Australia and New Zealand do not touch the North Atlantic, rather they touch the South Pacific. Even if they wanted to join, they cannot because Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty only allows European states to join NATO. Canada and the United States were founding members, so this rule did not apply to them.
Speaking about the protest of Russians about cluster ammunition given to Ukraine. The picture below is a Russian cluster missile that landed in Charkiv. Picture was taken in June 2022. Russians are lying and cheating as always.
Some things are not as out-of-the-question as they were just a few months ago. When the Japanese Prime Minister starts attending NATO meetings, the times they iz a-changin'. Taiwan sends representatives too, I believe. Also, the Aussies have already sent over 120 million in equipment, ammo, and humanitarian support to Ukraine. You could easily wake up some day and NATO has been rebranded as some kind of Alliance of Free World Partners, type of thing. The idea being that there needs to be a similar Nato type organization to respond to threat from China so why not just get on with it rather setting up a separate structure. Japan's Kishida says he will attend NATO leaders' summit, stresses need for dialogue with China https://abcnews.go.com/Internationa...to-leaders-summit-stresses-dialogue-100270026
And vice versa. The thousands of men who died on the south sea islands in WW2 were killed stopping a full occupation of Australia by Japan. My great uncle was living in New Zealand, married to New Zealander and when war broke out he returned to the U.S. to join the Marines. Within a matter of days (he had already been in the Army) they sent him right back to the South Pacific. He had hoped he could at least get chance to see his mom in Maine before being sent back. Nope. Yeh, we have a history of playing on the same team. The Brits and Europeans piss on the Americans sometimes for allegedly being late to enter WW2 but how many of them helped us out with the Japanese. ZERO. Maybe in small instances just protecting their own colonies, Burma something. Otherwise zero help in the war against Japan. The Aussies had skin in the game and the Japs had already bombed Port Moresby, and they were coming unless stopped.
Did he make it thru the war? That was brutal fighting. Plus disease was a big thing too. Malaria, etc.
He did survive. He got around a bit. He knew about malaria and yellow fever and disease. He had been in Panama to help with the building of the Canal and hated the heat and disease. And he was also on one of the expeditions to Antarctica. That is how he ended out marrying a New Zealand woman. I guess they look pretty good after you have been down on the ice cap with the penquins for months. He later drowned in NZ on a fishing and mountaineering expedition in the back country. His mother actually went down to visit him in - I think 1939. I don't think she had ever been out of her small village in Maine more than a few times but off she went. Problem is once they got out to sea and toward the south seas they painted all the windows on the ship black so that the Japs could not see their lights at night. Even though we were not at war yet, the Japanese subs were prowling and taking out ships- sometimes openly, sometimes "I know nothing" type of thing. She said she liked New Zealand because they had big, big flowers "right in the middle of winter." (their summer). Heh, her Maine perspective. Does sound good though.
Australia is part of Five Eyes (FVEY), an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries are parties to the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence. In spite of continued controversy over its methods, the Five Eyes relationship remains one of the most comprehensive known espionage alliances in human history. Since processed intelligence is gathered from multiple sources, the intelligence shared is not restricted to signals intelligence and often involves defence intelligence as well as human intelligence and geospatial intelligence. Albanese gives more Bushmasters to Ukraine Hans van Leeuwen Europe correspondent Jul 12, 2023 https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-...s-more-bushmasters-to-ukraine-20230712-p5dntv Vilnius | The government has unveiled a $100 million boost to its military aid to Ukraine, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledging another 30 Bushmasters personally to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a face-to-face meeting in Lithuania. The fresh donation of protected mobility vehicles takes the total number of Bushmasters given to Ukraine’s military to 120, and the total value of Australian military aid to the beleaguered nation to more than $710 million. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at their meeting at NATO. Reuters Making the announcement immediately after meeting Mr Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO leaders’ summit in Vilnius, Mr Albanese said the Bendigo-made Bushmaster had become “a symbol for Australia’s support for Ukraine”. “They are valued very much by Ukrainian defence force personnel. They have saved their lives just as in the past they have been responsible for saving Australian lives,” he told reporters. “This is a piece of equipment that is the best in the world at what it does. ... It will make an enormous difference.” The announcement came a day after Mr Albanese pledged an RAAF reconnaissance plane, the E-7A Wedgetail, to a six-month mission operating out of Ramstein air base in Germany. During his European trip, Mr Albanese has been at pains to stress the connection between the war in Ukraine and the security interests of Australia and the wider world. “In today’s interconnected world Ukraine is not just fighting for its own international sovereignty, it is fighting for the international rule of law to be applied and this is a struggle that applies to the whole world,” he said. Australia would “continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as is necessary, and we will continue to provide support for Ukraine”. Mr Zelensky, speaking to reporters alongside Mr Albanese just before their brief bilateral meeting, thanked Australia for standing “shoulder to shoulder” with Ukraine. Mr Albanese told the Ukrainian he was “inspired by your leadership, the resilience of the Ukrainian people, the courage that you are showing”. Some military experts have called for Australia to deploy the weapons-toting Hawkei military vehicles to Ukraine instead of more Bushmasters. Mr Albanese ruled this out, citing potential “supply chain issues”. He dismissed his critics as “people sitting in armchairs”. “We want to make sure that we provide equipment that maximises the positive difference they can make,” he said. The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations issued a statement welcoming the announcement, saying the Bushmasters had “become justifiably famous in Ukraine”. “Family members and friends we speak to in Ukraine all know about the Bushmasters and are deeply grateful that Australians want to help Ukraine restore peace and push back Russian aggression,” the statement said. Australia in late June also offered an assortment of some 70 other military vehicles – 28 M113 armoured vehicles, 14 Special Operations Vehicles, and 28 MAN 40M medium trucks and 14 trailers – alongside a supply of 105mm ammunition. That package totalled $110 million......