Arms Build Up In Indo Pacific And South East Asia
By
Colonel Awadhesh Kumar, Veteran
Chinese expanding claim lines in Indo Pacific has certainly spooked the smaller nations bordering China and other island nations in the Indo Pacific.
USA and Western European countries have been carrying out FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION exercises through the Indo Pacific quite often. Countries like Japan, Philippines, Vietnam and Australia are really concerned over Chinese Threat.
Suddenly it seems that countries in and around Indo Pacific are going in for an arms build up, especially long range missiles to build up their arsenals for defence. Also they no longer want to depend upon the American Navy alone for their security.
In fact Washington itself has been urging these Asian countries to reinforce their military strength and strengthen long-range strike capabilities. Since it is difficult for most of these countries to develop such missiles they need to purchase the same. Earlier for such hardware the only supplier was USA.
However many of these countries are now looking at a new Seller from whom they can get such modern Weapon Systems at a much lower price. Most countries are therefore having talks with India for purchase of such missiles and other military hardware.
The Chinese Threat is very real and has clearly impacted the Security concerns of the region. Chinese expanding navy and its deep forays in the Nautuna Sea/Philippines Sea / South China Sea and aggressive actions in the Taiwan Strait has created severe panic among the countries in the region.
They feel that their security is threatened by China. This leaves them with no alternative but to buy more weapons and equipment, including missiles and ships from wherever they can.
Though China keeps repeating that it has no intention to threaten any country and that China has always adhered to the principle of being a friendly neighbor and pursued peaceful development. However its actions in the waters of the Indo Pacific have been far from friendly.
Even the Chinese fishing fleets have been forcibly poaching in the territorial waters of the most of these countries. Then there are number of major disputes over oil drilling etc.
No one likes to see an arms race anywhere. However It seems that China’s actions and intentions are forcing the neighboring countries to start looking around for suitable arms and weapons.
Beijing stands fully exposed after the Galwan Valley incident in Ladhak and the international community has seen that India is in no mood to tolerate such nonsense any more and has effectively checkmated the PLA. The Indo Pacific countries have watched the actions of India and are now turning towards it for help.
Vietnam and India already have deep economic and defence cooperation and similar cooperation developing at a fast rate between India and Philippines. Recently Malaysia too has shown interest in the purchase of Tejas fighters from India for its Air Force.
The Asia-Pacific region is no more naive about the Beijing’s ultimate intent. Given it’s constant imposition of coercion and deterrence, these countries have decided to start strengthening their defences.
Apart from exposing China’s intention, China should be forced by the international community, to adhere to rule of law as approved by the UN Charter.
No country in the region wants to engage in an arms race with any country, though at the same time regional or global hegemony by any power needs to be prevented at all cost.
