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By John Geddie
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Southeast Asian nations agreed Friday on guidelines for handling unanticipated clashes between their military planes. Singapore, the host country, sees the pact as a world first and says they would encourage their international partners to join them.
The agreement, signed by the defense ministers of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at a conference in Singapore, includes a pact Regional Information Exchange on Terrorist Threats.
The voluntary and non-binding guidelines on air meetings are based on an existing code for the management of maritime meetings adopted last year by ASEAN and its partners "plus" – Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the United States. .
"I am pleased to announce that the first multilateral guidelines on air encounters between military aircraft have been adopted," said Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen at a press conference.
"It's an important feat."
ASEAN ministers will meet their eight international partners on Saturday and Ng said they would "seek agreement" on the guidelines.
The framework of the guidelines stipulated that a pact was necessary because the growing growth and prosperity of Asia had led to an increase in sea and air traffic in the region.
In 2015, the United States and China signed a pact for a military hotline and rules governing air-to-air encounters.
However, even with the existing guidelines, tensions remain, especially in the hotly disputed South China Sea.
China claims almost the entire congested waterway, while Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei claim a part of the maritime territory potentially rich in energy.
Taiwan also boasts the sea.
This month, China expressed anger at a US naval destroyer near the islands it claims, saying it was resolutely opposed to an operation it described as a threat to its sovereignty.
When asked if the shipping guidelines were working well, Ng said: "In a way, they look like seatbelts that are not fully protected, but that offer at least some protection. "
At a working lunch with his counterparts from ASEAN,
US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said the United States wanted a "constructive relationship" with China, but remained concerned about what they saw as a militarization of the South China Sea.
In August, the countries of Southeast Asia and China adopted a negotiating framework for a broader code of conduct in the South China Sea.
This framework aims to advance a 2002 statement of conduct from the parts of the South China Sea, which was largely ignored by the requesting states, including China, which has built seven islands in contentious waters, three of which have runways. , ranging from air missiles and radars.
The ASEAN countries have also decided to adopt the initiative "our eyes" as a platform for exchanging information on "terrorism, radicalism, violent extremism and violence". 39, other non-traditional threats ".
They also agreed to create a "virtual" network of chemical, biological and radiological defense experts to "better share best practices and establish rapid contact in the event of a crisis".
(Report by John Geddie, edited by Clarence Fernandez)
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