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Closing ranks

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Allow me to introduce you to Gapac - the Grouping of Asian Powers Around China. If you've never heard of it, don't be too disturbed as it does not exist - officially, at least. That means there is no secretariat, no formal charter, no regular meetings or even a single spokesman.

The membership, as best as it can be deduced, involves Japan, South Korea, the US, India, Australia and the two largest and suddenly thrusting powers in Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Discreet communication and co-operation among the membership is rising, dominated by the strategic and security questions posed by the rise of China.

Think of it as a mutual self-help and support group of security officials and diplomats. They are united by a vexing problem - all feel they must remain deeply engaged with China, have stakes in its continued success yet somehow figure out how to stand up to Beijing when need be. Insiders describe it as a modern dilemma.

Gapac meetings are rarely visible. Yet, it is useful to track growing strategic links among its members. The disparate nations of Japan and India, for example, are engaged in a low-key courtship. Then there is Indonesia and Vietnam, tag-teaming over the push for action within Southeast Asia over the South China Sea. Consider, too, fresh security co-operation between South Korea and Australia - a relationship that feeds into the re-energised East Asian alliance between the US and both Japan and South Korea.

All members are, meanwhile, courting Vietnam as old suspicions of Hanoi fade into history.

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