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Sierra Leone changed regimes, General Safiya, who had never been recognized by the international community, was killed in the melee, and the nephew of the former democratically elected president occupied Freetown with a mercenary army to announce the formation of a temporary transitional political axe in preparation for the general elections. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info these things that happened in the corners of the world only attracted attention that day, and then no one paid attention to them, as if Sierra Leone was on another planet.

There is nothing surprising that Sierra Leone is already a small country.

Although Sierra Leone is rich in diamonds and has a few not-so-poor gold mines, it is not self-sufficient in oil, iron ore and copper, rare metals, or even food. Sierra Leone has little strategic value in the eyes of the major powers.

As Li Tingxuan said, if Sierra Leone is hiding not diamonds, but oil, it will definitely be a different story.

What's more, the day before the mercenaries returned to Sierra Leone, an even more eye-catching event took place in the world: Prime Minister Kojiro Ikawa made his first foreign trip after taking office.

After World War II, successive prime ministers would first visit the United States after taking office.

Except for those short-lived ghosts who have been in office for less than a month, all prime ministers will go to Washington within a month in the name of promoting the US-called alliance, which is actually bowing to the United States.

This is also understandable, after all, there are tens of thousands of US troops stationed in Yuben.

This time it was completely different, the first country that Ikawa Kojiro visited was not the United States, but India, and on his first tour, there was no United States either!

A week ago, before the announcement of the Prime Minister's foreign visit by the Samoto Cabinet Secretariat, Ikawa Kojiro made it clear at a meeting with the representatives of the electorate that Kojiro made it clear that he must follow the path of independent development in order to become strong and strong, to gain the recognition of other countries, and to gain the international status he deserves.

At the time, it was predicted that Kojiro Ikawa would not make his first visit to the United States.

Although in the face of the news media, the US Secretary of State welcomed the arrangements for Ikawa Kojiro's foreign visit, declaring that India and India are both strategic allies of the United States, and that the establishment of a more in-depth cooperative relationship with India is more conducive to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, but in the United States, not everyone buys it, and Republican congressmen in both houses of Congress have violently attacked the president's weak foreign policy, holding that the United States is losing its most important ally in the Asia-Pacific region and that the national interests of the United States have been seriously damaged.

The reaction of Republican congressmen speaks volumes about the American mentality.

For decades, the Americans have always regarded him as the most obedient ally, and they have always regarded him as the main bargaining chip for safeguarding US strategic interests in the Western Pacific region.

With the rise of the mainland, the strategic position of the United States in the alliance system has surpassed that of the United Kingdom.

Although Ikawa Kojiro did not deny the importance of the US-China alliance, and when he met with the US ambassador to China, he made it clear that he would not do anything that would damage the US-China alliance and would earnestly safeguard the friendly relations between the two countries, but Ikawa Kojiro's move of not taking the United States into account still made it very difficult for the Americans to accept.

In this regard, some hard-line US politicians have said that we should teach this a lesson at an appropriate time.

The watchdog doesn't listen to the owner, so what's the deal? If you don't punish it, let the watchdog know who the owner is, and I'm afraid it won't be long before he bars his teeth at the owner.

In the face of pressure from Republican lawmakers and domestic public opinion, Norris must come out and take a stand.

But things were moving so fast that before he could figure out how to express America's displeasure, Kojiro Ishikawa made an even more startling message to the Indian prime minister in New Delhi.

Liu Wei received a call from Zhou Fen on the way back, and then saw the news from satellite TV.

It is said that Ben will jointly design and build a new generation of medium-sized multi-purpose aircraft carriers with India.

According to the information released by Ikawa Kojiro, he and India each undertook 50 percent of the design tasks, and then the company helped the Cochin shipyard in India to increase its construction capacity, including building a 50,000-ton shipbuilding platform and providing a full set of shipbuilding equipment, including an 800-ton gantry crane. What he received was only part of the construction of India's aircraft carrier, as well as the development costs that India had promised to share.

This contract only involves the hull and does not include the ship's equipment and carrier-based fighters.

The reason is very simple, it is said that it was able to import electromagnetic catapults from the United States and equip them with F-35C fighters that catapult and take off, while India could not obtain catapults and could only equip fighters that took off in a glide jump. In terms of electronic equipment, India is basically able to develop and produce its own equipment, while India must rely on imports.

Even so, it was a big enough event to shock the whole world.

India has introduced the "Vikramaditya" from Russia, that is, the "Gorshkov" aircraft carrier, and also built the "Blue Sky Guardian" aircraft carrier, and therefore imported the MiG-29K fighter from Russia, and also developed a carrier-based version on the domestic LCA fighter, if it cooperates with the company to build a medium-sized aircraft carrier with a displacement of nearly 60,000 tons, the Indian Navy will have three aircraft carriers.

With the military budget of the Indian Navy, can it afford to raise three aircraft carriers?

