President Barack Obama's administration in January approved a 6.4 billion dollar arms package for Taiwan including helicopters, Patriot missiles and mine-hunting ships, angering Beijing.

State Department official David Shear told a congressional panel that the United States will "continue to stand by our commitment" under US law to provide Taiwan with weapons to defend itself.

"Taiwan must be confident that it has the physical capacity to resist intimidation and coercion in order to engage fully with the mainland," said Shear, the deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia, on Thursday.

Testifying before the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, US officials declined to say if the Obama administration would approve a top item on Taiwan's wish-list -- F-16 fighter-jets.

Despite his drive to repair relations with Beijing, President Ma Ying-jeou has pitched for F-16s to refurbish Taiwan's aging fleet. A recent report by Taiwan's defense ministry found that China has gained an edge in air power.

Michael Schiffer, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, said he "didn't want to suggest a decision one way or the other" on the F-16s.

China has been ramping up military spending for years as part of a modernization drive for its People's Liberation Army (PLA).

Despite China's growing interests around the world, "we believe that the primary focus of the PLA build-up remains oriented on preparing for contingencies in the Taiwan Strait," Schiffer said.

"It appears Beijing's long-term strategy is to use political, diplomatic, economic and cultural levers to pursue unification with Taiwan, while building a credible military threat to attack the island if events are moving in what Beijing sees as the wrong direction," he said.

China also appears content not to attack Taiwan if it believes it will achieve its goals in the long run but is determined to pose a "credible threat" to pressure the island, Schiffer said.

Taiwan is ruled by nationalists who fled China in 1949 after losing the mainland's civil war. Beijing considers the island part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

David Shlapak, an analyst at the Rand Corp. think tank, said that the chances China could deliver a "knock-out blow" to Taiwan's air force at the start of a conflict have "increased substantially in recent years."

"China is assembling a military capable of providing the leadership in Beijing with credible options for the use of force against Taiwan, even in the face of US opposition," Shlapak told the panel.

China strongly opposes US arms sales to Taiwan, arguing that they run counter to the US recognition in 1979 of Beijing as China's sole government.

China responded sharply to the arms sales in January, warning that the United States was setting back relations and -- in a new step -- explicitly threatening sanctions on US companies involves in the contracts.

But Shear said that China's reaction "did not exceed our expectations."

"As far as I know, the Chinese have not implemented that threat. They have not yet imposed any sanctions on US firms," Shear testified.

Some US-based China watchers believe that Beijing may have concluded that it went too far in antagonizing Obama, who in his first year put off decisions certain to irk the growing Asian power.

China criticized Obama in February when he met with Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama but made no concrete threat of retaliation.

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The document depicts the strategic framework of the future operational environment and its implications on the joint force, both structurally and operationally, Edgington said. The idea behind the new plan, he explained, is to help U.S. combatant commanders determine their resource requirements over the coming years.

“What we’re trying to do is set the context for what are possibly evolutions in the future,” he said, explaining that the document is “speculative,” not “predictive.”

The document doesn’t claim one thing will happen as opposed to other possible outcomes, the general said. Rather, it simply lays out a number of possible outcomes. From there, he said, it’s the job of the military’s top brass to determine which are most likely, and then to prepare for one or more of the outcomes.

The Joint Forces Command document uses data from outlets ranging from the Energy Department and the Congressional Budget Office to civilian publications such as “The Economist.” Though the report doesn’t necessarily contain anything brand new, Edgington said, it uses available data to support different speculations.

“We’re trying to lay out possibilities for the future, so we can encourage intellectual dialogue [and] strategic discussion as to what types of futures we should be prepared for … so we can determine the implications for the future force,” Edgington explained. “We aren’t pretending to try to predict that any of these things will happen.”

Using energy as an example, Edgington noted that energy resources and the effects of energy consumption pose possible threats to national security. But the report doesn’t necessarily link those outcomes to operations in, for example, Afghanistan or Iraq.

Though someone can make a case for connecting Afghanistan with energy-related challenges, Edgington said, specific connections are not the report’s aim. “That’s certainly not our intent to focus on a specific country and their relation to a certain challenge,” he said.

Neither, he added, does the Joint Forces Command document make any recommendations for required resources or action. Those decisions, the general said, are left to the leadership in the services. From there, the information might be transformed into specific missions or training requirements for rank-and-file troops, but the strategic picture Joint Forces Command is presenting is intended for higher-level officers, Edgington said.

