BATURAJA, Indonesia (AP) — Troops from the United States, Indonesia and Australia participated in live-fire training Friday as part of annual joint fighting training on the island of Sumatra amid the development of Chinese maritime activity in the Indo-Pacific region.
In total, more than 5000 people from the United States, Indonesia, Australia, Japan and Singapore participate in this year’s Super Garuda Shield exercises, making them the largest since their launch in 2009.
Expanded training is perceived in China as a threat. Chinese state media have accused the United States of building an Indo-Pacific alliance with NATO to restrict the development of China’s military and diplomatic influence in the region.
The United Kingdom, Canada, France, India, Malaysia, South Korea, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and East Timor also sent observers to the exercises, which began earlier this month.
The commander of the U. S. Indo-Pacific, Admiral John C. Aquilino said the 14 nations involved in education are signaling their most potent ties as China asserts itself by claiming virtually the entire South China Sea and conducting exercises that threaten Taiwan’s autonomy.
“Destabilizing movements across the People’s Republic of China, as they apply to threatening activities and movements opposed to Taiwan, are precisely what we seek to avoid,” he told a joint news conference with Indonesian army leader Gen. Andika Perkasa in Baturaja, a coastal city. city in the province of South Sumatra.
“We will continue to provide assistance to a loose and open Indo-Pacific and we will be in a position where we want to respond to any eventuality,” Aquilino said.
Indonesia and China have positive relations, but Jakarta has expressed fears over what it sees as a Chinese invasion of its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea.
Despite its official position as a non-claimant state in the disputed South China Sea, Indonesia has been “dragged” into the territorial dispute since 2010 after China claimed Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone in the northern region of the Natuna Islands, Connie said. Rahakundini Bakrie, security analyst at the University of Indonesia.
The edge of the exclusive economic zone extends on both sides of the “nine-point line” unilaterally declared by Beijing that delineates its claims in the South China Sea.
The increased activities of Chinese coast guard ships and fishing boats in the region has thrown Jakarta off balance, prompting the Indonesian Navy to conduct a first training in July 2020 in the waters around Natuna in the southern part of the South China Sea.
Indonesia sees existing training with the United States as deterring the defense of the Natuna Islands, while for Washington the trainings are part of efforts to forge a united front that opposes the buildup of China’s military in the South China Sea, Bakrie said.
“Indonesia to send the message that it is fully ready for any high-intensity confrontation in the South China Sea region,” he said.
Joint wrestling training ends on Sunday.
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Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia.