The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has launched six-day joint military exercises in a region where the waters have been roiled by Sino-American rivalry in recent months. These are the first ASEAN joint military exercises without the involvement of outside powers.
ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In the past, it has held joint military exercises with China and the US. Early this year, it held joint maritime exercises with India.
The primary objective of the joint exercises is to reaffirm ASEAN’s centrality in the Indo-Pacific region, which has weakened over the years due to differences among members on key issues such as Myanmar.
The joint military drills, officially called ASEAN Solidarity Exercise Natuna (ASEX 01-Natuna), are being held around Batam Island at the eastern approach of the Malacca Strait. It will involve regional navies, armies and air forces. The focus will be on maritime security, disaster response, and rescue operations rather than combat exercises.
Great value
Experts said from a strategic perspective, there is great value in having common ASEAN positions and objectives. Collectively, the ASEAN countries exercise formidable strategic advantage.
They occupy a crucial geopolitical position along vital sea routes between the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean to the west and the South and East China Seas to the east. Over one-third of the global seaborne trade, estimated at about $3.37 trillion, passes through Southeast Asian waters, including about 80 percent of both China and Japan’s oil imports.
With a total GDP of $3.66 trillion and $10.2 trillion in purchasing power parity terms, ASEAN is essential for the stability of the global economy. In recent months, the South China Sea has become an extremely contentious area with China claiming sovereignty via an expansive “nine-dash line” based on its historic maps.
Though an international arbitration court ruled in 2016 that it had no legal basis, China continues to claim ownership of much of the maritime territory. Many ASEAN members are involved in disputes with China over islands in the area over which they too claim ownership.
However, the exercises are not being held in areas that China claims. The exercises were originally planned for the southern part of the South China Sea –where Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone overlaps with China’s “nine-dash line.” But it was moved to within Indonesia’s archipelagic waters in the South Natuna Sea, mainly at the behest of Cambodia, a close ally of China.
To maintain unity within ASEAN, Indonesia has denied this was the result of internal divisions. It claimed the change was made because the new location is more suited to the non-combat nature of the drills, with priority “given to areas that are prone to disasters.”
Experts said such a drill will not only make sense from a policy and international law perspective but also address the need to reaffirm ASEAN’s centrality. According to Scot Marciel, a US diplomat and former ambassador to Indonesia and Myanmar, the exercises will not resolve South China Sea territorial claims nor prevent China from asserting its claim. Neither will it end the bloc’s divisions over Myanmar or other matters.
“It would, however, boost ASEAN’s diminished credibility, while pushing back on unjustified Chinese claims in a manner that Beijing would not easily be able to counter or blame on the US,” says Marciel.
He added that if the exercises are carried out successfully, it could lead to regular drills, potentially reducing the perceived need in Washington and other capitals to assert freedom of navigation rights in the South China Sea.
“In that sense, it could reduce great-power tension and interference in the region,” says Marciel.
Collective approach
The ASEAN charter describes centrality as “the primary driving force in its relations and cooperation with its external partners.” It believes the centrality is crucial to upholding international law and building an ‘open’, ‘transparent’, ‘inclusive’, and ‘rules-based’ regional architecture.
India is among the countries that has called for ASEAN's centrality in the Indo-Pacific region.
A collective ASEAN approach might deter China from taking aggressive measures against the 10-member bloc as it could jeopardise its trade and investment with the countries in the region crucial to its growth and development. Bilateral trade between China and ASEAN was over $970 billion in 2022 and the two-way investment is over $300 billion.
So far, China has successfully managed to bring out the divisions within the bloc to consolidate its position in the region. It is crucial that the military drills set the path for ASEAN to speak in one voice on all crucial issues and to establish its centrality in the region.
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