Pak Sahafat – After the joint military exercise with Laos, China plans to hold multinational exercises with Southeast Asian countries.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency’s report from Global Times, the military delegations of China, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam for the exercise known as Aman Youyi-2023, meaning “peace and friendship”, announced the Chinese military ahead of a preliminary planning conference in Guangzhou, located in the southern province of Guangdong.
According to this statement, issues such as the subject, date, location, predetermined background of the exercise and approaches to military exercises were discussed and agreed upon by the participants in a frank and friendly atmosphere.
According to the Global Times, this is not the first joint multinational exercise to be held under the name of Aman Yui. Since 2014, several rounds of this exercise have been conducted in the South China Sea; First, in the form of bilateral exercises between China and Malaysia, and then in 2018, the trilateral exercise between China, Malaysia and Thailand, and now more countries are looking to join this exercise.
The planning conference for the Aman Youyi-2023 Multinational Joint Exercise was held when Chinese and Lao military concluded the bilateral joint exercise known as Friendship Shield-2023 in Laos on Friday.
Recently, China has also conducted joint military exercises with other Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore and Cambodia, and participated in a multinational exercise in Thailand.
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Zhou Hua, an international affairs expert at the School of International Relations and Diplomacy of Beijing University of Foreign Studies, told Global Times: The expansion of the joint exercise of peace and friendship has positive and practical significance for the participating countries as well as the security of the region.
Zhou said that with the participation of as many ASEAN members as possible, the said exercise will act as a regional security stabilizer; because it shows that more countries understand and agree with China’s views on cooperation and comprehensive and sustainable security.
Chinese military expert and TV analyst Song Zhongping told the Global Times: Strengthening military cooperation with countries including Southeast Asian countries is an important aspect of China’s military diplomacy.
Song said China’s joint exercises focus on cooperation and safeguarding regional peace and stability, especially on security threats such as terrorism, drug trafficking and piracy.
On the contrary, America’s goals in holding joint military maneuvers with some of its allies in the Asia-Pacific region such as the Philippines, Japan, and South Korea constitute issues such as threats to the sovereignty, security, and development interests of other countries and sabotage in the region.
According to analysts, in this situation, joint exercises with the participation of China can counter the negative impact of the zero-sum security perspective.
These analysts believe that the Chinese military’s (PLA) foreign engagements will help strengthen cooperation, deepen trust and protect regional peace and stability, in stark contrast to US-led joint military exercises that have escalated confrontation in the Asia-Pacific region.