Exercise in Strength
Regional Military Partners Reinvigorate Relationships, Reinforce Readiness
FORUM Staff
When the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Russia touted their bilateral military drills in mid-2022 as evidence of a “no-limits” friendship, they may instead have unwittingly highlighted the paucity of their circle of friends, leaving the regimes’ grandiose proclamations of partnership to sound like little more than the rattle of a saber in an ill-fitting scabbard. Contrast those belligerent Sino-Russian aerial and naval maneuvers — which were condemned by Japan and South Korea — with the multinational peacekeeping exercise being held at the same time next door to China and Russia.
Khaan Quest 2022, hosted by the Mongolian Armed Forces in conjunction with the United States Army Pacific, drew personnel from 15 Indo-Pacific and European nations for two weeks of combined training in explosive device awareness, combat first aid and riot control, conducted in coordination with humanitarian organizations. “It is not only a great opportunity to exchange lessons and techniques; it is an expression of the commitment of the participating nations to the charter of the United Nations and all that it stands for and against,” Australian Army Maj. Gen. Chris Smith, who also is assigned as deputy commanding general of strategy and plans for the U.S. Army Pacific, said in a news release. “To that end, the exercise draws from a diversity of participants matched by few other military exercises around the world.”
From the upland steppes of Northeast Asia to the volcanic islands of the Pacific Ocean, the long-awaited easing of pandemic lockdowns and quarantines has produced a flourish of multilateral military exercises throughout the Indo-Pacific, with many expanded over previous years as like-minded nations reinvigorate relationships and reinforce readiness in a time of geopolitical volatility. “Partnerships cannot be taken for granted,” Australian Army Lt. Gen. Rick Burr said during his keynote speech at the Land Forces Pacific (LANPAC) symposium in Hawaii in May 2022, where the role of multinational training and joint and coalition readiness in strengthening alliances and partnerships was a major topic. Collaboration, he said, “helps us to think bigger than ourselves … and improves our resilience.”
Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 underscored “the value of partnerships and shared interests around defending sovereignty,” Burr told attendees at the Indo-Pacific’s largest conference for armies. “Government to government, military to military, people to people — strengthening alliances and partnerships in our region is a critical element of the defense strategy to shape, deter and respond. Training with other armed forces provides presence and builds capacity and connectedness in our region and actively helps to shape the region’s stability and sovereignty.”
BUILDING TRUST, INTEROPERABILITY
A week after the 18th iteration of Khaan Quest concluded at the Five Hills Training Area near the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, Australia was among the 10 participants that also sent military personnel and assets to the waters around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California for Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC). Under the theme of “Capable, Adaptive, Partners,” the U.S.-led biennial exercise from late June to early August 2022 drew 25,000 personnel from more than two dozen nations in the Indo-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America, according to the U.S. Navy. First held in 1971, the world’s largest maritime exercise featured amphibious operations; anti-submarine, air defense, gunnery and missile drills; counterpiracy operations; mine clearance operations; explosive ordnance disposal; and diving and salvage operations.
For the Singapore Armed Forces, which participated in Khaan Quest and RIMPAC, such exercises are indispensable, providing its personnel with access to training areas many times larger than the 719-square-kilometer nation itself. “Unilateral training is but one component of our overall portfolio,” Brig. Gen. Frederick Choo, chief of staff for the Singapore Army, said during his presentation titled “Combined Joint Training — Singapore’s Experience and Future Opportunities” at LANPAC. “Opportunities to train with other armies are equally, if not more, important. It allows armies to learn from one another, foster friendships, build mutual trust and enhance our interoperability. It was such exercises in the early years of the Singapore Army that allowed us to learn, benchmark and professionalize early and quickly.”
As countries reassess their defense postures in light of the war in Europe and other global tensions, they “should work towards building collective security even as they boost their own individual defenses,” Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said during his trip to Tokyo for an international conference in late May 2022. “Security is not just [about] an individual country … so we also have to work together with other countries to secure collective security,” Lee said, according to Singapore’s The Straits Times newspaper.