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Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal said military operations in Helmand province have been promising, and that efforts to build the Afghan government in the province are the key to long-term success. McChrystal and Ambassador Mark Sedwill, the senior NATO civilian representative in Afghanistan, spoke to Pentagon reporters from Kabul.

The "clearing" portion of the battle against insurgents in Helmand continues, even as the "hold" and "build" portions of the counterinsurgency strategy are instituted. The general said the coalition will work in partnership with the Afghan government to deliver essential services to these areas.

"But this will be a long process, and there will be military challenges in the months ahead as the insurgents try to prove that we can't maintain enough security to do that," McChrystal added.

The coalition will bring more security to Kandahar next, the general said. The second-largest city in Afghanistan and the philosophical home of the Taliban is incredibly important to success in the country, he told reporters.

The Kandahar area is far more complex than Helmand, he said, and the coalition and Afghan government have begun shaping operations in and around the metropolis and the surrounding area in preparation for an offensive. More coalition and Afghan troops will be fed into the area as time goes on, he said.

Sedwill said military operations have regained the initiative, and operations now must move to more civilian-oriented ones to resolve political tensions and grievances that fuel the insurgency and to rebuild and reinforce institutions in which the Afghan people have lost confidence.

"We haven't made enough progress in the past eight years in rebuilding them," he said, "but we need to really strengthen them -- and strengthen them now -- to win over the people's allegiance ... to their own government."

Turning to other areas of Afghanistan, McChrystal said he had traveled to Mazar-e Sharif in Regional Command North. "Although security there is relatively better than it would be, for example, in the south," he said, "there are still effective and focused operations to partner to make that work."

He also said he'd visited a Norwegian provincial reconstruction team working to repair the Ring Road around the country. "There are going to be ongoing operations in the weeks and months ahead there to maintain or to make progress there," he said, "but also to increase security along the existing parts of the Ring Road, and then also the push for completion of that last section."

The general added that he observed a Turkish medical capabilities operation in Kabul, and he praised the way the Turks bonded with the people. He also traveled to Ghazni, where he said the scope of the task remaining shows itself.

"While the people are not negative to our forces or the Afghan national security forces, we also, to this point, have not been able to offer the kind of security that allows the people to make a full decision," McChrystal said. "One man spoke to us for a little while, and then said, 'I'm going to get a night letter [from the Taliban] tonight, because I'm talking to you.'"

Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan have delivered such intimidating "night letters" or leaflets to citizens they suspect of collaborating with coalition troops or Afghan security forces and government officials. Though the Taliban aren't plentiful in Ghazni, the general said, they have enough of a presence to cause problems.

Overall, McChrystal and Sedwill said, they are pleased with the progress that has been achieved in Afghanistan so far, but there is tough work to come. Kandahar will remain a focus, they said, but so will other areas in the eastern and southern regional commands.

Training the Afghan security forces is key to beginning a coalition withdrawal from Afghanistan, McChrystal said, acknowledging that the coalition has yet to provide enough trainers. Calls have gone through NATO and international channels to obtain more, he said.

Overall, the civilian efforts and the Afghans themselves ultimately will ensure progress in Afghanistan, Sedwill said.

"Remember the complexity of this campaign," the ambassador said. "We've tended to focus ... on the military elements of it, but the military elements of it are not going to deliver success here unless we get the political elements right," he said.

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In his last address to parliament before his five-year term ends in April, Reinhold Robbe, Germany's parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, criticized the country's support of its soldiers, saying the Bundeswehr lacked the most basic necessities for its missions abroad.

The armed forces need more training, and more vehicles and weapons, he said in his report for 2009, adding that there was a shortage of 600 military doctors. Due to a lack of armored vehicles, most training takes place onsite abroad, he said, meaning troops arrive unprepared.

"The military leadership hasn't yet arrived at the realities of an army in combat," he told the politicians, "and continues to fail the troops in providing everything that's needed for them to fulfill their missions."

In 2009 the military treated 466 cases of post-traumatic stress syndrome, double the number in 2008. Almost 90 percent of those treated had served in NATO's International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan, where Robbe said soldiers faced war-like conditions.

Despite the challenges facing them, Robbe said the individual soldiers were doing an excellent job.

