The Philippines is the odd one out in Asean in its total, welcoming embrace of the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy, while other member states have viewed Washington with caution and concern, according to speakers at a conference in Manila on South China Sea maritime security.
“The Indo-Pacific concept [by the US] is a trigger for South China Sea tensions,” Dr Supartono, director of Hang Tuah University in Surabaya, Indonesia, told the Maritime Security Conference in Metro Manila, held on November 22 by Singapore’s Asia Collective and the Manila-based International Development and Security Cooperation founded by security analyst Chester Cabalza.
The retired rear admiral of Indonesia’s navy said while “the United States is a friend of Indonesia”, its Indo-Pacific policy had brought “increased activity and presence” of military exercises from the US, India, Germany and even Russia, involving port visits and warship transits in the South and East China seas.
According to him, this has stirred up a “South China Sea conflict vortex”, where China has exhibited high confidence or assertiveness, buoyed by Washington’s view that Beijing had become its “strategic competitor” and threatens its dominant position globally and regionally.
Supartono stressed that unlike other claimant states in the South China Sea such as China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and Brunei, non-claimant Indonesia was mainly concerned with preventing an open war and maintaining peace. However, Jakarta did not recognise Beijing’s nine-dash line that claims almost all the South China Sea, he warned.
Supartono pointed out that other Asean non-claimant states such as Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar were all “dependent on China and [therefore] have no interest in the issue”.
Meanwhile, despite being a claimant state, “ Malaysia has been slow to get on board” with US strategy and has instead opted for “a more neutral stand”, according to Mohd Hazmi Rusli, an associate professor at the Faculty of Syariah and Law at the Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, and a former Australian National University research fellow.
Hazmi emphasised at the conference that Malaysia “does not acknowledge the nine-dash line” and “we do not see China as our immediate neighbour”.
“But other than that, we are very good [friends] with China … just like [with] the United States. We are friendly with everyone except North Korea.”
As for Vietnam, RAND Corporation’s senior defence analyst Derek Grossman noted that the country “has been coy” in voicing its support for the Indo-Pacific strategy, “but it is clear in Hanoi’s actions that it sees benefits to strengthening ties with Washington”.
Source: South China Morning Post