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High-level US-Indonesia defence meeting aims to keep China at bay as Donald Trump ‘tries to solidify his legacy in Asia’
High-level US-Indonesia defence meeting aims to keep China at bay as Donald Trump ‘tries to solidify his legacy in Asia’
- Acting US Defence Secretary Christopher Miller met with his counterpart, Prabowo Subianto, in Jakarta on Monday to discuss military cooperation
- Analysts say the visit, which includes a stop in the Philippines, seeks to tie the hands of the incoming Biden administration.
Published: 12:13am, 8 Dec, 2020
Updated: 1:17am, 8 Dec, 2020
With just a month to go before US President Donald Trump’s administration ends, its acting defence secretary was in Indonesia on Monday to garner support for Trump’s hardline stance towards Beijing, with some analysts viewing this as part of an ongoing attempt to box the incoming Biden administration in on its policies towards China.
The acting defence secretary, Christopher Miller, was greeted by a military guard of honour in Jakarta before a meeting with his counterpart, Prabowo Subianto, and with Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi and Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto,
“In all these meetings, the secretary emphasised the importance that the Department of Defence places on the bilateral partnership and in securing a free and open South China Sea and Indo-Pacific region,” said a statement from the US Department of the Defence.
“With Minister Prabowo, the secretary discussed maritime security, defence procurements, information sharing, and military education. The secretary and Air Chief Marshal Hadi discussed the South China Sea and opportunities to increase military training between the two countries.”
US President Donald Trump may be trying to tie the hands of the incoming administration of Joe Biden on China policy. Photo: AFP
According to Zachary Abuza, a professor of Southeast Asia studies at the Washington-based National War College, the Trump administration has been “singularly focused on the threat of China” and continues to try to assemble “a group of countries that share their ideological proclivities and fear of China” – including Indonesia.
“I think the Trump administration … wants to do things that will make it hard for the Biden administration to reverse or walk back without political consequences,” said Abuza, who specialises in terrorism and security affairs.
“The US sees Indonesia as a vital partner in [containing China]: they control critical sea lanes of communications, have a historic mistrust of China, a territorial dispute with China, are the natural leaders of Asean, and have a military that desperately needs modernisation,” said Abuza.
Duterte’s policy of appeasement, no surprise, has utterly failed
Zachary Abuza, National War College
“Nonetheless, the US constantly makes false assumptions about Indonesia‘s willingness to stand up to China, or how central their non-aligned position is to their foreign policy,” he added.
Indonesia does not consider itself a party to the South China Sea dispute, but Beijing claims historic rights to areas overlapping Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around the Natuna Islands off the Sumatran coast. Beijing demarcates its claims on maps with a nine-dash line.
In January this year, Indonesia deployed fighter jets and warships to patrol near the Natuna Islands after Chinese coastguard and fishing vessels entered nearby waters.

Last month, Indonesian navy chief Admiral Yudo Margono announced that the country’s naval combat group headquarters would be moved from Jakarta to the Natuna Islands, to protect from “incursions” and in anticipation of a possible conflict in the region between the US and China.
China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all claim part of the South China Sea, through which US$3.4 trillion worth of international shipping trade passes every year. Beijing has built artificial islands and sent coastguard and research vessels to the resource-rich area to strengthen its claims.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has already announced a formal rejection of “most” of China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea, saying the world would “not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire”.
Joe Biden won’t soften US stance on South China Sea, experts say
9 Nov 2020

Beijing assailed the move, saying Washington was damaging regional peace and stability with such remarks.
Abuza said he thought “little will come out of acting secretary Miller‘s visit”.
“Yes, [Indonesia has] a territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea, but they also think the US policy, largely based on Freedom of Navigation Operations, is intentionally provocative,” Abuza said.

He said Indonesians do not want to be pulled into a US-China conflict or trade war at any cost.
“China is Indonesia‘s largest trade partner. And while 1.2 million doses of the SinoVac vaccine are a drop in the bucket, by January China will have distributed nearly 50 million doses or the raw materials to produce those doses.
“The US has been AWOL on that front,” said Abuza, referring to China’s shipment of Covid-19 vaccines that arrived in Indonesia over the weekend.
Collin Koh, a research fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, agreed that while Indonesia has been firmly objecting to China’s South China Sea claims and has implemented policy actions in the North Natuna Sea to counter what it sees as growing uncertainties in the area, it has also been wary of the evolving Sino-US rivalry and associated tensions in the region.

“This does mean that Jakarta is very cautious not to be entrapped by this development,” he said. “Therefore, inasmuch as the Trump Administration would hope that Jakarta can more resolutely stand on its side in countering China, the Jokowi administration would be more inclined to toe the traditional line of preserving its strategic autonomy where it comes to relations with the external powers – China and the US in this case – and over [South China Sea] issues,” said Koh, referring to Indonesian President Joko Widodo by his nickname.
If Washington is looking for a more strident statement than Jakarta has already given, its hope might be misplaced, said Natalie Sambhi, executive director of Verve Research, an independent organisation focused on understanding the relationship between militaries and societies in Southeast Asia.

Sambhi said that Indonesia has continued to affirm international law and sovereignty over areas in its Natuna Sea exclusive economic zone that China claims are in dispute. “The most reassuring public gesture might be a nod and a smile, given Jakarta‘s complex relations with Beijing,” she said.
Koh views the US visit as an effort by the US State and Defence Departments to consolidate relations before Trump ends his term of office.
“I tend to see these moves as more of trying to reassure regional countries of continued US support, not least over the South China Sea issues or towards China generally,” said Koh, adding that the visit is also an attempt to further cement existing policies – which could make it harder for the incoming Biden administration to reverse.
Sambhi said the timing of the trip suggests that the Trump administration “is trying to cement its Free and Open Indo-Pacific legacy” before Biden is sworn in.
“As such, [the visit] is trying to shore up support for major Trump statements concerning China, its responsibility for the coronavirus and the South China Sea,” she said.

Miller will head on Tuesday to the Philippines, where Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has largely set aside a 2016 arbitration ruling that effectively invalidated China‘s historic claims to most of the South China Sea.
While he has welcomed Beijing’s pledges of billions of dollars of investments, most of which have not materialised, he has this year taken a stronger stance on the maritime dispute, with Manila filing numerous protests to Beijing for its activities in the disputed waters. The Philippines is also looking into vaccine deals, including with China’s Sinovac.
Abuza of the National War College said Duterte‘s “policy of appeasement” had failed. He predicted that China would “escalate their actions, short of war, to enforce sovereignty” over the South China Sea.
Koh said Chinese investments and continued market access would be crucial for the Philippines’ economic recovery, given the massive impact Covid-19 has had on the country’s economy.
“That said, it’s very clear that Manila itself is also welcoming of maintaining continued defence and security ties with Washington as guaranteed by the mutual defence treaty,” Koh said.
“And officials of both sides have also been assured that such interactions would continue regardless of who sits in the White House. So in a way, the Biden administration could benefit from and build on the current state of relations.”
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High-level US-Indonesia defence meeting aims to keep China at bay
Analysts said the visit by acting US Defence Secretary Christopher Miller was an attempt to garner support for Washington’s China-containment strategy, and tie the hands of the incoming Biden administration.
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