Budget boost ... Vietnam's defence spending has increased by 35 per cent over last year. Photo: Damian Pawlenko
PHNOM
PENH: An arms-buying spree across south-east Asia will be the elephant in the
room when almost 20 world leaders meet in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, on
Tuesday.
Defence
spending across the region increased 13.5 per cent to $US25.4 billion ($24.5
billion) last year and was expected to rise to $US40 billion by 2016, the
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said.
Flush
with economic success and wary of China's military expansion, countries are
acquiring sophisticated sea- and air-based arsenals that include dozens of
submarines that can operate in secret.
The
institute said Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia had increased defence
budgets by 66 per cent to 82 per cent from 2002 to last year.
Indonesia
was buying submarines from South Korea and coastal radar systems from China and
the US, Vietnam was getting submarines and combat jets from Russia and had
acquired Israeli ballistic missiles, defence analysts said.
Vietnam's
defence budget for this year is $US3.1 billion, a rise of 35 per cent over last
year. The Philippines has a huge wish-list of equipment it wants from the US
and is also approaching Japan, South Korea, France and Britain for defence
acquisitions.
Singapore,
already the fifth-largest weapons importing nation, looked like keeping its
title as the region's biggest spender, allocating $US9.7 billion this year on
defence, 24 per cent of its national budget. The city-state's purchases
included combat jets from the US and submarines from Sweden.
Thailand
was planning to buy submarines and warplanes from Sweden that would eventually
be fitted with anti-ship missiles, while arms deliveries to Malaysia jumped
eightfold over the five years to 2009.
For
decades, much of south-east Asia spent little on weapons except guns and tanks
to respond to internal threats. But they are now building their defence
capabilities amid tensions over territorial claims in the South China Sea and
other squabbles that underscore the role of the East Asia Summit.
Leaders
attending include the US President, Barack Obama, the Chinese Premier, Wen
Jiabao, and the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.
Defence
officials estimated 86 submarines would be added to regional fleets by 2020, 30
of which would belong to China, which already had the most.
Some
Chinese nuclear submarines were expected to carry 12 sea-launched ballistic
missiles and could eventually be equipped with multiple warheads.
A
south-east Asia analyst from the Australian Defence Force Academy at the
University of NSW, Carl Thayer, said the ''deployment of nuclear submarines,
including ballistic missile submarines, will introduce a new geostrategic
dimension to the regional balance of power''.
Professor
Thayer said Chinese nuclear submarine deployments would attract continuing
attention from the US Navy. He warned the arms buying spree could have a
destabilising impact on regional security.
In
a paper delivered in Vietnam at the weekend, Professor Thayer says ''south-east
Asia is ripe for rivalry - but not armed conflict - due to the strategic
mistrust between a rising and increasingly militarily powerful China and a US
committed to maintaining the present balance of power''.
Senior
US officials said Mr Obama's trip to Cambodia, the first by a US president,
would reinforce the ''pivot'' of US security forces to Asia and the Pacific.
The strategy is seen as a counterweight to China, which is aggressively
asserting its claim to almost all the South China Sea. Parts of the area are
also claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.
In
his paper, Professor Thayer says the ''most disturbing'' trend in defence
spending is China's growing reliance on citizen fishing fleets and paramilitary
forces gathering in a disputed area to assert Chinese jurisdiction. SMH
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