Shared anxieties surrounding the integrity of national sovereignty include the PRC’s attempts to grab influence in the Pacific islands region, including the security pact it signed with the Solomon Islands in May 2022, which many fear could eventually lead to a Chinese military base being built in the Solomons, a nation of 700,000 people with no military force of its own. Although both nations denied having plans for a permanent Chinese military presence — a prospect that the island nation’s prime minister again ruled out in October 2022 — a leaked draft of the deal noted that Chinese warships could stop in the Solomon Islands for logistical replenishment, and that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could send police and armed forces there “to assist in maintaining social order,” The Associated Press reported. Analysts also point to the CCP’s track record of reneging on promises not to militarize structures it built elsewhere, including in Cambodia, Djibouti, Pakistan and the South China Sea.
‘COMMON REGIONAL SOLUTIONS’
The potential consequences of the Sino-Solomons security arrangement were in focus during the panel discussion “Combined Joint Training in the Indo-Pacific” at LANPAC that same month. “Papua New Guinea and all the Pacific Island Countries have a shared interest for a secure and prosperous region,” Papua New Guinea Defence Force Maj. Gen. Mark Goina told attendees. “Noting that Papua New Guinea is geographically located at the gateway of the southwest Pacific and Southeast Asia, it is faced with unique challenges. … We cannot deal with these challenges alone but require common regional solutions through partnership. For a secure and prosperous Pacific region, our partnership must be based on trust, respect, commitment to work together and, if our interests align, we can combine our efforts to maximize our effectiveness.”
For a small force with limited capabilities such as Papua New Guinea’s, the support of traditional partners such as Australia, France, New Zealand and the U.S. through joint training exercises is critical to enhancing “the effectiveness of our defense forces and their capacity to successfully work together,” Goina said. He highlighted his nation’s participation with regional partners including Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Tonga in responding to the Solomon Islands’ request for help quelling civil unrest and restoring security and public services beginning in 2003. After a decade, the multinational mission known as Operation Helpem Fren transitioned to partnering with the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force to modernize the nation’s law enforcement capabilities. “I am sure everyone will agree that this is the best and [most] successful Pacific partnering operation we have conducted in our region,” Goina said, crediting the combined joint training the participating nations’ troops conducted in Darwin, Australia.
Such training must be viewed in the context of “the realization of the lack of strategic and operational warning time that now exists in the geostrategic environment,” said Goina’s fellow panelist, Royal Australian Navy Rear Adm. Brett Sonter, who was posted to the U.S. Pacific Fleet staff as deputy director, maritime operations, in January 2022. “Hence, training how you fight because we no longer have the actual luxury of time. So, we have to work through those behaviors, those practices, now before in an unfortunate circumstance we have to actually use them. … And if we want to get the maximum deterrence value and assurance values out of exercises, they need to be flexible. They need to be able to change as we see the geostrategic environment change moving forward.”
A SUPERSIZED SHIELD
Military exercises are evolving and expanding across the region. In April 2022, the Indonesian National Armed Forces announced that Garuda Shield, its long-running bilateral exercise with the U.S. in August 2022, would add a dozen participating nations, including Australia, Japan, Papua New Guinea and Singapore.
The news came after Beijing deployed coast guard vessels to block Indonesia from exploring for oil and gas near the Natuna Islands inside Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone. That makes Garuda Shield’s expansion “especially noteworthy,” Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, told CNN. “Clearly, Indonesia wishes to engage in external balancing in the South China Sea, while using this as a platform to project its stature and influence in terms of multilateral defense diplomacy.”
Super Garuda Shield 2022 became the latest of more than 60 bilateral and multilateral exercises, involving dozens of nations, in which the Australian Defence Force participates each year. “Over recent years, the depth, scale and sophistication of engagements with our partners has evolved significantly,” Burr said during his LANPAC keynote speech. Those include Talisman Sabre, the largest bilateral training event involving Australian and U.S. forces, and the trilateral warfighting exercise Southern Jackaroo with Japan and the U.S. at Australia’s expansive Shoalwater Bay Training Area.
“These examples show what we all seem to increasingly seek: more ambitious, sophisticated activities with increased complexity, benefiting more of our people and, especially, our future leaders,” Burr said. “We all understand the value of the close ties of our countries to ensure security and enhance prosperity.”