Hazing abuse 'unacceptable'

Robbe also touched on the recent accounts of hazing rituals within the Bundeswehr. Robbe said he did not believe the problem was widespread. However, he said such incidents as the forced eating of liver and drinking of alcohol to the point of vomiting that, according to soldier complaints, took place at a mountain infantry troop camp in Bavaria, were not acceptable.

He also said the Bundeswehr had an image problem that needed to be addressed.

"Those who risk their health and lives for the good of Germany expect the same degree of solidarity and respect from society that is common in other countries," he said. "We haven't been able to achieve this so it's about time that official politics starts actively promoting this goal."

An advocate for soldiers

Robbe is a member of the Social Democrats, a party no longer part of the government since elections last fall. He is set to be replaced by Helmut Koenigshaus from the Free Democratic Party.

The parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces acts as an advocate for the armed forces and reports to the parliament on the situation within the military.

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The United States made a concerted effort to introduce combined units from the U.S. and Afghan militaries, the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development and Afghan government officials to the area as part of its "clear, hold, build, and transfer" policy, Richard C. Holbrooke told CNN's "GPS" host Fareed Zakaria.

"We are in a better position today than we were 12 months ago today, and that's the bottom line for me," Holbrooke said about the situation in Afghanistan.

He commended Afghan President Hamid Karzai's efforts to engage with local Afghans in Marja, pointing out that Karzai was the first Afghan head of state ever to visit the region.

"He spoke in the local language. ... He had a local shura, a council. He listened to the people. They yelled at him. They told him they didn't like corruption," Holbrooke told Zakaria.

Based on his numerous meetings with village elders across the country, Holbrooke said, corruption, the need for services, and girls' education are foremost on Afghans' minds. The Taliban's refusal to allow girls to go to school is particularly abhorrent to many Afghans, he noted.

Holbrooke also discussed the state of al-Qaida today and the U.S.-Pakistan relationship. An increase in missile strikes has led to about a dozen - more than half - of al-Qaida's top leadership being killed, he said, reducing the terrorist organization's ability to operate as it used to.

"It looks like they are less an organization that plans operations now than an organization that summons people to aspirational jihad," Holbrooke said. And al-Qaida's recent attacks on Muslims have weakened its ability to inspire people, he added, noting that a backlash has formed against the organization in the Arab and Muslim world.

Turning to the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, Holbrooke said a stronger sense of cooperation and collaboration has grown between the two countries.

"There has been a significant improvement across the board in the relationship between our government and the government of Pakistan," he told Zakaria.

Pakistan has increased its efforts in tackling both the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban factions, Holbrooke said. Although he acknowledged that the Pakistani military hasn't yet engaged in North Waziristan, he said that he was impressed with its dedication so far.

Holbrooke said Pakistan moved more than 100,000 troops from its border with India in the east to the western front, where al-Qaida and the Taliban are located. It also has several divisions in the Swat region and in South Waziristan.

The envoy said this improvement is due in large part to personal ties formed between the two countries' leaders. He cited the high-profile visits of several top administration officials, including Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and National Security Advisor James L. Jones Jr., among others. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen has developed a close working relationship with Pakistani Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

"We feel, clearly, that we're working more closely together with them, and I think that's a very big step forward," Holbrooke said. "No government on Earth has received more high-level attention."

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USJFCOM released the Joint Operating Environment 2010 (JOE 2010) to describe the future operational environment and its implications on the structure and function of the joint force.

JOE 2010 continues and improves on work first outlined in the 2008 version of the document which was downloaded over a million times from the command Web site.

"The JOE is a living document; routine revisions ensure it remains relevant by reflecting current and emerging trends," said Army Lt. Gen. Keith M. Huber, USJFCOM deputy commander. "The purpose of the JOE is to encourage strategic dialogue - we put out JOE 2008, people responded, we listened and made changes and improvements based on that feedback."

While feedback from JOE 2008 helped inform the new edition, current events and the analysis of those trends and challenges also yielded new areas of discussion.

"JOE 2010 includes new sections on the global economic situation, radical ideologies and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," said Navy Rear Adm. Lawrence S. Rice, USJFCOM strategy and policy director. "Recent events, particularly the global economic situation, and their potential impact on the future operating environment made these areas worth exploring. We look to current events to project emerging trends.

"We also put more emphasis on cyber threats and science and technology development. These areas are expanding rapidly with implications for the future joint force," said Rice.

