INDO PACIFIC SECURITY PERSPECTIVES : GERMANY'S IMPERATIVES FOR SYMBOLIC NAVAL PRESENCE IN SOUTH CHINA SEA AGAINST CHINA

Sunday, July 11, 2021

GERMANY'S IMPERATIVES FOR SYMBOLIC NAVAL PRESENCE IN SOUTH CHINA SEA AGAINST CHINA

Germany noticeably seems to have abstained from marking its naval presence in South China Sea unlike the French Navy and British Navy. France and Great Britain had recently sent Aircraft Carrier Group/ Amphibious Warships to South China Sea.

This was an expression of solidarity with other Major Powers' Navies led by United States challenging China's military adventurism in reinforcing its illegal sovereignty over the South China Sea maritime expanse.

Geopolitically, can Germany afford to stand aside from the global effort to signal China that it cannot recklessly continue to disreagard international conventions like UNCLOS and The Hague TribunalAward which ruled against China's claims of sovereignty over South China Sea?

Can Germany afford to break ranks with NATO and the European Union's revised perspectives on China evolving as a 'Threat to European Stability' in the coming decade?

Germany may have got away with its 'China Hands-off Policy' of past decades. But in the rapidly churning geopolitical global landscape, Germany will have to take a stand against China.

China has brought on itself the spectre of intense global geopolitical polarisation against China by its reckless aggression extending from India's Eastern Ladakh to South China Sea and forcible military occupation of Islands belonging to Vietnam and Philippines,

Germany in 2021 has to seriously and crucially weigh whether it can still persist to stand aside unlike Major Powers like France, Great Britain, India, Japan and Australia which are coalescing together to ensure 'Freedom of Naviagtion' in South China Sea and the Airspace over it.

Even Canada has recently exercised with other Navies in South China Sea.

Therefore, in terms of Trans-Atlantic Alliance and in terms of European Major Powers solidarity , it is incumbent on Germany to mark German Navy presence in South China Sea without further dithering.

Germany may also addittionally like to deliberate on whether it can bear the 'perceptional costs' of loss of image in Asian Capitals by inadvertently getting type-casted as permissive of China's military aggression in South China Sea.

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Dr Subhash Kapila—Academic & Professional Profile

Dr Subhash Kapila is a Graduate of the Royal British Army Staff College.UK.: has a Masters in Defence Science from Madras University with his thesis on ‘India’s Foreign Policy in Far East Asia’ and a Doctorate from Allahabad University with his thesis in 1994 on ‘Asia Pacific Security-2000 AD Perspectives’.

Dr Subhash Kapila combines a rich and varied professional experience of Indian Army (Brigadier) in criteria appointments on Command, Staff and Instructional. Indian Army service encompassed long tenures on India’s borders with China and Pakistan.

Dr Subhash Kaila’s professional exposures also include diplomatic assignments in United States, Japan, South Korea and also official tenures in UK and Bhutan. These years of diplomatic and official assignments afforded deep insights on Asia Pacific security challenges and China-watching from different perches.

Dr Subhash Kapila has authored two books--- ‘China-India Military Confrontation:21^st Century Perspectives’ (2015) and an earlier one on India’s Defence Policies & Strategic Thought-A Comparative Analysis’ (2004)

Dr Subhash Kapila has authored over nearly 2000 Papers on Geopolitical, Foreign Policy and Strategic topics of Major Powers like USA, China, Japan and regional issues of South Asia, South East Asia and the Middle East.

Dr Subhash Kapila has presented Papers at international forums in Russia, Japan, Turkey and Vietnam and National and University Seminars in India.

Invited for TV/Radio discussions by CNN, BBC, Pakistan Geo TV and multiple Indian Channels.

INDO PACIFIC REGION—GEOPOLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE

“Indo Pacific Region encompassing the vast geographical expanse from West Coast of the United States to the Eastern Littoral of Africa on the Indian Ocean and Australia in South Pacific has emerged in recent years as a fulcrum of global security and stability.

Competing security narratives led by the United States and a reactive hardly credible narrative by China challenges foreign policy and security policies directions of Major Powers in the Indo Pacific comprising United States. India, Japan and Australia.

Needless to highlight as so many academic treatises have already done so that Indo Pacific Security Template as a strategic construct and narrative emerged so as a narrative in the last decade generated by fears of China’s not so benign intentions manifested from Himalayan Heights of China Occupied Tibet borders with India to the Western Pacific seas, and more pointedly to the South China Sea where China has indulged in military aggression ad coercive brinkmanship to establish “Full Spectrum Dominance” endangering Indo Pacific Security as a whole.”------------Dr Subhash Kaila’s earlier writings.

“The Indo Pacific has assumed tectonic significance for a wide range of nations affirming their agency in an uncertain world. Far from being an obscure account of of words and maps, the narratives of Indo Pacific nations hands a great dilemma of the 21^st Century: how can other countries respond to a strong and coercive China without resorting to capitulation or conflict.” –Professor Rory Metcalf, Australian National University.

“In this century, the Asia Pacific and the Indian Ocean Rim which some refer as the Indo Pacific will become the world’s centre of gravity.”---Australian Defence Minister