Respect urged for China’s rightful rise
US, allies should tackle climate change, learn from Asian way of solving differences, forum hears
‘In good times and bad times, in health and sickness, in richness and poverty, we will be husband and wife forever. That is our position about the seriousness of relationships.”
This Christian vow of marriage was cited at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue on June 12 by Inia Batikoto Seruiratu, Fiji’s minister for defense, national security and policing, to underline the need of trust between nations.
Although Seruiratu had stressed repeatedly that climate change is the top threat of the Asia-Pacific region, he was pushed to clarify ties with China at the dialogue held from June 10 to June 12 in Singapore, where speakers and other participants from the United States and its allies tried hard to hype so-called “China threat” in geopolitics to prop up the US-initiated “Indo-Pacific Strategy”.
Enduring relationships are “built on trust”, Seruiratu emphasized, referring to visits to Fiji recently by Americans, Chinese, Japanese and Australians. “We hope we are famous for the right reason.”
While describing Fiji’s traditional relationships as “never been stronger and better”, he defended Fijian cooperation with China.
“China is a key development partner and that is a known fact and that is accepted as well in the region,” Seruiratu told the audience.
He said the Pacific islands respect what China has come up with in terms of cooperation though there is no consensus on every issue among the sovereign states.
Noting the creation of fear about the region through disinformation and misinformation, Seruiratu said, “We all have the sovereign rights to make our own decisions.”
But to all the islanders at least, climate change is the top concern. “In Fiji, we’re not threatened by geopolitical competition,” the minister said. “The single greatest threat to our very existence is climate change.”
“We don’t want to wait for the tides to wash through our living rooms, we don’t want to wait for the next virus to threaten our health, and the next lie to mislead our people,” Seruiratu said.
He said the islanders need the support of other countries and institutions in the region, especially for information sharing and capability development against the climate threat.
The urgency of climate security was also voiced by some other speakers at the regional forum in Singapore.
Mariya Ahmed Didi, minister of defence of Maldives, found that “in the security realm people rarely speak of existential crisis”.
“For small, low-lying island states, climate change is an existential crisis,” she said, noting the cost of failure is unfathomable as it is one “which can effectively erase a nation-state”.
Though talk of the challenge is not new, “what may be new is our level of despair,” she said on June 11.
Her anxiety was echoed by New Zealand Defence Minister Peeni Henare, who said: “We can only combat the climate change together …for the world, and for our children and grandchildren.”
Tobias Lindner, minister of state at Germany’s Federal Foreign Office, agreed that joint efforts were needed to face the existential threat. “Cooperation against climate change should not come with political price tags,” he said, adding that Germany is going for green defence.
However, throughout the discussions at the regional security forum, China-related issues kept coming into focus, following remarks made by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on June 11.
While Europeans increased their dialogue presence, defense officials of Britain, Canada and the Netherlands raised the issue of more military presence in the South China Sea for the “Indo-Pacific Strategy”, which analysts said would only serve to fuel tensions in an otherwise peaceful region.
“It’s not an exaggeration that we now stand at a potentially dangerous point in our history,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen said on June 12 at the final panel session, citing risks including expansions of defense spending and higher pitches of joint military exercises in the Asia Pacific, apart from the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
However, China is the top trading partner for almost all Asia-Pacific countries, Ng noted. “For Asia, the core issue is about the interdependency that is far more developed, productive and mutually beneficial than Russia and Europe.”
He said Asian countries have effective confidence-building initiatives and operational guidelines and mechanisms for the military, and Asia can strengthen existing establishments and step up engagements within and with other extra-regional powers.
Asian neighbors have disputes, Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto told an audience on June 11, but “we will strive to solve those differences in an amicable and in a mutually-beneficial way,” and that is the Asian way of solving problems.
Prabowo said Indonesia values cooperation with all partners, but “we must always consider and respect the national interest and the rightful interest of the People’s Republic of China”.
He told a plenary session of the dialogue that China has been a leader in Asia for thousands of years and the rightful rise of China to be back to its position as a great civilization should be respected.
Richard Marles, Australia’s deputy prime minister and minister for defense, noted that China’s economic success is connected to that of the region.
“Australia values a productive relationship with China. China is not going anywhere,” he said. “We will be steady and consistent, looking for avenues of cooperation where they exist while recognizing China’s growing power and the manner in which that is reshaping our region,” Marles said.
Answering questions regarding the Ream Naval Base that is being upgraded, Tea Banh, Cambodia’s deputy prime minister and minister for national defense, said speculation that the project means giving exclusive use to China is not true, because “any ship from any country that needs emergency repair in the territorial sea is welcome to come into Cambodia’s port”.
Ng from Singapore said his country’s naval base has also welcomed warships from many countries in and outside the region.
Countering claims of Chinese navy increasing tension in the Indian Ocean, Biswajit Dasgupta, flag officer commanding-in-chief of Eastern Naval Command of the Indian Navy, said China’s naval forces have been expanding in the past few years, but “at the moment, I really don’t see that as a major challenge to the Indian Navy”, though “it is something to be watched”.
“I will not be surprised that in case there is a requirement, the PLA Navy could send more ships into the Indian Ocean to safeguard (China’s) trade in whatever manner they wish to,” Dasgupta said.
Responding to questions about the South China Sea, Delfin Lorenzana, Philippine secretary of national defense, said: “Since 2016 there has been stability in the region and I’d like to remain in that way.”