The purchase of three BrahMos missile batteries by the Philippines confirms its commitment to modernise its military and diversify its security partners in keeping with its “independent foreign policy”. For India, the acquisition provides a promising security anchor for its ‘Act East’ policy and could be a harbinger for increased security engagement with Southeast Asia. China has long been a major arms supplier to India’s neighbours, and the BrahMos contract could be seen as India returning the favor by making forays into China’s backyard. That both Delhi and Manila, as well as other Southeast Asian capitals, have outstanding territorial and maritime rows with Beijing adds another complexion to the sale.
The $374.9 million deal is groundbreaking for the Philippines and will significantly strengthen its shore-based anti-ship missile capabilities. It showed the country’s resolve to sustain its multiyear military modernisation programme despite the difficulties posed by the pandemic. While other arms deals in the region, notably Thailand’s plan to purchase two more Chinese-built submarines, stalled because of public backlash, the government of President Rodrigo Duterte prevailed over criticisms to make the deal happen. The acquisition cements his administration’s contribution to the long-term capability development of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), presiding over a sustained increase in defence spending in the last five years. Setting aside the theatrics and his rapprochement with Beijing, he will go down in history as having invested enormously in elevating the AFP’s hardware inventory.
The purchase further attests to the country’s desire to work with as many partners, both traditional allies and non-traditional partners, to beef up its capabilities. This opened doors for India and BrahMos’ co-developer, Russia, to play a role. In recent years, the Philippines had procured combat aircraft from Brazil, surface-to-air missiles from France, strategic sealift vessels from Indonesia, combat utility helicopters from Poland, and anti-submarine helicopters from the United Kingdom. The country’s biggest coast guard ships are being built in Japan, with which it also signed a deal for air search radars, Tokyo’s first defence export. Manila also acquired two missile-capable frigates and a corvette from South Korea, with orders for two more. From its longstanding treaty ally, the United States, it received offshore patrol vessels, drones, and transport aircraft. Manila is also expecting the arrival of Turkish attack helicopters and fast patrol boats from Israel, raring to get Russian heavy-lift choppers, and is eyeing to acquire submarines. Indeed, from being a window shopper, the Philippines became a serious arms buyer.
The top-level support given to AFP’s modernisation drive was not lost to major arms suppliers, which purposefully placed arms donations and dangled deal sweeteners like markdowns, financing, and local production to get their piece of the pie. The BrahMos deal announces India’s arrival on the scene. Catching up with neighbours and enhancing its security posture in the coveted West Philippine Sea are two factors driving Manila’s defence build-up.
The Philippine sale is BrahMos’ first international breakthrough and is a huge confidence booster for the Indian defence sector. Interest from other regional littoral states like Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam show a budding market for Delhi’s missile exports fueled by, among others, unease over Beijing’s growing footprint in contested waters. Satisfaction with BrahMos’ performance in the field and its associated logistical support and maintenance will go a long way in positioning India as a reliable arms exporter to the region and beyond.
China certainly plays into the equation. India and several maritime Southeast Asian countries, namely, the South China Sea littoral states of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, share disputes with China. This communion adds motivation to their defence cooperation. Delhi long expressed concern about Beijing’s potential dual-use ports in the Indian Ocean and the steady flow of Chinese arms to its neighbours. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) Arms Transfers Database details China’s burgeoning arms sales to India’s neighbourhood. For instance, China’s all-weather friend, Pakistan, secured air-to-air missiles, guided bombs, a coastal defence system, air search radars, anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopters, torpedoes, and drones and placed orders for submarines. Under license, Islamabad also produced anti-tank, surface-to-air, and anti-ship missiles, tanks, aircraft, frigates, corvettes, and offshore patrol vessels. It will also produce four of eight ordered Chinese submarines at home. For its part, Bangladesh bagged surface-to-air and anti-ship missiles, fighter aircraft, frigates, and two submarines from China. Defence cooperation resulted in the license-production of patrol craft, corvettes, and locally-assembled tanks. Beijing also sold armored personnel carriers to Nepal, light transport and trainer aircraft, and a frigate to Sri Lanka and donated a patrol boat and two maritime patrol aircraft to Seychelles.
This flurry of arms deals engendered unease in Delhi. It gave fresh impetus to step up defence spending, support the indigenous defence industry, and cultivate security partnerships abroad. While Thailand is expecting delays in the delivery of its first Chinese-made S26T Yuan-class submarine and hoping to weather public opposition to buying two more, India already donated a retrofitted Kilo-class submarine to its neighbour Myanmar. Naypyidaw also bought air search radars and ASW sonars and torpedoes from Delhi. India also extended credit lines to Vietnam to procure Indian defence equipment and is building 12 high-speed guard boats for Hanoi, seven of which will be made in the Southeast Asian country. Delhi also provided training for Vietnamese sailors manning Kilo-class subs. Before the celebrated BrahMos contract, private Mumbai-based defence firm Larsen & Toubro also bagged a deal to upgrade light armour units of the Philippines’ navy and air force. In 2016, Kolkata-based Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) took part in a bid to supply Manila with frigates, though it eventually lost to South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries.
Surely, India’s nascent arms venture into Southeast Asia is dwarfed by its neighbours’ shopping list of Chinese hardware, notably by Pakistan and Bangladesh. However, the BrahMos deal signals Delhi’s eagerness to shed inhibitions to supply arms to Southeast Asia and double down in supporting exports of its homegrown defence goods. Hence, expect China and India to not only compete in the lucrative Asian arms market, but to also carry on cultivating defence partners in each other’s backyard for strategic gains.
Lucio Blanco Pitlo III is a Research Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation in Quezon City, Philippines.
The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy or the National University of Singapore.
News Reports
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China and India in the Region
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Deccan Herald, January 28
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Books and Journals
India-Australia-Indonesia Maritime Partnership: Shared Challenges, Compelling Opportunities
Observer Research Foundation, February 2022
By Premesha Saha, Associate Fellow, Strategic Studies Programme, ORF; Natalie Sambhi, Founder and Executive Director, Verve Research; and Evan A. Laksmana, Senior Research Fellow, Centre on Asia and Globalisation, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
This report seeks to outline the common maritime security challenges facing India, Australia, and Indonesia, and proposes policy options for strengthening trilateral cooperation to address them. A 2020 study conducted by the authors of this report, titled Anchoring the Indo-Pacific: The Case for Deeper Australia-India-Indonesia Trilateral Cooperation, has argued that the core of their trilateral cooperation should be within the maritime domain, with the Indo-Pacific region as the primary theatre and the three states as anchors. Given the regional uncertainty in the Indo-Pacific, as well as the limitations of existing multilateral institutions and bilateral partnerships, stronger cooperation and alignment between the three nations can boost regional stability and provide strategic benefits for all. Therefore, these countries, and how they interact with one another, are key to the long-term strategic stability of the region.
Compiled and sent to you by Centre on Asia and Globalisation and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.
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