Singapore -- ASIAN-PACIFIC DEFENSE ministers meet here this weekend at a time of deteriorating political relations between Japan and China.
While the U.S. has recently stepped up its criticism of Chinese military spending, some Asian countries have become alarmed about an increasingly nationalistic Japan. Government-to-government ties between a rapidly rising China and Japan, the established regional power, are at their lowest point in decades, despite strong economic links.
Although the U.S. has a major presence in the region, "the defining relationship in East Asia will be between China and Japan," said Rodolfo Severino, former secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. "Unfortunately, they just don't like each other, and they sense a certain rivalry."
Defense ministers, military chiefs and senior officials from 22 countries, including the U.S., China, Japan, Russia and the 10 Asean members, will attend the two-day talks. The event has taken place every year since 2002. Nongovernmental security specialists from Europe, the U.S. and Asia also take part.
The forum, organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, allows participants to conduct informal defense consultations and bilateral exchanges, as well as roundtable discussions. A Malaysian proposal to improve maritime security in the Malacca Strait by deploying multinational air patrols -- so-called eyes-in-the-sky -- was taken up at last year's meeting and has since been introduced by Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.
Tim Huxley, an IISS official, said one item arising from last year's debates is on the agenda this year: the role of major powers in Asia, and the part Asian powers might play in global security arrangements. Attention is expected to focus on China, India and Japan, he said.
The U.S. delegation will be led by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who used last year's gathering to question China's increased defense spending. Since then, U.S. officials have repeatedly criticized Beijing for annual double-digit growth in defense expenditure and for not being "more transparent" about it.
Although a U.S. Defense Department report in May again warned that China is rapidly extending its military reach with more long-range aircraft and weapons that could pose a threat to neighbors, few Asian governments seem worried -- except Japan, which has echoed Washington's concerns. Some security experts say a number of Asian governments are disturbed by China's expanding military capability but don't want to speak up for fear of offending Beijing.
"There are Southeast Asian countries that are unsure about China's long-term intentions," said Amitav Archarya, deputy director of the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore. "They don't mind the U.S. raising the issue."
Similarly, while most countries in the region haven't publicly taken sides in the China-Japan rift, Southeast Asia tends to be critical of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for visiting a World War II shrine containing the name of war criminals. Southeast Asia has a negative view of Japan's conduct during the war and thinks Tokyo "should be wiser," said Sheng Lijun, a scholar from China who works on international relations at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