"We're already at work on the next JOE; revising the JOE is an iterative process as we look to support the warfighter of today and tomorrow," said Rice. "As we've said since the release of JOE 2008, we will update the JOE routinely in response to input and feedback."

Copies of JOE 2010 have been distributed to senior leaders throughout the national security community.

Read Full Report

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In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 3,230 reports of sexual assault were filed.

An increase in reporting was a goal for the department, said Kaye Whitley, director of the Defense Department's sexual abuse prevention and response office.

"Research in the civilian community shows that sexual assault is widely underreported, and we believe that is the same in the military," she said. "As a result, increasing reporting has been one of our key goals. We want people who are victims of sexual assault to come forward so they can get the help that they need."

The department's goal is to create a "climate of confidence" so that people will come forward to report, she added.

One aspect of the program is a confidential reporting option called "restricted reporting," which lifts some of the barriers that can deter military personnel from reporting sexual assault. Unrestricted reporting means the victim's command is notified and an investigation initiated. Under the restricted reporting option, the command is not notified and an investigation does not follow. Still, the victim can receive medical, mental health and all other services without becoming involved in the military criminal justice process.

Ms. Whitley said the number of sexual assaults in the military probably is comparable to the civilian community, but that direct comparisons are hard to make. The overall rate for the Defense Department was two reports of sexual assault per thousand servicemembers. In the Army, the rate was 2.6 per thousand. In the Navy it was 1.6 per thousand, in the Air Force 1.4 per thousand, and in the Marine Corps 1.3 per thousand. Service-specific data, including the total numbers of reports, is included in the annual report.

"Our total number includes both perpetrators and victims," Ms. Whitley said. The data covers eight categories of sexual assault ranging from the least-egregious wrongful sexual contact to rape.

"We need to keep in mind that these are reports where the victim or the perpetrator was a military member," Ms. Whitley said. The reports include sexual assaults reported that involved a military member against a military member, a military member against a civilian or a civilian against a military member, she explained.

Last year, Ms. Whitley said, 123 victims converted their restricted reports to the unrestricted category.

"What we find are those people who are victims of sexual assault, they feel a loss of control," Ms. Whitley said. "Then, when we meet with them and give them these reporting options, they get a little bit of that control back. So often, they will go home and if they feel supported and start feeling comfortable with reporting it, they will change it to an unrestricted report, in which case we can investigate and prosecute."

The restricted reporting option has been in place since 2005, and it fills a need, Ms. Whitley said. "We've had over 3,600 people use that option since then, so that tells me that over 3,600 people wouldn't have come forward otherwise," she said.

Ms. Whitley said she would like to think the rise in reported cases has resulted from the emphasis the department is putting on sexual abuse prevention and the department's efforts to tell people about the program.

Last year, the theme of the awareness and education campaign was "My Strength for Defending: Preventing Sexual Assault Part of My Duty." This year's theme -- "Hurts one. Affects all. Preventing sexual assault is everyone's duty" -- builds on that and concentrates on readiness, Ms. Whitley said.

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The New York Times reported Monday that the official, named as Michael Furlong, had set up the network under the guise of an information-gathering program.

Citing unnamed military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States, the Times said Furlong hired contractors from private security companies employing ex-CIA and Special Forces agents.

These contractors were then supposed to gather intelligence on suspected militants and their hideouts which was fed to military units and intelligence officials in Afghanistan and Pakistan for use in possible strikes.

Some US officials told the Times they were concerned Furlong could be running an unofficial spy operation, adding they were not sure who condoned and supervised his work.

"That story makes some serious allegations and raises numerous questions that warrant further review by the department," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.

But he refused to confirm the Times report that the Pentagon had already launched an investigation into the matter.

The New York Times said it was seen as illegal for the military to hire contractors to be covert spies.

Furlong may have improperly diverted funds from a regional information-gathering program to his network, The Times added.

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Germany doubled the amount of its arms it sold abroad in 2004-2009, compared to that exported during the previous five-year period, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released Monday.

Germany is the world's third leading exporter of conventional weaponry.

Most of the German exports were armored vehicles. More than 1,700 of them were sent to 21 countries; the majority were second-hand. The most common destination was elsewhere in Europe, but some were sent to places like Singapore, China and Brazil. Germany's market share increased from 6 percent to 11 percent.

But the largest buyer of German exports was Turkey, which accounted for 14 percent of the arms shipped abroad. The second- and third-largest buyers were Greece and South Africa, respectively, followed by South Korea, Spain, Austria, Italy, Malaysia, Australia and Chile.