Not to mention anything else, for the sake of these three aircraft carriers, the Indian Navy must prepare at least six regional air defense destroyers, six ocean-going anti-submarine frigates, three nuclear submarines, or nine conventional submarines, and counting 100 carrier-based fighters, the total investment will not be less than $15 billion.

According to the military budget of the Indian Navy, it will take at least ten years to come up with so much money.

Immediately after the news was announced, some people speculated that it must be that the transformation of the "Vikramaditya" was not thorough, and its combat effectiveness did not meet the requirements of the Indian Navy, so the Indian Navy intended to build a medium-sized aircraft carrier. It is also believed that the "Blue Sky Guardian" light aircraft carrier lacks ocean-going combat capabilities and cannot cooperate with the "Vikramaditya", so the Indian Navy needs a medium-sized aircraft carrier of comparable strength.

Relatively speaking, it is not India that is really getting attention, but the Ben.

Although before that, the two "Yuexiang"-class destroyers built by the two "Yuexiang" class destroyers already had the surname of light aircraft carriers and could carry F-35B fighters with a slight improvement, and the previous purchase of such fighters was to enhance the combat capability of the "Yuexiang"-class destroyers, but the company never claimed to build an aircraft carrier, after all, aircraft carriers are offensive weapons in the pure sense.

Kojiro Ikawa broke with convention and announced in a high-profile manner that Ben would build an aircraft carrier, which was of extraordinary political and military significance.

Politically, it means that the company will abandon the "policy of defending itself," take the initiative to expand its military strength, and enhance its international status and discourse power. Militarily, it means that Ben will embark on the road of foreign expansion and use military action to achieve and defend national interests.

Although the official secretariat mentioned in the statement issued later that the construction of aircraft carriers was only to cope with the new peripheral and international situation, and that it would not change its basic defense policy and would target the mainland that had already acquired aircraft carriers, the announcement of this news by Kojiro Ikawa in New Delhi instead of Tokyo is enough to prove that he is definitely not building aircraft carriers for the sake of defense, and that enhancing strategic offensive capability is the real intention.

The reaction provoked by Ikawa Kojiro's move was definitely beyond the control of the authorities.

A few hours later, the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the mainland officially announced that in view of the development of offensive military forces, especially the ocean-going navy, which poses a serious threat to the mainland's national security, the mainland will carefully consider countermeasures, reassess national strategic security, and appropriately accelerate the development of the navy and related services and arms.

In contrast, the attitude of the mainland's Ministry of Defense is more clear.

As long as the construction of medium-sized aircraft carriers begins, the mainland can only ensure the country's strategic security by enhancing the combat effectiveness of its navy and air force. The most direct means is to increase the number of the Navy's aircraft carrier battle groups from one to three on the existing basis, and to vigorously build up a long-range strategic strike force, that is, a new generation of heavy fighters and strategic bombers with ocean-going combat capabilities.

Now, the Western Pacific is lively.

Although the whole world knows that the mainland is building a second aircraft carrier and that the design of the third aircraft carrier has already begun, the mainland's high-profile announcement of expanding its ocean-going fleet and even developing strategic bombers will definitely affect not only India and the United States, but also the United States on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

As the only global navy, the U.S. Navy can deploy only one carrier battle group in the western Pacific. While it can increase the number of deployments in wartime, it will inevitably weaken the deterrence capabilities of other regions. To deploy three carrier battle groups in the Western Pacific, the United States would at least need to expand the size of its carrier fleet to twelve.

The military expenditure brought about by this is still a trivial matter, and the key is that after the mainland has three aircraft carriers, it will have a complete ocean-going combat capability, which will inevitably weaken the international influence of the United States.

At this point, Norris couldn't sit still.

Two days after the secretary of state made his statement, Norris held a news conference at the White House, in which he made it clear that the US alliance is sufficient to provide comprehensive, perfect, and sufficient strategic security guarantees for the United States, and that the United States is capable of protecting the maritime lifelines of its allies and providing all-round support to its allies, and that there is absolutely no need for the United States to build medium-sized aircraft carriers.

Politically speaking, the US president's statement is very tough, and he is already warning the book.

At the same time, the US Secretary of State flew to the United Kingdom.

The aim was simple: to prevent Britain from supplying Ben and India with the technology to build medium-sized aircraft carriers.

The problem is that on the same issue, the United States is not leading by example. When asked by a reporter whether the United States will continue to sell F-22J fighter jets to Yuben, continue to cooperate in the development and production of F-35B and F-35C fighters, and whether it will refuse to provide electromagnetic catapults to Yuben, Norris replied very simply, that is, these arms purchase contracts have been signed and are supported by Congress, and the federal political axe has no right to interfere.

Obviously, the United States does not want to let Yuben build a medium-sized aircraft carrier, but it just does not want Yuben to make such a big fanfare.

Liu Wei was not surprised by this, because when he met Tata and Ito Shinroku in the UK, he knew that it was very likely that he would get together with India.

Both countries regard the mainland as their number one imaginary enemy, and it would be strange not to come together.

(To be continued)