Thursday, 10 February 2022
Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia convened a virtual public discussion on “Is There an Arms Race Taking Place in the Indo-Pacific Region?”.
There have been diverse perceptions on the current state of security in the Indo-Pacific after AUKUS announcement and the recent development of QUAD engagement. Some Southeast Asian countries have expressed concerns on the increasing military power projection in the region that might trigger (or escalate) an arms race. This brought a vague conclusion on how should ASEAN respond to the great powers’ moves on the region’s geopolitics chessboard. For this reason, the public discussion was held.
The panel discussion was joined by Andi Widjajanto, the Coordinator and Senior Analyst in Political Security at Laboratorium Indonesia 2045; Dr. Collin Koh Swee Lean, the Research Fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies; and Prof. Richard Heydarian, the Professorial Chairholder in Geopolitics at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Dino Patti Djalal, the Founder and Chairman of FPCI. The panel discussed about whether an arms race has been occurring in the Indo-Pacific and its strategic implications towards the Indo-Pacific region and ASEAN– from Southeast Asian perspectives.