JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Navy forces from 21 countries are participating in the United States-led Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training (SEACAT) military exercise, which kickstarted in Singapore and virtually on Tuesday (10 August).
The exercise aims to boost cooperation among Southeast Asian countries by integrating tactics, standardised training, crisis management procedures, and protocols when dealing with illegal maritime activities.
Besides Indonesia and Singapore, other Southeast Asian countries taking part in the exercise were Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei, and Vietnam among others.
On top of the Southeast Asian nations, countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Germany, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, South Korea, and Japan also partook in the joint navy exercise.
“The scenarios are designed to encourage countries to work together through maritime domain awareness assets to better understand operations and adherence to international norms,” said Captain Tom Ogden, commander of Destroyer Squadron 7 in a release. Destroyer Squadron 7 is a naval unit of the United States Navy stationed in Singapore.
SEACAT was established in 2002—a year after the 9/11 terror attacks in the U.S.—and was previously known as Southeast Asia Cooperation Against Terrorism.
The SEACAT exercise—which involved 10 warships and 400 personnel—took place in the same timeline as the Indonesia-U.S army training, named Garuda Shield 2021, which is slated to wrap up on 14 August.
Both military drills are taking place in the heat of tensions between Washington and Beijing in the disputed South China Sea, China’s military presence in the strategic waters, and the China-Russia joint military exercise in China’s North Ningxia region.
The contested South China Sea is a mineral, oil-and-gas rich area and has been the source of a maritime dispute involving China and other ASEAN members like Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, and the Philippines, which also have overlapping claims in the region.
The World Bank estimated that the South China Sea has approximately 900 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and proven seven billion barrels of oil, as cited by the Council for Foreign Relations (CFR).
Even though the sea only covers 2.5 per cent of the Earth’s surface, it is home to more than 3,000 migrating original fish species, which accounts for 12 per cent of global fish catch, triggering conflicts as many countries are catching fish in the waters.
Indonesia has several times arrested Chinese and Vietnamese fishermen catching fish in its Exclusive Economic Zone (ZEE), defined in the UNCLOS 1982 as an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea which the coastal State has sovereign rights of exploring, exploiting, and conserving natural resources from.
Despite being a non-claimant country in the South China Sea, Indonesia has vested interest in the ZEE too, given that the zone is included in one of Beijing’s claims over the oil-rich waters.
Indonesia has robust relationships with both the U.S and China, stressing many times that the archipelagic country and other ASEAN members will not be dragged into the Washington-Beijing row in the South China Sea.
The nation’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi stressed that adherence to the UNCLOS 1982 is vital to maintaining peace in the South China Sea.
“ASEAN does not want to be trapped in a feud between major powers,” she said at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on 9 September 2020.
Derek Grossman, senior defence analyst at Rand Corporation told South China Morning Post that such a massive Garuda Shield exercise indicates that the U.S is trying to boost its presence in Indonesia aimed at countering China’s influence in the South China Sea.
“Beijing will expect Jakarta to maintain balance. If, however, US-Indonesia relations begin to add new forms of security cooperation, then China may begin to wonder whether it needs to worry about changes to Indonesia’s non-aligned status,” Mr Grossman said.
