US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will join 10 ASEAN defense ministers in a meeting beginning in Bali on Saturday. It is expected that the US will use the event to demonstrate its enhanced interest in ASEAN in efforts to balance China’s rising influence in the region.
Indonesia is Panetta’s first stop during his first official Asian tour, which will also include Japan and South Korea.
Panetta’s tour has been scheduled directly before US President Barack Obama’s visit to the East Asian Summit in November, culminating a series of indications from the world’s largest economy acknowledging Asia and the Pacific as driving engines of current global economic growth.
The US is now placing renewed priority on the Asia-Pacific region, as the superpower reportedly hopes to redirect its own attention and resources away from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who will hold bilateral talks with Panetta on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting on Sunday, will try to lead other ministers in addressing potential resolutions of pressing regional security issues, including in the South China Sea, the denuclearization of North Korea and other regional security hot spots. He also hopes to steer his colleagues toward the ASEAN goal of achieving a security community by 2015 characterized by transparent defense objectives and friendly military cooperation.
“The agenda will include exchanges of views on strengthening cooperation to achieve an ASEAN Security Community while developing the agreed concept papers,” the Defense Ministry said in a press statement.
The concept papers include cooperation of ASEAN country militaries to address natural disasters and a joint force for developing a regional defense industry.
Analysts here have said that Indonesia should be firm in creating the ASEAN Defense Industry Collaboration by not allowing neighboring Malaysia to dominant proposed plans.
“Indonesia should initiate a consortium for the [planned] regional defense industry so that it won’t be dominated by Malaysia,” University of Indonesia military expert Andi Widjajanto said on Monday.
He said Indonesia could propose production of Airbus carriers that it had already produced, or production of missile launchers for which state-owned military equipment producer PT Pindad and a Belgium company signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday. “[Our proposal] will also show our defense industry’s self-sufficiency,” he said.
Malaysia has proposed that countries in the region jointly produce M4 carbines to replace aging M16 rifles, with Malaysia already having a company ready to produce M4s. The Malaysian firm is licensed by US weapons producer Lockheed Martin.
Malaysian Defense Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi earlier said that the joint production would involve, but would not be limited to, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
He said that the joint production would save up to 50 percent of the US$25 billion in annual regional defense spending by 2030, as ASEAN countries would no longer need to import certain weapons from outside the region.
Andi said that possible issues for discussion in the ADMM and the informal meeting between ASEAN ministers and US officials were humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, the regional defense industry consortium brought up by Malaysia and maritime security initiatives by each ASEAN country in line with the US global fight against terrorism.
