Key points
- Ongoing conflicts may lead to a rising tide of defence-industrial partnerships: Study
- Study comes ahead of weekend Shangri-La defence meet
- Gulf states make inroads amid European-Asian deals
ISLAMABAD: A new study has found that spending on weapons and research is increasing among some Asian countries amid security uncertainties.
The annual Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment, released on Wednesday by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), states that countries are broadening their industrial partnerships with outside partners while simultaneously attempting to bolster their own defence industries.
“Recent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, coupled with worsening US-China strategic competition and deterioration of the Asia-Pacific security landscape, may lead to a rising tide of defence-industrial partnerships,” the study suggested.
Simmering flashpoints
“Competitive security dynamics over simmering flashpoints … feed into the need to develop military capabilities to address them.”
It also highlighted that spending on defence procurement and research and development rose $2.7 billion between 2022 and 2024 to reach $10.5 billion among Southeast Asia’s key nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The spike comes even as the nations spent an average of 1.5 per cent of GDP on defence in 2024, a figure that has kept relatively constant over the last decade.
The study, released ahead of this weekend’s annual Shangri-La Dialogue defence meeting in Singapore, said Asia-Pacific nations still rely on imports for most key weapons and equipment.
Defence equipment
Such items range from submarines and combat aircraft to drones, missiles and advanced electronics for surveillance and intelligence gathering, according to Reuters.
The informal Singapore gathering of global defence and military officials is expected to be dominated by uncertainties stemming from the protracted Ukraine conflict, Trump administration security policies and regional tension over Taiwan and the disputed busy waterway of the South China Sea, it said.
