Vietnam’s Regional Security Perceptions and Priorities: Role of India

Over the past several decades, India and Vietnam have consolidated their relationship through bilateral engagements, which have been complemented by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led multilateral mechanisms such as the East Asia Summit, ASEAN Regional Forum, ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus, and the India-led Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC). Building up on their traditionally strong relations, India and Vietnam have widened and deepened their defence and strategic links in recent years, which is manifested in joint trainings, military exercises and defence Lines of Credit offered by India. Since the 1990s, especially over the last decade, both India and Vietnam have made strategic readjustments to elevate their respective bilateral ties with like-minded countries bringing about new commonalities in their politico-strategic visions and policies. Like India, Vietnam too is trying to bring the multilateral and multi-dimensional Indo-Pacific agenda to the mainstream of its foreign policy calculations, facilitated by greater warmth in ties with Japan and the US. Vietnam’s embracing of the Indo-Pacific is also in sync with ASEAN’s Outlook on Indo-Pacific. It also aligns well with Vietnam’s longstanding policy of ‘Three Nos’, expanded to four in its 2019 Defence White Paper. While recent developments in the South China Sea have exacerbated Vietnam’s growing anxieties vis-à-vis China, considering its trade interlinkages and dependence on China (and Russia), it is apparent that Vietnam is not yet ready to uproot its multi-layered linkages with China and get on board the ‘Quad plus’ initiative that is perceived as an overtly anti-China coalition of democracies. India–Vietnam ties, therefore, must rely on the bilateral plank along with ASEAN-linked mechanisms, MGC, and the Indo-Pacific construct, while trying to develop concerted actions through deeper cooperation with Japan and the US. In short, any initiative to include Vietnam in a Quad Plus mechanism without sufficiently developing synergies with individual countries would not only yield desired outcomes. This article argues that India–Vietnam ties would benefit most by attaching their bilateral pillar of relationship with the ASEAN- and Indo-Pacific-centred inclusive multilateral mechanisms while gradually engaging the US, Japan and other potential partners in suitable frameworks.

Analisis Fungsi Kesatuan Penjagaan Laut dan Pantai (KPLP)/Indonesia Sea And Coast Guard Guna Penegakan Hukum Pelayaran di Daerah Lingkungan Kerja dan Daerah Lingkungan Kepentingan Pelabuhan Tanjung Mas Semarang

Pada pemerintahan Presiden Jokowi Widodo telah menetapkan kebijakan kemaritiman national melalui konsep Indonesia sebagai Poros Maritim Dunia (PMD). Konsep ini disampaikan Presiden Jokowi Widodo pada Konferensi Tingkat Tinggi (KTT) ke-9 East Asia Summit (EAS), 13 November 2014 . Keamanan maritim bukan hanya menjadi tugas pokok Angkatan Laut sebagai tulang punggung penyangga utama kemanan maritim sebuah negara, tetapi tidak lepas dari dukungan instansi non militer (sipil) yang tugas dan fungsinya melekat erat pada aspek-aspek pengawasan keamanan dan keselamatan maritim dalam hal ini adalah Coast Guard (Penjaga Pantai). Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kualitatif dan menggunakan analisis diskriptif yang ditujukan untuk mendeskripsikan tugas dan permasalahan yang dihadapi Kesatuan Penjagaan Laut dan Pantai sebagai Sea and Coast Guard di Daerah Lingkungan Kerja (DLKr) dan Daerah Lingkungan Kepentingan (DLKp) Pelabuhan Tanjung Mas Semarang, serta berkaitan dengan kebijakan yang diambil KSOP Tanjung Mas Semarang dalam mengatasi permasalahan yang timbul di lapangan terkait fungsi KPLP dengan berdasarkan Undang-Undang Nomor 17 tahun 2008 tentang Pelayaran.

US-ASEAN summit could become diplomatic debacle

Subject US-ASEAN relations. Significance A US-ASEAN summit, proposed late last year by US President Donald Trump, is tentatively scheduled to be held in March in Las Vegas. After an ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat in Vietnam earlier this month, the South-east Asian regional bloc issued a statement welcoming the summit. However, only a few member states have formally signalled their intention to participate. Impacts For ASEAN leaders that attend, the summit may compensate for Trump’s likely absence from the 2020 East Asia Summit in Vietnam. The United States is unlikely to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership. Any violence in South-east Asia sponsored by Iran or its proxies will strengthen US cooperation with the region on counterterrorism.

Indonesia and the ASEAN outlook on the Indo-Pacific

Indonesia has taken a leadership role within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in drafting a common outlook on the Indo-Pacific concept. The widening of Indonesia's geostrategic canvas from the Asia–Pacific to the Indo-Pacific is in line with President Joko Widodo's intent to make Indonesia a Global Maritime Fulcrum (GMF). In view of the rivalry between the US and China and the emergence of various Indo-Pacific initiatives from other countries, Indonesia believes that ASEAN must try to maintain its centrality. The draft of Indonesia's perspective for an ASEAN outlook on the Indo-Pacific: towards a peaceful, prosperous, and inclusive region was submitted for considerations by ASEAN, and after 18 months of intensive lobbying by Indonesia the concept was finally adopted at the ASEAN Summit in June 2019. The ASEAN outlook promotes the principles of openness, inclusiveness, transparency, respect for international law and ASEAN centrality in the Indo-Pacific region. It proposes a building-block approach, seeking commonalities between existing regional initiatives in which ASEAN-led mechanisms will act as a fulcrum for both norm-setting and concrete cooperation. Rather than creating a new regional architecture, the East Asia Summit (EAS) is proposed as the platform for advancing the Indo-Pacific discourse and cooperation. Indonesia's ASEAN outlook on the Indo-Pacific marks its renewed foreign policy activism as a middle power and underlines the continuing importance that Indonesia places on ASEAN as the cornerstone of its foreign policy, emphasising ASEAN's centrality as the primary vehicle for managing relations with the major powers in the Indo-Pacific region.

Regional Peace and Security

This chapter discusses the development of regional peace and security in Asia and the Pacific. Since the end of the Cold War and the resurgence of Asian economies, there has been significant movement in the establishment of peace and security institutions. Notable among them are the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the East Asia Summit (EAS), the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), and the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). This movement was partly due to regional hegemons seeking a greater role in their neighbourhood and partly due to smaller states seeking to manage the regional hegemons. Simultaneously, China and India also began playing a crucial role in shaping the evolving norms relating to climate change, cyber security, energy security, trade, and outer space. The chapter also considers the impact of the United Nations Charter, the prohibition on the use of force, and collective security in the region.

Washington will get tougher with China in Asia

Significance The informal dialogue normally acts as a pressure valve for major powers in the Asia-Pacific, but this meeting perhaps unintentionally worsened US-China trade and security tensions, US-North Korea denuclearisation-related frictions and the Japan-South Korea controversy over war reparations, since the meeting came in a week of occurrences that denoted high regional tension. Impacts Washington will still need Chinese (and other countries’) support in its rapprochement push with North Korea. Washington will expand cooperation with fellow Quad countries Australia, India and Japan in the Asia-Pacific. Involvement of out-of-region states and high-profile international issues could weaken ASEAN efficiency in tackling ASEAN issues. This ARF meeting will help warm US-Thai relations, with further such moves likely at the East Asia Summit this November, also in Thailand.