Europe bristles at US proposals at Asian gathering, India-Pakistan hostility on show
Item
1 of 3 U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Singapore's Minister of
Defence Chan Chun Sing and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs
and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja
Kallas attend a ministerial lunch on the sidelines of IISS Shangri-La
Dialogue security summit in Singapore, May 31, 2025. REUTERS/Edgar Su
[1/3]U.S.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Singapore's Minister of Defence Chan
Chun Sing and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security
Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas attend a
ministerial lunch on the sidelines of IISS Shangri-La Dialogue security
summit... Purchase Licensing Rights - At Shangri-La meeting, U.S. Defense Secretary urges Europe to focus on its own security
- European nations aim to balance security roles in both Europe, Asia
- Indian and Pakistani military delegations attend, ignore each other
SINGAPORE,
June 1 (Reuters) - The Shangri-La Dialogue security meeting in
Singapore has long been marked by U.S.-China rivalry but Beijing's
relative retreat at the weekend exposed a new faultline - tensions
between the U.S. and Europe over Asia.
Even
as he warned in a speech on Saturday that China posed an "imminent"
threat, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made clear he wanted
Europeans to concentrate on European security as they boosted military
budgets.
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"We
would much prefer that the overwhelming balance of European investment
be on that continent...so that as we partner there, which we will
continue to do, we're able to use our comparative advantage as an
Indo-Pacific nation to support our partners here," he said.
Hegseth
also noted the absence of his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun, as Beijing
instead dispatched a low-level team of military scholars to the annual
event, which attracts top defence officials, diplomats, spies and arms
dealers from across the world.
The
other highlight of the event was the presence of high-powered military
delegations from India and Pakistan after four days of intense clashes
between the nuclear-armed neighbours that were halted by a ceasefire on
May 10.
The
delegations, in full uniform and bristling with medal and service
ribbons, were led by India's highest ranking military officer and
Pakistan's chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. They pointedly kept
out of each other's way in the corridors and meeting halls of the
sprawling Shangri-La hotel.
On engaging in Asia, at least some European nations signalled they would not be swayed by the U.S. exhortations.
They
insisted they would try to stay in both the Asian and European
theatres, noting their deep links and vital trade flows as well as the
global nature of conflict.
"It
is a good thing we are doing more (in Europe), but what I want to
stress is that the security of Europe and the security of the Pacific is
very much interlinked," said Europe's top diplomat Kaja Kallas.
"If
you are worried about China, you should be worried about Russia,"
Kallas said, underlining the importance of Chinese assistance to the
Russian war effort in Ukraine and Moscow's deployment of North Korean
soldiers.
FRANCE'S ASIAN TIES
French
President Emmanuel Macron insisted that his nation remains an
Indo-Pacific power, alluding to its enduring colonial presence in New
Caledonia and French Polynesia and the basing of over 8,000 soldiers
across the region.
"We
are neither China nor the U.S., we don't want to depend on either of
them," Macron said at a press conference on Friday, outlining a "third
path" coalition between Europe and Asia that avoided having to choose
between Beijing and Washington.
"We
want to cooperate with both as far as we can, and we can cooperate for
growth and prosperity and stability for our people and the world order,
and I think this is exactly the same view of a lot of countries and a
lot of people of this region," he said.
Beyond
the rhetoric, regional military attaches and analysts say the European
regional presence - and ambitions - may not be easy to shift.
Military
deployments are mapped out over decades rather than months, and both
commercial and defence relationships go back decades, some of them only
rarely publicly acknowledged.
The
visit of a British aircraft carrier to Singapore later this month is
part of a programme first mentioned by then-Foreign Secretary Boris
Johnson in 2017 to stress British support for freedom of navigation in
the South China Sea.
The
carrier visit in part reflects Britain's commitments under the
54-year-old Five-Power Defence Arrangement that links its military with
counterparts in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.
British
ties with Australia have been bolstered with the recent three-way AUKUS
submarine and advanced technology sharing agreement struck with the
U.S. - a move that could see British submarines visiting Western
Australia.
Singapore
meanwhile keeps 200 personnel in France operating 12 of its light
combat aircraft while Britain also has a jungle training camp and
helicopters in Brunei and a 1,200-strong Gurkha battalion, according to
International Institute of Strategic Studies data.
A report last month by the London-based IISS highlighted European defence firms'
long-standing and expanding defence ties to Asia, even in the face of competition, particularly from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as regional budgets rise.
"European
companies, including Airbus, Damen, Naval Group and Thales, have a
long-standing presence in Southeast Asia, and other European actors have
established themselves in the market in the last decade, including
Italy's Fincantieri and Sweden's Saab," the IISS study said.
Saab is close to securing a deal with U.S. ally Thailand to supply its Gripen fighters, beating out Lockheed Martin's F-16s.
The
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has reported that
Asian defence spending rose 46% in the decade to 2024, reaching $629
billion.
For
Finnish officials at least, Hegseth's remarks resonated - it is Moscow
rather than the Indo-Pacific that looms large for Helsinki given the
country's long Russian border.
"When
Europe's defence is in a good shape, then you will have resources to do
something more," Finnish Defence Minister Antti Hakkanen told Reuters.
"But
now all the European countries must do their main focus on European
defence so that the United States can do a bigger share in the
Indo-Pacific area," Hakkanen said.
Reporting
by Greg Torode and Fanny Potkin in Singapore; additional reporting by
Idrees Ali, Xinghui Kok, Jun Yuan and Rae Wee; Editing by Raju
Gopalakrishnan and Shri Navaratnam