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WALL STREET JOURNAL
Mattis Pushes Stronger Ties With Indonesia, Vietnam
Under new security strategy, U.S. tries to shore up
Southeast Asian nations against intimidation by China in the South China
Sea
By Ben Otto
JAKARTA, Indonesia—U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis pushed for more
extensive security ties Tuesday with strategically located Indonesia,
part of new drive to shore up Southeast Asian countries against
intimidation by China in the South China Sea.
Mr. Mattis is making a short tour that will also take him to Vietnam,
days after he described China as using “predatory economics’’ to extend
control over its smaller neighbors. He will also travel to Pacific
Command in Hawaii, where he meets South Korea’s defense minister.
In Jakarta, Mr. Mattis described Indonesia, an archipelago nation of 250
million people that straddles the Pacific and Indian oceans, as at the
“maritime fulcrum” of the region and said the countries will work to
improve comprehensive monitoring in the Natuna Sea, a part of Indonesia
that has seen an increase in Chinese maritime activity coming down from
the disputed South China
Sea.
Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu said that South China Sea
tensions had eased recently with Beijing engaging more with individual
claimants and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Jakarta drew Beijing’s ire last year when it named the southern fringes
of the South China Sea after the Natunas island chain and stepped up a
drive to build airstrips, a fishing industry and security patrols there
to consolidate its hold on the territory. President Joko Widodo took the
symbolic move of holding a cabinet meeting on a navy ship there.
The move reflected heightened concern after China in recent years
established control over outlying islands claimed by smaller states in
the South China Sea, often by using its fishing fleet and then armed
coast guard vessels. It has reclaimed land and built up military-level
facilities on some islands.
The U.S. and Indonesia have long maintained security ties, including
conducting exercises together. In 2015, the nations upgraded
bilateral ties to the level of a strategic partnership. Mr.
Mattis also said the U.S. was open to expanding counterterrorism ties
with Indonesia.
China claims nearly all of the resource-rich waters of the South China
Sea, through which trillions of dollars in global trade pass each year,
despite competing claims by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei
and Taiwan.
Indonesia isn’t a claimant state, but has voiced concerns to Beijing
about Chinese fishing boats in Indonesian waters near the sea and worked
with other Southeast Asian nations to engage China on establishing a
code of conduct.
Mr. Mattis’s trip comes days after China accused the U.S. of trespassing
after a U.S. warship sailed near the Scarborough shoal, an uninhabited
reef that China seized from the Philippines in 2012. The U.S. Navy said
it conducts regular freedom-of-navigation operations aimed at upholding
use of the sea guaranteed under international law.
Mr. Mattis last week unveiled a new National Defense Strategy
characterizing China as a strategic competitor that uses “predatory
economics to intimidate its neighbors while militarizing features in the
South China Sea.”
U.S. defense objectives, the document said, included “defending allies
from military aggression and bolstering partners against coercion.”
A National Security Strategy released last month highlighted the
importance of developing greater security ties with Indonesia and
Vietnam, saying the U.S. would aim to strengthen ties with them and
other Southeast Asian nations “to help them become cooperative maritime
partners.”
In 2016, the U.S. lifted a decades-old arms embargo on Vietnam, whose
military is largely built on Russian hardware. A U.S. aircraft carrier
is scheduled to call at Cam Ranh harbor this year for the first time
since the Vietnam War ended. |