Fighter jets will roar into action in the skies around Darwin, in northern Australia, next week. They will be part of the latest training exercise to disrupt illegal trade in materials and technology that can be used to make nightmarish arms.
Apart from Australia, other countries taking part in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) operation include Britain, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States. All are concerned over the growing international trade in goods destined for North Korea, Iran and elsewhere - allegedly to make chemical, biological, radioactive or nuclear bombs and the means to deliver them, including ballistic missiles. The ultimate fear is that terrorist groups will get and use weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Next week's training exercise will culminate with Australian fighter jets forcing an aircraft - 'suspected' of carrying a WMD cargo - to land in Darwin. In this case, the suspect plane will be a New Zealand Air Force Boeing 757. The exercise will involve customs, police and specialised response personnel from various countries. The previous PSI operation in Southeast Asia, in waters off Singapore in August, involved tracking, boarding and searching a ship.
Since then, law-enforcement agencies in Europe, the Middle East and Asia have launched many raids, searches and prosecutions. These were aimed at stopping and punishing attempts by individuals and companies to bypass national export-control laws and to sell weapons materials and technology to Iran, North Korea and other countries.
The initiative was launched by US President George W. Bush in May 2003. It is designed to deter, detect - and, if necessary, intercept at sea, on land or in the air - WMD shipments, delivery systems and related items.
Leading participants say that PSI co-operation takes place within existing national and international law. This means that an air interception of the kind being practised over northern Australia next week could happen only with the agreement of the state in whose airspace the operation was to take place. This, of course, limits the areas in which PSI interdictions can legally occur.
