Speech by Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen, at the Jakarta International Defense Dialogue

My defence counterpart Excellency Purnomo Yusgiantoro,
Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao,
Former President Fidel V. Ramos,
My fellow panelists, Valerie Amos and Lee Young Geol and
Moderator Prof Dr. Dewi Fortuna Anwar,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
A very good afternoon.

Let me first congratulate KEMHAN and the Indonesia Defence University for successfully organising this year's JIDD and for inviting me to speak at this plenary alongside other distinguished speakers. I think we have heard four excellent speeches, from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Indonesian Defence Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, and also just recently from Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao. They gave an overview of the issues facing the world and in some, a philosophical approach. I would like to approach the theme this session - Military Operations Other Than War - from a more practical bent and a regional perspective and I have three broad thrusts.

The Need for Transnational Solutions

The first is that no single country, no matter how well resourced, can respond to the panoply of non-traditional threats. Often, these threats and their consequences cross national boundaries, facilitated by an interconnected globalised world.

In ASEAN, this was dramatically illustrated by SARS in 2003. I think many of us would remember that. It disrupted many of our economies. For Singapore it was particularly devastating because Singapore's trade is three and half times our GDP. Some have pointed out that Singapore is actually the canary in the mine for global trade and we are often the first to be affected and the first to recover. It was particularly devastating not only for us but many ASEAN economies. The H1N1 epidemic was another notable example - the virus had spread from Mexico to places like Cyprus, Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia within a short span of several months. Recently, the Japan tsunami and the floods in Thailand not only resulted in the loss of lives and homes of residents in the affected areas, but had also disrupted global supply chains. Car manufacturers such as Peugeot, BMW and Toyota were affected by a shortage of Japanese electronic components, while the Thai floods resulted in an industry-wide shortage of computer disk drives. Again illustrating how interconnected we are and disruption in one particular point of the world has global effects.

This is particularly so because half of the world's shipping, by tonnage, as well as half of the world's oil tankers sail through the South China Sea and the Straits of Malacca and Singapore every year. The scale of global trade has grown and over 560 million containers made their way through key ports around the world last year, while close to 400 liner services exist on the major trade routes.

This high volume of international trade has made it easier for dual-use technologies and weapons of mass destruction to circumvent strategic export controls, increasing the risk of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

I have given a number of scenarios to illustrate the point. That these scenarios lead to the conclusion that multi-national security establishments are needed to resolve these transnational challenges, which leads me to my second point.

The Need for Armed Forces to Adapt for Operations Other than War

By default, it has often been the militaries that have been activated in response to these crises and I think there is a simple and practical reason for this default position. Industries have become very lean. Inventories are low. Both in the commercial sector and government agencies, there is very little buffer and it has often been the militaries, which have the spare capacity. Defence establishments and armed forces therefore need to evolve and adapt, because our militaries are not primarily structured or configured for operations other than war. Today's armed forces would thus have to develop new concepts of operation and have the right force structure, training and equipping to respond adequately to counter-terrorism, HADR, peacekeeping operations, counter-piracy and other non-traditional security challenges.

In this regard, ASEAN defence establishments have taken some forward steps. Indonesia and Singapore hosted the inaugural ASEAN Militaries' HADR Table Top exercise last year. During this exercise, an ASEAN Standard Operating Procedure for the Utilisation of Military Capabilities for HADR was validated. Another example, the Pacific Armies Management Seminar in 2011 also conducted a Table Top exercise to discuss two scenarios - one involving a virus that spreads across national borders, and secondly, a scenario of catastrophic regional floods, quite relevant to this part of the world. These exercises are useful in building up regional capabilities in HADR as President Yudhoyono talked about confidence building and capacity building. It also facilitates practical cooperation between regional armed forces by enhancing transparency, interoperability, and mutual understanding. We should continue to encourage such initiatives.

This region's capabilities in maritime security have also developed substantially over the years. The transnational nature of piracy and the importance of early warning and comprehensive maritime domain awareness have necessitated information sharing and cooperation between the region's militaries and I will give you a practical example. The Malacca Strait Patrol initiative, including the Eyes-in-the-Sky combined air patrols - this is a configuration where the four littoral states, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, do combined maritime patrols. The Eyes-in-the-Sky patrols have been a practical form of cooperation that has yielded results. Some of you will remember that a number of years ago, the Strait of Malacca was graded by the Joint War Committee of Lloyd's Market Association as a high-risk area. It was because of these initiatives that the risk was reduced, and Lloyd's subsequently declassified it. More recently, the establishment of information sharing hubs such as the Information Fusion Centre at the Changi Command and Control Centre have also improved the cooperation and coordination among the regional navies in the area of maritime security. For your information, the Changi Command and Control Centre works on a plug-and-play concept. In other words, various militaries are invited to use different platforms. They plug their systems and share a common picture, which is pumped out to the various user states as well as interested parties who send liaison officers. I think this has worked quite well.

The Need for a Robust Regional Security Architecture

My third and final thrust is that individual militaries have to adapt to operations other than war but even so, they can only optimise their effectiveness within a security framework that builds regional consensus and practical cooperation on transnational security challenges.

To this end, the establishment of the ADMM-Plus in 2010 was a significant milestone. It brings together the ten ASEAN countries and eight "Plus" countries, and facilitates open and constructive dialogue on a wide range of transnational security issues and there have been productive outcomes. We have evolved the Experts' Working Groups or EWGs, which seeks to forge practical cooperation in areas of common security interest, including HADR, maritime security, military medicine, counter-terrorism and peacekeeping operations. There has been good progress among the EWGs, especially during Indonesia's ASEAN Chairmanship in 2011. Various EWGs have produced roadmaps and workplans for the areas under their purview, and some EWGs are also intending to conduct exercises before the second ADMM-Plus meeting in 2013 in Brunei. For example, the EWG-Military Medicine that Singapore co-chairs with Japan is planning to organise a Table Top Exercise in Tokyo this year, involving both the ASEAN and the "Plus" countries. We see these initiatives as useful in bringing together various stakeholders in areas of common security interest.

Apart from formal platforms such as the ADMM and ADMM-Plus, there is also a role for informal fora in our multi-layered regional security architecture. Conferences such as the Shangri-La Dialogue and the JIDD allow defence ministers, senior officials and security experts like ourselves to engage in constructive dialogue, share ideas, as well as to build mutual understanding and confidence.

To conclude, the increasing tempo and complexity of transnational, non-traditional security threats require national stakeholders to cooperate within a consensus building framework and adapt their armed forces to respond to a wider spectrum of scenarios. Let me thank you once again for the opportunity to share with you some views, and I look forward to the discussion later on. Thank you very much.

More Resources

• Minister for Defence Attends Defence Dialogue in Indonesia