JAKARTA:Â Southeast Asian nations have agreed to hold their first joint military drills in the South China Sea, Indonesian officials said on Thursday (Jun 8), as tensions grow over China’s increasing assertiveness in the region.
“We will hold joint military drills in the North Natuna Sea,” Indonesian military chief Yudo Margono said after a meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) defence chiefs in Bali, state news agency Antara reported.
They will take place in September and involve all 10 members of the bloc as well as observer member Timor-Leste, he said.
That would include junta-ruled Myanmar, where the military has overthrown a civilian leader and overseen a bloody crackdown on dissent that has resulted in wide-ranging United States and European Union sanctions.
Margono said that the exercises will focus on maritime security and rescue, and will not involve combat operations.
“It is about ASEAN centrality,” he said.
The bloc’s members have held naval drills with the US before but never military exercises as a bloc on its own.
Source: CNA
