Aukus won't spark Asian arms race: US Ambassador to Indonesia
The American ambassador to Indonesia Sung Kim said on Wednesday that the Aukus defence pact - in which the United States and Britain will share nuclear submarine technology with Australia - would not lead to an arms race in the Indo-Pacific.
"I am not concerned about an arms race or [nuclear] proliferation. I think all three countries have a very, very strong record and commitment to non-proliferation. Australia has shown its complete commitment to nuclear non-proliferation, so we have great confidence in its ability to manage any proliferation concerns," Kim told a webinar held by the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club.
Kim's comments followed a statement by Indonesia in which it had said it was "deeply concerned over the continuing arms race and power projection in the region", and called on Australia to meet its nuclear non-proliferation obligations and to uphold the rule of law as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982.
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In what appeared to be an attempt to play down these concerns, ambassador Kim said the defence pact was not "directed at any particular country".
"I think this is a forward-looking positive initiative that will improve the capacities and capabilities of three countries to work together more closely and more effectively with [Southeast Asian countries]."
The defence pact between Australia, the US, and Britain has been widely interpreted as a response to China's rising aggressiveness in the Indo-Pacific, particularly in the South China Sea where territorial disputes are ongoing between the world's second largest economy and several Southeast Asian states.
But Kim said the US was not asking any country "to make choices between the US and any other country" and he did not believe the initiative would place "Indonesia or any other country in an awkward situation".
Sung Kim is the US ambassador to Indonesia and also the US Special Envoy for North Korea. Photo: Reuters alt=Sung Kim is the US ambassador to Indonesia and also the US Special Envoy for North Korea. Photo: Reuters
Kim, who is the US special representative for North Korea, also said his country was "deeply concerned" about Tuesday's hypersonic missile launch by North Korea, which the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency said was of "great strategic significance" for the country.
"We are strongly committed to finding a diplomatic path to complete the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. That has not changed at all, and these missile activities do not change our determination.
"We are waiting to hear back from Pyongyang. We have made a number of approaches to [North Korea] and have proposed dialogues on a wide range of topics but we haven't heard back and we hope to hear back soon," he said.
He added that his South Korean counterpart was "coming to Jakarta so that we can have more detailed talks [on Thursday], so that tight coordination will be continued throughout".
Tuesday's hypersonic missile launch by North Korea. Photo: AFP alt=Tuesday's hypersonic missile launch by North Korea. Photo: AFP
Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy and the de facto leader of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has been vocal about its concerns over the Aukus pact.
Abdul Kadir Jailani, director general for Asian, Pacific, and African affairs at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in an op-ed published by The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that "no international legal norm appears to be violated for the time being" by Australia's recent actions. However, he said that Indonesia had reasonable questions about changes to the geopolitical landscape, which Indonesia did not wish to see.
"Such acquisition of nuclear submarines raises concerns that an arms race characterised by increasing power projection capabilities in the region may be imminent. This new strategic posture is clearly intended to bolster deterrence in contested areas in the Indo-Pacific," he said.
"These kinds of endeavours to build up powerful military prowess are likely to trigger and attract further counter reactions."
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called his Malaysian and Indonesian counterparts, Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Joko Widodo, to reassure them that Australia was committed to maintaining peace in the Indo-Pacific.
Dewi Fortuna Anwar, a foreign policy expert from the Centre for Political Studies at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, said Southeast Asian countries did not want to be forced to choose sides in the intensifying rivalry between US and China.
"Southeast Asian [countries] do not want to be a theatre for proxy wars," Dewi said on Wednesday during a webinar held by the Franco-German Observatory of the Indo-Pacific.
"The last thing we want is militarisation in the Indo-Pacific. When France and the UK sent warships [to the Indo-Pacific], the concern was that this only heightened the possibility of real incidents at sea."
Like its Southeast Asian neighbours, Indonesia has maintained a strategic balancing act by bolstering ties with both China and the US and stays non-aligned, as dictated by its "free-and-active" foreign policy.
"For those of you familiar with Indonesian foreign policy, Indonesia has always held to the pretty girl analogy: flirt with and date a lot of guys, but do not get married to anyone. That's where the leverage is and that's what Asean is also doing," Dewi said.
The US has been Indonesia's largest defence partner for decades, with the countries holding an average of 230 joint military activities every year, ambassador Kim said.
Indonesia and the US held the largest iteration of their joint Garuda Shield drill last month, which involved more than 4,500 military personnel, despite Indonesia having been battered by a Delta-driven second wave of the coronavirus over the summer.
"To be honest, I was very cautious about the Garuda Shield exercise, because it meant bringing so many people into Indonesia and I wanted to be respectful to the difficult Covid-19 situation that Indonesia was facing," Kim said.
"But I agreed to support the exercise because I could sense in the two militaries, at all ranks to the top leadership, that there was a very strong commitment to follow through joint activities such as the Garuda Shield."
Indonesian Major General Heri Wiranto and US Captain David Moats during the latest Garuda Shield exercise. Photo: AFP alt=Indonesian Major General Heri Wiranto and US Captain David Moats during the latest Garuda Shield exercise. Photo: AFP
Kim also said that the annual volume of trade between the US and Indonesia, of around US$30 billion, "should be much bigger".
China was Indonesia's largest trade partner last year, with US$71 billion in bilateral trade. It was also Indonesia's second largest source of foreign investment.
Aside from trade and investment, Indonesia and China have good relationships in infrastructure and cybersecurity.
On Tuesday, Huawei and Indonesia's top cybersecurity body, the National Cyber and Crypto Agency, renewed a memorandum of understanding to enhance Indonesia's cybersecurity capabilities. The ceremony was attended by Indonesia's Senior Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, the country's go-to China hand, and Huawei chief executive and founder Ren Zhengfei.
Kim also denied that the US was "dismissing" Indonesia by not including it in the recent visits to the region by Vice-President Kamala Harris and US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin. He said the pair hand not come to Indonesia out of respect for the "difficult Covid-19 situation that Indonesia was facing at the time".
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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