Thousands of soldiers from the United States, Indonesia, Australia and other allied forces demonstrated their armour capabilities on Sunday in combat drills on the Indonesian island of Java at a time of increased Chinese aggression in the region.
President Joe Biden’s administration has been strengthening an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific to reassure allies alarmed by Beijing’s increasingly provocative actions in the disputed South China Sea, which has become a battleground for US-Chinese rivalries. During the drills, Australian forces deployed five M1A1 Abrams battle tanks and the Indonesian military, deployed two Leopard-2 tanks for the two-week combat exercises in Banyuwangi, a coastal district in East Java province which began September 1. It will include live-fire drills. It was the first time Australia deployed battle tanks outside its territory since the Vietnam war. The Garuda Shield drills have been held annually between American and Indonesian soldiers since 2009. Last year’s participants —Australia, Japan and Singapore — joined again Sunday and the list expanded to include the United Kingdom and France bringing the total number of troops taking part in the drills to 5,000. China sees the expanded drills as a threat, accusing the US of building an Indo-Pacific alliance similar to NATO to limit China’s growing military and diplomatic influence in the region. Maj Gen Marcus Evans, Commanding General of the US Army’s 25th Infantry Division, told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday that the introduction of armor capability in the large-scale drills would give the allied forces and defense partners a chance to test their weaponry in combat training as they finetune their military readiness. Garuda Shield is being held in several places, including in waters around Natuna at the southern portion of the South China Sea. Indonesia and China enjoy generally positive ties, but Jakarta has expressed concern about what it sees as Chinese encroachment on its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea. The edge of the exclusive economic zone overlaps with Beijing’s unilaterally declared “nine-dash line” demarking its claims there.
Increased activities by Chinese coast guard vessels and fishing boats in the area have unnerved Jakarta, prompting Indonesia’s navy to conduct a large drill in July 2020 in waters around Natuna. Evans refused to comment on China’s long-standing opposition to US-led military drills in Asia.
Asked whether there are plans by the US military to carry out jointnaval patrols with allies like Japan and the Philippines in or near contested waters, Evans said that “it is important that we maintain a continuous engagement with our regional partners and allies from a military perspective, because, that, again, enhances our overall readiness.”
“I think it continues to show a sign of our commitment to regional partners and allies,” said Evans, who is also Senior Commander of US Army Hawaii.