strategic competition between the United States and China. But this dynamic is further complicated by the presence of a class of diverse but consequential second-tier states.