Skip to main content
Best News Website or Mobile Service
WAN-IFRA Digital Media Awards Worldwide 2022
Best News Website or Mobile Service
Digital Media Awards Worldwide 2022
Hamburger Menu

Advertisement

Advertisement

Asia

Australian, Indonesian forces deploy battle tanks in US-led combat drills amid China concern

Australian, Indonesian forces deploy battle tanks in US-led combat drills amid China concern

US Army Soldiers manoeuvre through the jungle terrain of Indonesia alongside Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) soldiers during a jungle field training exercise on Sep 4, 2023 during Exercise Super Garuda Shield 2023. (Photo: Garuda Shield)

BANYUWANGI, Indonesia: Thousands of soldiers from the United States, Indonesia, Australia and other allied forces demonstrated their armour capabilities on Sunday (Sep 10) in combat drills on the Indonesian island of Java at a time of increased Chinese aggression in the region.

US 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 Sep 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.

Major-General Marcus Evans, Commanding General of the US Army's 25th Infantry Division, told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday that the introduction of armour capability in the large-scale drills would give the allied forces and defence 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 joint naval 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.

Combat exercises between US forces and their regional allies and defence partners “remains critically important, as it has been since we began this operation in 2006”, he said in response to a question on the urgency of conducting such exercises now.

US allies recognise the strategic importance and the opportunity to participate in the multinational exercises, which aim to enhance military professionalism aside from bolstering combat readiness and sharpening the ability of allied forces to operate together, Evans said.

“Australia, along with all of our regional partners and allies, continues to contribute to really three things that we focus on during operation pathways, in this case, Garuda Shield,” Evans said, “Those three things are partnerships, the refinement of our overall military readiness and interoperability.”

Meanwhile, Rear-Admiral Julius Widjojono, the spokesperson for the Indonesian military, said the field training exercises aim to boost combat preparedness and hone the battle instincts of soldiers from participant nations, including overcoming enemy assaults while carrying out patrols.

Brunei, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, South Korea, and East Timor sent observers to the combined joint multilateral exercise.

Source: AP/jo

Advertisement

Also worth reading

Advertisement