Under Singapore’s chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Beijing is rapidly deepening military-to-military relations with its smaller neighbours.
During the Asean Defence Ministers Meetings Plus earlier this month, China and Southeast Asian countries agreed on a series of new initiatives to solidify their burgeoning ties.
Later this year, the two sides are set to hold their first-ever joint naval drills, signalling warming ties as well as China’s emergence as the new pre-eminent force in the region.
They also reiterated the importance of operating various confidence building measures such as the proposed code for unplanned encounters in both air and sea. This way, all sides hope to avoid accidental clashes and other forms of misunderstanding in maritime flashpoints such as the South China Sea
China’s defence minister, Chang Wanquan, who represented the Chinese side during the meeting, reaffirmed his country’s “deep friendship” with Asean.
He spent five days in Singapore where he also met Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, for a series of meetings aimed at ensuring ties are on an even keel.
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China and Singapore have been at odds in recent years over the latter’s warming relations with the United States and Taiwan, which Beijing treats as a renegade Chinese province. Singapore has also strained relations with China by emphasising compliance with international law, including the Philippines’ landmark arbitration award at The Hague contesting China’s claims in the South China Sea.
Yet, relations have swiftly recovered in recent months.
Singapore holds a particularly important role in Beijing’s ties with its southern neighbours since the city state is currently both the rotational chairman of Asean as well as country coordinator for Asean-China relations.
Singaporean defence minister, Ng Eng Hen, who co-chaired the defence ministers meeting with China, called his Chinese counterpart a very good and solid friend of Asean, emphasising how the Chinese defence chief has “done a lot personally to try to move our bilateral defence relationship between China and Asean forward”.