Page 5 - AsiaElec Week 31 2022

AsiaElec COMMENTARY AsiaElec

support to Kyiv.
Militarily, Moscow has been stepping up its Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie
activities in Asia, even before the start of the University.
invasion. Russia’s Pacific Fleet held joint naval The Defence Ministry sees the global situation
exercises with China in October 2021 in the Sea as the ‘biggest challenge since WWII’. The LDP
of Japan, circling the Japanese islands. said earlier in the year that it is keeping Nato’s
In May 2022, as US President Biden was visit- 2% of GDP as guidance, although it later watered
ing the region, Russia and China sent fighter jets down that number. In the context of its pacifist
and bombers over the Sea of Japan, East China defence doctrine, the revisions would be a com-
Sea and the Sea of Philippines. plete turnaround.
Both the Japanese and South Korean air forces ‘The fundamental motivation of the MoD is
scrambled fighter jets to warn the intruders and closing the military gap with the PRC,’ Hanada
conduct surveillance. adds.
The objective clearly seems to be to intimi- For South Korea, Russia’s war in Ukraine has
date, and arguably to show Russia can still pro- a different impact. Its sizeable defence industry
ject power in Asia despite the lion’s share of its is seizing the opportunity to sell arms to Nato
resources being stuck in Ukraine. Japan has its countries. The fastest growing arms exporter in
own territorial dispute with Russia over four the world sees demand especially strong in East-
islands of the Kuril Archipelago in the Far East ern Europe.
that were invaded in 1945 by the Soviet Union In late July, Poland signed a framework deal
and are currently administered by Russia. with South Korea for weapons systems. The
In March, Russia withdrew from negotiations deal, worth $15bn according to Korean media,
about a solution and froze economic projects on is its largest-ever weapons export contract. South
the islands. Characteristically it conducted mili- Korea’s arms exports achieved a record high of
tary exercises on the islands in the same month. $7bn in 2021.
The result of this Russian-Chinese sabre-rat- South Korea was the only country that could
tling has, rather than frightening its opponents, deliver fast, said Polish Defence Minister Mari-
strengthened their resolve. Both Japan and usz Blaszczak. The deal, which includes fighter
Korea, not Nato members, joined the July gath- jets, howitzers, armoured tanks and technology
ering of the Alliance in Madrid to bolster rela- transfers, will transform Poland’s army. It has
tions in light of the ‘unpredictable’ international been handing over its older systems to Ukraine.
situation. Japanese PM Kashida stated: ‘I feel a Russia still has allies left such as Vietnam, Laos
strong sense of crisis that Ukraine could be East and Myanmar, but there are signs that especially
Asia tomorrow.’ Vietnam, with bilateral trade of $7bn in 2021, is
In Japan, the aggressive behaviour of Russia becoming a more lukewarm partner.
and China has been a catalyst for a review of Not much upside for Russia in Southeast Asia
its defence strategies and spending plans. ‘The either.™
Japanese MoD and ruling party LDP are using
Russia’s invasion to argue the world has changed’, Mark van Loon is a Seoul-based freelance
says Ryosuke Hanada of the Department of writer

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