This month has shown Asian nations a taste of things to come, so they are arming up from top to bottom
Air Force personnel inspect a F-16V fighter jet during a drill at Hualien Air Force base in Taiwan on Aug. 17. (Photo: AFP)
By Ben Joseph
Asia is becoming increasingly unsafe. Motivated to strengthen military dominance, war games have been on the rise and an unbridled arms race is on in the world’s most populous continent.
The Indo-Pacific is no longer a sailor’s paradise. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are escalating. The Taiwan Strait is under threat after the provocative visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Aug. 2. Japan is mulling rolling back its pacifist constitution and its maritime neighbor Russia is getting ready to host a multinational military exercise in the disputed Northern Territories.
China is being encircled by the US and its allies due to Beijing’s newfound love for the Indo-Pacific Strategy, unveiled by Washington under President Barack Obama in 2016.
The US is all set to regain its lost economic supremacy from China and has found Asia as the right place to amass wealth. To strengthen and exploit its dominance in Asia, the US has brought its power to bear on the continent to checkmate China’s steady and rapid rise as an economic and military superpower.
Under Catholic President Joe Biden, the US has escalated its war posturing against communist China and is in the process of normalizing its military presence around the largest populated country in the world, forcing Asian nations to seek more arms while they have yet to recover from the economic woes inflicted by the pandemic.
As tensions build, Asian nations are also opting for more war games and joint military drills to familiarize themselves with the latest lethal weapons. Though these war games, led by the US and Russia, are not aimed at third parties, the optics are clear because three joint military exercises this month alone are based on invasion scenarios, tracing their roots to Asia.
In retaliation to Pelosi’s visit, second in the presidential line of succession, China has increased military drills around Taiwan and is flying warplanes close to Taiwanese airspace and is holding military exercises involving invasion scenarios.
These Chinese war games, however, have not gone down well with neighboring nations like Japan.
China is participating in Vostok (East) 2022, the first multinational military exercise hosted by Russia since it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, from Aug. 30 to Sept. 5.
Both Russia and China are grappling with new security challenges after Japan hinted at dumping its pacifist constitution, NATO’s growing Asia-Pacific posturing, and Washington’s provocations over Taiwan.
To be staged in 12 different locations with a geographical spread of 7 million square kilometers near the Russia-China border, Vostok 2022 includes 17 nations with Belarus, Mongolia and Tajikistan expected to take part in a big way.
Another Asian nuclear power, India, has not yet officially confirmed its participation in the Russia-led war games.
“The Western aim is to cobble together an Asian version of the NATO military alliance to take on China”
The military drill will also be staged near the Kuril Islands, also known as the Northern Territories in Japan, which is dead against their inclusion. Both Japan and Russia claim these islands as their own.
Presently, a few other Asian nations like Indonesia, India, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and the UAE are enhancing their military interoperability by taking part in Exercise Pitch Black, led by the US, UK, Canada and France and hosted by Australia.
With Pitch Black, Western nations are pulling more Asian nations into their fold to put up an anti-China united front and show unity.
The last time Pitch Black was held in 2018, two nations took part in it. This year, the number has swelled to 17 as Australia has increased its hostility towards China for adding more Pacific Ocean nations to its fold. For that matter, Germany is participating in Pitch Black for the first time.
The Western aim is to cobble together an Asian version of the NATO military alliance to take on China and it is finding more Asian takers amid the strained situation in the Taiwan Strait, the ongoing war in Eastern Europe and the uneasy calm on the Korean Peninsula.
The Australia Broadcasting Corporation said that Su-30s from India and F-15s and F-16s from Singapore will feature in the Pitch Black exercise, while Mitsubishi F-2s from Japan are debuting.
The exercise involves more than 100 fighter jets and thousands of personnel playing out combat scenarios, using the city of Darwin as the home base.
According to Western media, this year’s Pitch Black, which started on Aug. 19 and ends on Sept. 8, represents “an allied response” to China’s military drills around Taiwan.
Aside from Exercise Pitch Black, the US, Japan and South Korea conducted a ballistic missile search and tracking exercise, the first such drill since 2017, under the multinational Pacific Dragon exercise in Hawaii from Aug. 8-14.
“As the security scenario in Asia is taking a turn for the worse, more and more Asian nations are taking part in military exercises”
From Aug. 22 to Sept. 1, the US and South Korea are conducting their biggest combined military exercise with the participation of tens of thousands of troops. The annual summertime exercise was renamed Ulchi Freedom Shield.
Conducted to deter North Korea, the aim of Ulchi Freedom Shield is to build an anti-missile system with the capability for offensive and defensive operations, covering North Korea, China and Russia.
The military drill has escalated tensions on the Korean Peninsula. In retaliation to the drills, North Korea, which conducted an unprecedented number of weapons tests this year, test-fired two cruise missiles into the sea in the third week of August.
As the security scenario in Asia is taking a turn for the worse, more and more Asian nations are taking part in military exercises as they give them the chance to improve their capabilities. In fact, some go as participants as they have friction with each other.
The month of August has shown Asian nations a taste of things to come. So, they are arming up from top to bottom.
* The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.