(Delivered in Parliament on 2 March 2018)
ADMM and ADMM-Plus – Pritam Singh
Chairman Sir, good progress is being made through the ADMM and ADMM Plus frameworks to increase confidence between member countries and which lower but not eliminate the possibility and prospect of outright hostilities in the region particularly over flash points such as the South China Sea. The upcoming ASEAN-China maritime exercise is a good example of the work that goes on to build confidence amongst each other amongst partner nations. In particular, the adoption of the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES) has raised hopes of its implementation even if an agreement amongst the all the Plus partners may prove harder to secure than the agreement of the ASEAN nations. Is there any realistic prospect for a CUES framework for unplanned encounters in the air as intimated by the Defence Minister last month in view of fatal incidents in the past?
As ADMM chair, it was reported that Singapore plans to strengthen cooperation and build resilience among the ASEAN member states and eight “Plus” countries. These include plans to increase counter-terrorism collaboration and raising capabilities to combat chemical, biological and radiological threats. Separately, under the “Our Eyes” initiative, senior defence officials from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Brunei will meet every two weeks to swap information on militant groups and develop a common database of violent extremists. Can the Minister clarify if there is any scope for such cooperation to create economies of scale for the SAF’s and achieve some savings for MINDEF.
Finally, Minister, in view of the importance of ADMM Plus frameworks and the reality of a more multipolar world, is there any prospect for making the ADMM Plus a yearly meeting instead of once every two years as it is currently? What has been the reception to this proposal by the ADMM and ADMM plus partners?
ADMM Plus and the South China Sea – Low Thia Khiang
Chairman Sir,
The Minister for Finance mentioned that tensions in the South China Sea could affect investor confidence and therefore stability and growth in the region. It is thus strategic for Singapore to minimize the tensions and prevent incidents and accidents from escalating into a serious event in the South China Sea.
Singapore is the ASEAN Chair this year and thus leading the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting, or ADMM, and the ADMM-Plus, which involves another eight other powers including China and the United States. We have a timely opportunity here to establish the framework to minimize the tensions. It is timely because Singapore is a non-claimant stakeholder in settlement of the South China Sea disputes and has strong bilateral ties with many of the other stakeholders, including ASEAN countries, China and the United States.
It is also timely because the South China Sea disputes seem to be entering into a more rational phase of negotiation and balance of power, after the initial emotive phase occasioned by the jostling for territory.
In 2013, China and the United States took part in a joint training exercise off Hawaii. In 2014, both countries, along with other South China Sea stakeholders signed the agreement on the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea, or CUES.
CUES is an excellent platform to work with to avoid the escalation of any incident and to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea.
On 6th February this year, Mindef issued a press release outlining the ADMM’s three areas of focus for 2018 after the ADMM retreat in Singapore. One area is to reaffirm the importance of CUES on the sea and in the air. This is a worthy goal, but unfortunately the press release was short on details about this area. Would the Minister elaborate on how the ADMM-Plus would be used to reaffirm the importance of CUES?
It was also announced that ASEAN will be conducting an inaugural maritime exercise with China at the end of this year. This is excellent, as the US-China maritime exercise in 2013 fostered trust that led to the CUES agreement in 2014. I would like to ask the Minister whether the ASEAN-China maritime exercise will involve the testing and practice of CUES in the South China Sea and whether a similar exercise can be conducted under the aegis of ADMM-Plus? I am asking the latter question because 2018 is the beginning of the third ADMM-Plus three-year cycle and there were already four live exercises held in the last cycle which were useful for deepening regional security cooperation.