Is FDPA still relevant?
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Have been thinking about this for sometime.
The FDPA is not a big thing in UK. I am not surprised that most brits have not even heard of it..... but this is not the point here. The original plan is to defend msia & spore. should external threats arose, the 5 nations are not consult each other. this arrangement is not a binding...in the words of LKY, to consult is better than not to consult.
with the passage of time, the indonesians and communists are no longer a threat, as well, UK isn't the UK it used to be...... they can seems to build anything on time nowadays.....and yes they are miles away. The aussies are still a force to reckon with but without the brits in it, they will not participate anyways... the kiwis..... hell, why did i mentioned this name in the first place?
given the increased defence spending in both msia & spore and the increasing sophisication of both armed forces, do we still need this defense framework? is this framework outmoded? will this framework continue to create mistrust amongst ASEAN member nations (especially indonesia)? With so many planes and ship conducting exercise in south china sea, i bet even the americans want to send their EP-3s there to check things out....
But not all is bad, given UK's role in Nato, they have the skills and knowledge in anti-sub warfare. This is useful for both msia and spore are building a sub arm. the FDPA exercise can allow them to improve on sub warfare.
both aussies and UK have combat experience, training with them can help improve the profiency and professionalism of both armed forces......
FDPA is also a platform for both the armed forces of both msian and spore to come work together. it will not clear all the mistrust but to have a platform to work with is better than no platform.....
so the decision is a military point of view vs political point of view..... it is pretty obvious that the politicans still view this FDPA as a useful tool if not it would be gone long time ago...... but still this topic can generate a lot of interesting responses and counter-responses. would be happy to hear them all with the view that all of us can have a better understanding of this issue. It would be more interesting to hear from msians on this issue. enough of those paper rivalry......maybe we can discuss something that effect us all. -
On the part of Singapore, i cannot speak for our neighbour in the north, i believe its a part of our defense diplomacy thingy. Networking mah..
Also i believe that such high-profile exercise would justify defense dollars. This probably applies to all parties
Finally, IMHO, if i've a rival who's also taking part in it, it's a useful and perfectly legit cover to monitor and observe him...correct?
Other than the FDPA, i don't think there's any other opportunity