I WAS recently part of an online discussion involving China-ASEAN regional tensions.
The discussion was inspired by the People’s Republic of China’s coastguard forcibly seizing a piece of Chinese rocket debris that was being towed by the Philippine Navy a few weeks ago.
The solution others thought of was to double down with the Americans, while others thought we should increase coordination with other Southeast Asian countries.
There’s some merit to these two suggestions, but they are not enough. Americans may be a regional player, but they aren’t locals, so they have less skin in the game.
ASEAN, on the other hand, has different policies and interests when it comes to China and its presence in the West Philippine Sea, and the organization simply lacks the power to face China one on one in the seas. It would be nice to have a more coordinated ASEAN, but the incentives are simply not there at present.
One way the Philippines, and ASEAN by extension, can mitigate this situation is to expand ties with India. India and many ASEAN countries have certain shared interests with regards to China.
Like ASEAN, India and China also have territorial disputes, and if China expands its power over Southeast Asian waters, it will likely affect Indian interests.
Also, unlike the US, India is a regional neighbor, so anything that happens in our backyard affects them more than America.
Finally, India has a strong navy. Although, from what I’ve heard, most of its resources have been diverted to its new carrier, it has the potential to build a lot of smaller vessels, the kind of ships that would be handy when, say, an ASEAN ship and a PRC ship are having a rocket debris tug of war.
In any case, ASEAN-Indian ties already exist, but I think there’s more that can be done. It’s just a question what sort of incentives are necessary to achieve them./PN
