0
KUALA LUMPUR: Asia's tsunami has turned into a military confidence-building exercise on a global scale, as armed forces work alongside each other and forge personal relationships that could one day avert a crisis.
But there are doubts the post-tsunami bonhomie between military chiefs will prompt political leaders to carry military ties to a higher level, with their strategic interests unchanged.
The biggest international natural disaster in living memory has drawn together US, Asian and European forces in the name of humanitarian aid, deepening relationships among commanders.
"These relationships have been tested ... and the result of that test has been very successful cooperation and that's precisely what we expect for the future," Admiral Thomas Fargo, chief of the US Pacific Command, said on Thursday.
"We will only build and get better in this respect." A senior Southeast Asian air force officer agreed. "The relationships have always been close," he said after an informal meeting of regional defence chiefs in Malaysia. "We know each other by name and call each other by phone."
Around 40,000 military personnel from more than a dozen nations poured into disaster areas around the Indian Ocean to ferry aid to the survivors of the Dec 26 tsunami, which killed more than 225,000 people in a dozen countries.
The United States and Indian defence forces have together deployed more than 32,000 troops, sailors and aircrew in what is for each its biggest international peacetime relief effort.
Japan is deploying around 1,000 troops, its largest military mission for disaster assistance since World War Two. China's army airlifted tons of relief supplies - the country's record humanitarian aid pledges reflecting its growing diplomatic clout.
Fargo said deeper relationships had been forged between military forces at both senior and junior officer levels. Such ties could help avoid future misunderstandings at sea, in the air or on land and avert a hostile incident.
"Certainly these personal relationships count," he said. "For example, when this disaster happened, all of the senior military leaders were on the phone to each other within a matter of hours. "And that's exactly the way that I would expect we would handle any significant security concern."
CLOSE ENOUGH: Military ties in the Indian and Pacific Oceans are maintained every year via war games, some actually aimed at ensuring smooth cooperation at times of natural disaster, a US officer said.
In 1991, US and Asian forces worked beside each other in a relief effort in Bangladesh after a cyclone killed some 138,000 people. Troops from rivals India and Pakistan also joined in.
And the first signs in the aftermath of last month's tsunami were that catastrophe could build new military relationships. On a visit to the devastated Indonesian region of Aceh after the tsunami, US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz suggested it was time to raise contact with Indonesian forces, out of favour due to their human rights record, and ease limits on military sales to Jakarta.
But the chances of the US Congress approving arms sales to Indonesia appear mixed. Opinion is divided between Republicans and Democrats, who have asked to first see progress on human rights.
Mark Valencia, a maritime security expert based in Hawaii, said he doubted the relief effort would also make US forces any more welcome in the Strait of Malacca, a focus of global security concerns and one of the world's busiest sea lanes.
"I don't think they can use this ... to prise their way into the Malacca Strait," he said, citing reports that Indonesia demanded US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, used as a base for Aceh relief flights, to leave its waters while its flight crews carried out training flights.
The Strait of Malacca, which runs past Aceh, is policed by Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. US offers to help secure it against attacks on shipping have met a mostly wary response.
Relations between Southeast Asian nations have shown close personal and trading ties do not necessarily progress to military cooperation. Australia's military has deployed about 1,000 personnel for tsunami relief in Indonesia and has regular contact with several of the region's forces, but its government recently declined to sign the Southeast Asian non-aggression pact.
Regional governments discuss security issues but meetings of Southeast Asian commanders are strictly informal. At a meeting in Kuala Lumpur this week in the wake of the tsunami, they shied away from serious multi-lateral issues. Some spent about as much time playing golf as they did in meetings. -Reuters
