FPDA Defence Chiefs Pledge to Keep Grouping Relevant

They also discuss ways to counter emerging threats, like those to subsea infrastructure

- Wong Pei Ting

The defence chiefs of Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom have reaffirmed their countries' commitment to keeping the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) relevant and contributing to regional peace and security.

This means maintaining the momentum of the grouping's regular exercises and enhancing the militaries' ability to operate well together, while also looking at ways to do more to counter emerging security threats, including to Asia's undersea infrastructure such as power and data cables, they said after their meeting on May 29.

Speaking to reporters after the 23rd FPDA Defence Chiefs' Conference (FDCC) at Conrad Orchard Hotel, Singapore's Chief of Defence Force Aaron Beng said the five countries had discussed putting additional focus on this "very fast evolving" area of threat, given the significant amount of underwater infrastructure in Asia.

The defence chiefs had been asked whether protecting such infrastructure was a priority, given plans by both Singapore and Malaysia to become hubs for digital infrastructure such as data centres.

"As FPDA has always done in the past, we will continue to look at emerging threats, the capabilities that all the nations have, the concerns that all the nations have, and evolve our activities to meet the needs," said Vice-Admiral Beng.

The FPDA first took form in 1971 to safeguard the external defence of Singapore and Malaysia, amid the withdrawal of British forces from Singapore. The FDCC serves as the highest professional military forum of the FPDA.