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US accelerates defense sales to ring of nations in Indo-Pacific
Japan spends $23bn on F-35s, while Indonesia acquires eight Ospreys for $2bn
NEW YORK – Bolstered by a historic $32 billion in approved defense sales to allies and partners for the month of July, the Trump administration said Thursday that it is ready to further support Indo-Pacific allies to boost their defense capabilities.
"Just last month, this was our second-highest-yielding month in defense trade for the history of the Department of State," said Clarke Cooper, the department's assistant secretary for political-military affairs, in a video briefing for foreign media. The bulk of that figure came from Japan's $23.1 billion purchase of 105 units of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, he said.
A listing of U.S. arms sales to partners in 2020 indicates an aggressive offering of air and naval platforms in the Indo-Pacific region. These include eight Osprey aircraft and related equipment to Indonesia for $2 billion; a $620 million upgrade package for Patriot Advanced Capability-3, or PAC-3, missiles to Taiwan; $250 million in support and upgrades to South Korea's Peace Krypton reconnaissance aircraft; and AH-64E Apache and AH1-Z Viper attack helicopters as well as scout, assault, and light support boats to the Philippines for around $2 billion. The U.S. will "march forward" with partners, Cooper said, and continue to ensure that they and America "are interoperable with each other."
This comes at a time when the Washington has rejected Beijing's maritime claims in the South China Sea; bolstered diplomatic partnerships with countries in the region; and conducted Indo-Pacific naval exercises with partners in order to play out different scenarios with China in mind. But as the U.S. expands its ring of friends in the Indo-Pacific, the legacies of another era stand in the way.
Washington's defense cooperation relationship with India is "expanding," Cooper said of China's democratic neighbor and rival, which ranked as the world's second-largest arms importer for the last five years in tracking by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. But even as it has bought less and less in weapons from Moscow over that period, New Delhi has long been its biggest customer.
Cooper hopes to change this. India recently engaged in a mountain skirmish in the Himalayas with China that left it with a bloody nose 20 Indian Army soldiers killed by an outsize People's Liberation Army force and also engaged in a rare air force dogfight with rival Pakistan in 2019 that led to one of its Soviet-era MiG-21s getting shot down by a U.S.-supplied Pakistani F-16.
The gaps in its defenses stood exposed and spurred a rethink regarding a defensive realignment, including buying more weapons from the U.S. But even though Washington wants New Delhi's business, it draws the line on certain defense procurements from Moscow.
"We don't want to put at risk India's sovereignty," Cooper said, and "we certainly don't want to pre-judge any specific transaction or potential transaction." "We also recognize the historic legacy sustainment line that New Delhi had with Moscow and that … it's not a light switch to turn on or off," he said.
But in terms of modernization interoperability with American hardware, when cited two examples of "problematic" Russian equipment when asked to draw a red line: "Something like the S-400 [air defense system] would be a challenge. Something like the Sukhoi Su-35 [fighter] would be a challenge."
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https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/US-accelerates-defense-sales-to-ring-of-nations-in-Indo-Pacific