Chinese and US presence in Komodo navy exercise showed ‘support for Indonesia’, not each other

Name: China, US offer competing security visions for Asia-Pacific at security forum
Uploaded: 2023-06-10T04:19:24.000Z
Duration: 3 min 45 s
Description: China, US offer competing security visions for Asia-Pacific at security forum

36 nations take part in Multilateral Naval Exercise Komodo off South Sulawesi, including traditional rivals India and Pakistan

Indonesia ‘is of great importance to the South China Sea region and Asean, where China’s national interests and concerns lie’, analyst says

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Indonesian Navy aircraft fly over warships taking part in the 4th Multilateral Naval Exercise Komodo 2023. Photo: AP

Liu Zhen

Published: 12:19pm, 10 Jun 2023Updated: 4:01pm, 10 Jun 2023

Tensions between China and the United States may be high but the navies of both countries took part in Indonesian military exercises last week in an apparent friendly gesture towards the Southeast Asian host.

The 2023 Multilateral Naval Exercise Komodo (MNEK) started on Monday off the coast of Makassar, South Sulawesi, and ran until Thursday. As many as 36 countries with more than 40 vessels took part in the drill.

Some other countries with traditional rivalries – like India and Pakistan – were also invited to the “non-war” event.

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China, US offer competing security visions for Asia-Pacific at security forum

The event took place amid growing tensions between China and the US, and American allies in the Asia-Pacific region. High-level communication channels between the two militaries have been cut off since August.

More risky encounters have also been reported in recent months. In the past week alone, the US military blamed a Chinese warship for an “unsafe interaction” with a US destroyer and a Canadian frigate in the sensitive Taiwan Strait, and in a separate incident it said China carried out an “unnecessarily aggressive” air force interception manoeuvre over the South China Sea.

Last week, Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu briefly shook hands with his US counterpart Lloyd Austin at the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore but declined the request for a formal meeting.

The Komodo drills, which focus on disaster relief and humanitarian operations, seemed to be another chance to bring representatives of the two sides together.