US-China tensions have the US’ closest allies in Asia strengthening their militaries. In a boost to US President Joe Biden’s diplomatic efforts, that trend is extending to some Southeast Asian nations that have recently kept the US at arm’s length.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr is looking to buy Chinook helicopters and accelerate talks to implement a defense cooperation pact that would give the US military greater access in the country. The moves come six years after then-Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte ended joint patrols with US forces and sought more weapons from China.
Indonesia has expanded joint exercises with the US, unveiled a US$125 billion military modernization plan last year and is holding talks over the purchase of dozens of F-15EX jets.
Photo: REUTERS
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin praised the “significant advancements” in the relationship after meeting Indonesian Minister of Defense Prabowo Subianto last month.
Wary of being forced to pick sides between the US and China, Southeast Asian nations have historically struggled to find a middle ground. Although many regional governments count on the US as a key security partner, China has been ASEAN’s biggest economic ally for 13 consecutive years, with two-way trade exceeding US$500 billion this year.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) more assertive foreign policy is shifting that equation for some countries as Beijing accelerates its military development and reiterates claims to Taiwan and a huge swath of the South China Sea. Regional governments have also been frustrated that efforts to negotiate a code of conduct between China and ASEAN in the South China Sea have not progressed.
“There’s a better appreciation that the US is an important factor of the strategic equation here and it’s in everybody’s interest that you stay around, and that’s a big change,” former Singaporean permanent secretary for foreign affairs Bilahari Kausikan said.
“The Biden administration is making all the right moves, but I am also somewhat skeptical,” said Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington.
The US looks at Indonesia “as if they should be this natural partner and yet they’re very critical of US freedom of navigation operations,” he said, referring to the US practice of sending warships through the Taiwan Strait.
Officials in Beijing have pushed back on the US outreach, slamming what they call a “Cold War” mindset in Washington.
China has pushed an alternative to the US’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, trying to assuage regional suspicions of its intentions by emphasizing shared economic benefits.
Asia Program director of the German Marshall Fund Bonnie Glaser said the developments in the region — but the Philippines especially — are likely getting attention in Beijing even if China is not reacting much publicly.
“My guess is that they note the trend and will privately suggest to some interlocutors in Southeast Asia that it isn’t in their interests to align themselves too closely with the US,” Glaser said.
The affinity in ASEAN for US weaponry or joint exercises does not mean those countries would back Washington in a conflict, let alone take part in one.
Frustrated by their own continuing disputes with a strengthening China, they mostly want a stronger deterrent so they cannot be totally dominated, said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute who specializes in regional security issues.
If push comes to shove, “at least they could give China a bloody nose,” he said.
The Taiwan crisis has complicated matters further. US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taipei in August was seen in some ASEAN capitals as a step too far, unnecessarily provoking China.
Beijing responded to the visit by unleashing its most comprehensive military drills ever around the nation.
In a sign of the region’s concerns, Singaporean Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan said last week that the geopolitical situation has become so bad that “the stage is almost preset” for a miscalculation or accident, akin to the events precipitating World War I.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
RSS