Nations reach for Garuda Shield

Japan’s decision to join, for the first time, the US, Australia and Singapore in next week’s significantly enlarged Garuda Shield military exercise hosted by Indonesia adds a new dimension to the annual event that China would be wise not to overlook. No less important than Japan’s presence will be the active participation or observer status of other democracies that are worried about Beijing’s brazen aggression in the Indo-Pacific and the threat it poses to the region and to freedom of navigation through the South China Sea. They include Canada, France, India, Malaysia, South Korea, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Britain.

As a contrast to Chinese claims of a strategic win for the Communist Party when Indonesian President Joko Widodo held talks with Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday, the unmistakeable message signalled by the largest participation ever in the Garuda Shield is that democracies, whatever their size, increasingly are seeking to join forces and align their military interoperability to meet the challenge of Chinese aggression.

US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mark Milley said in Jakarta on Sunday that the US wants to work with Indonesia to “develop interoperability and modernise our military collectively” to ensure they can “meet whatever challenge China poses”. That goes for other nations involved in the exercise, which will take place in North Kalimantan and on Batam, the gateway to Indonesia’s Natuna Islands, where unlawful Chinese maritime incursions are causing increasingly deep concern. As General Milley warned when he met Australian military commanders in Canberra on Wednesday, China is becoming “much more aggressive”. The list of countries, led by Japan, keen to take part in Garuda Shield for the first time should leave Beijing in no doubt about the growing opposition to its aggression among the world’s democracies.

Indonesia, as the founder during the Cold War of the misnamed Non-Aligned Movement, doubtless has a long history of manoeuvring between the demands of competing superpowers. But its hosting of Garuda Shield shows the deep concern democracies across the region have about Beijing’s malevolence and the threat it poses to the sovereignty of nations large and small. The message for Mr Xi as he seeks to dominate the region could not be clearer. Far from Beijing being able to claim any sort of win, the number of democracies willing to join forces and stand up to its bullying and coercion is growing significantly.