Developing world still a major customer

The world's largest arms exporters were the United States, Russia, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. The ten most prolific importers were all Asian countries: China, India, South Korea, Singapore and Pakistan.

What the SIPRI found most worrying was the increase in areas with regional tensions.

The institute said the volume of weapons traded to India and Pakistan had "increased significantly" in the last few years and was expected to continue. In South America, it went up 150 percent in the last five years.

"The current wave of South East Asian acquisitions could destabilize the region, jeopardizing decades of peace," the institute's Asia Expert, Siemon Wezeman, told Agence France Presse.

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In 2009, China became Iran's premier trade partner, with bilateral trade worth 21.2 billion dollars against 14.4 billion dollars three years earlier.

The figures confirm the exponential growth in commercial ties between the two countries, which were almost non-existent 15 years ago, when trade volumes amounted to just 400 million dollars.

According to official data, Western sanctions have opened the way for Chinese companies, which last year directly supplied Iran with 13 percent (7.9 billion dollars) of its imports.

Iranian estimates also suggest that an equivalent amount was imported indirectly through the United Arab Emirates in 2009.

The West is pressuring China, one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, to back further sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.

But new sanctions could harm the Asian powerhouse's burgeoning economic ties with the Islamic republic and Beijing insists diplomacy is the best way to end the standoff.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband is in China this week for talks in which Iran's nuclear programme and sanctions are certain to be raised.

Prior to China's ascendancy, Germany was Iran's largest importer for more than 20 years.

Now the growth in Sino-Iranian trade ties is expected to continue in 2010 with the recovery of the global economy, according to a European analyst.

Chinese companies are also making investments in a number of major projects in Iran, like the construction of a motorway linking Tehran and the Caspian Sea, via the Alborz mountains.

China is investing significantly in Iran's energy sector, although its oil purchases from the Islamic republic are a meagre 11.4 percent, far behind Angola and Saudi Arabia, which supply more than half of Beijing's crude imports.

With some 15 to 20 billion dollars worth of oil and gas contracts signed and an equivalent amount of new investments being negotiated, according to oil experts in Tehran, energy-hungry China has emerged as Iran's largest foreign investor.

"There is only Beijing which is still investing massively in Iran," said one expert, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The political pressures, financial problems caused by the banking restrictions and the uncertain economic returns have discouraged companies like Total, Shell, ENI and Statoil from renewing their investments in Iran," he added.

"China, which does not have these constraints and is concerned with securing its long-term energy needs, has taken the lead since 2005."

Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi backs this arguments, saying Chinese leaders will not "allow others to intervene" when it comes to Beijing's ties with Tehran.

"We have good cooperation with China. I congratulate the Chinese leadership which is seeking its nation's interest and wants to have a secure source of energy," Mirkazemi told reporters on Monday.

China National Petroleum Corp, the country's largest oil firm, and its subsidiary Petrochina agreed last year to invest some eight to nine billion dollars in one gas and two oil projects in Iran.

The oil projects are in Khuzestan, in southwestern Iran, while the gas project is at the giant South Pars field in the Gulf, where the Chinese firms replaced France's Total.

Sinopec, China's largest oil refining company, has also been involved since 2007 in exploiting Khuzestan's Yadavaran oil field, which envisages an investment of nearly three billion dollars.

Britain's Financial Times said in a report this month that Chinese companies are now supplying one-third of Iranian imports of petroleum products following the withdrawal of major Western suppliers.

However, analysts say the development of Sino-Iranian relations could run up against serious obstacles.

"Tehran wants China to invest, but at the same time it is very protective of its own businesses," said Hatef Haeri, who runs Bedigest.com, an Iranian economic information service.

"So Chinese companies face real mistrust in Iran, and must also overcome big cultural and linguistics barriers."

For its part, Beijing could be reluctant to sacrifice other more important interests if Western pressure intensifies.

Zhu Weilie, head of the Middle East Studies Institute at Shanghai International Studies University, said Iran's trade influence with China was far outweighed by China's commercial ties to the West.

"The US certainly matters most to China in terms of interests," he said. "China has extremely big trade volumes with the US, Europe and Japan, while trading volumes between China and Iran are just 20 billion dollars a year."

Two-way trade between China and the United States totalled 409 billion dollars in 2009, according to the US Congressional Research Service.

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