Session 1: Shoring Up Regional Partnerships

Mr Tom Hamilton

Acting Deputy Secretary, Strategic Policy and Intelligence Group, Department of Defence

‘Thank you everyone for having me today, I have a long list of people to acknowledge here. I am going to cut it short in case I miss anyone but I would like to acknowledge Chief of Army, Chief of Air Force, I see here. I’m not sure if Chief of Navy is still here but I should acknowledge him. In particular though, I would like to note all of our international partners who are here today. International engagement is core to the business of Defence and it’s really important for us to see you all here today. I’ll also note the many senior leaders in the audience, but particularly I’d like to note the many future senior leaders that are here and hopefully this seminar, this series of presentations and the panel, will be helpful to you as you develop your careers and your habits of strategic thinking.

‘As Peter mentioned, my name is Tom Hamilton. I am the acting Deputy Secretary of Strategic Policy and Intelligence Group in the Australian Department of Defence. It’s my privilege today to speak to you on the topic of the Indo-Pacific: The Region of Global Connection. This is an interesting and somewhat paradoxical question given the broader theme of the conference—namely the application of land power in the Indo-Pacific. Certainly our region is largely defined in maritime terms. Australia, as our national anthem reminds us, is ‘girt by sea’ and the geographic designation

‘Indo-Pacific’ is quintessentially maritime, directly connecting two large expanses of ocean.

‘For Australia the term is, and has been for some time now, a reflection of the realities of our geography. But what does it mean for you as leading Army thinkers, leaders and strategists? Let me address this question from a broad perspective on the region first and then suggest some areas in which Defence, and land power in particular, can serve to enhance Indo- Pacific security. As our colleague from Sri Lanka [Lieutenant General Senenyake] previously remarked, the Indo-Pacific is one of the world’s most diverse regions economically, politically, demographically and culturally. Its identity has been shaped by the eastward shift in economic and strategic power over recent years, an identity that is coming into even sharper relief. As Mr Shoebridge set out, maritime trade is increasingly a significant characterisation of our region. In summary, the United Nations’ Conference on Trade and Development estimates that roughly 80% of global trade by value is transported by sea. Of that volume, 60% of maritime trade passes through Asia, with the South China Sea carrying an estimated one third of global shipping, and I think the chart Mr. Shoebridge put up illustrated that quite well. Much of this growth has been fuelled by the rise of China and India, but also others. Australia lies on the longitudinal crossroads of the Indo-Pacific and is significantly invested in continuing stability across the region, stability of which we cannot take for granted. The region is undergoing a profound strategic transition that offers the region profound opportunities for both economic development and also cooperation. But it also poses challenges which will have to be at the core of planning for the future of land forces.

‘These ideas resonate with the six key strategic drivers of our environment which the 2016 Defence White Paper set out. These six drivers are:

• the US-China relationship
   
• challenges to the stability of the rules-based global order
   
• major power competition
   
• the enduring threat of terrorism
   
• state fragility and the pace of military modernisation
   
• the emergence of complex non-geographic threats such as cyber- threats and threats in space.

‘All of these drivers have manifested to varying degrees in the Indo-Pacific region and all of them are relevant to the development and application of land forces. In this respect it’s very clear that the region has benefitted enormously from the decades-long engagement by the United States. The stability that we have come to enjoy and rely so heavily on has, in no small measure, derived from the ongoing US presence in the region, and Australia strongly supports this presence continuing and expanding. Continued stability in the region is now inextricably linked to the evolving relationship between the United States—as it grows its presence—and China, and ensuring that this relationship remains constructive and productive. For Australia, our ongoing relationship with both the US and China will be crucial in different ways and the way the government approaches our defence strategy reflects these differences. In respect to the US, our alliance is based on shared values and will continue to be the central platform of our strategic planning. We have stood together in every major conflict since World War I, and we will continue to strengthen the alliance by supporting the US’ role in underpinning the stability of our region and working closely with the US and coalitions of like-minded nations to address common global security challenges. The US force posture initiatives in northern Australia are a key element and example of this. The Marine Rotational Force-Darwin presents a range of opportunities for combined training and engagement with regional partners, particularly land forces, as well as providing inter-operability benefits for Australia and the United States, and ensuring that we are both postured to respond to contingencies and natural disasters in the Indo- Pacific.

‘At the same time, Australia welcomes and recognizes China’s continued economic growth and the opportunities that this is bringing for Australia and other countries in the Indo-Pacific. We’ll continue to seek to deepen and broaden our important defence relationship with China. We engaged with China through multilateral and bilateral exercises, most notably Kawari and Pandaroo, which focus on non-traditional security challenges. Just last week, we opened Exercise Kowari, a trilateral Australia-China-United States initiative focusing on environmental survival skills, designed to encourage team-building and promote inter-cultural cooperation. Later this month, we will host our bilateral exercise with China which aims to foster relationships at the junior officer, NCO and soldier level through shared adversity and resilience-building activities.

‘I mentioned a moment before economic growth in the region. With that growth has come the opportunity for military modernisation, which is occurring at a rapid rate. South East Asia has been amongst the biggest global defence spenders over the past decade. Expenditure in the region has risen by almost 10% annually since 2009 and regional nations have been acquiring new war-fighting capabilities, including new fighters, surface warships, submarines and a range of other advanced capabilities. This military modernisation in the region is strengthening regional resilience, increasing the capacity of regional powers and opening up new opportunities to improve interoperability. This obviously presents new potential ventures for cooperation with more capable partners but it also risks heightening tensions and the potential for miscalculations. Transparency around capability and intent will be crucial for minimising the risk of miscalculation and possible conflict. This is why we endeavour to articulate Australia’s long-term strategic outlook and planned capability acquisition in forums such as this and through government statements such as White Papers. Indeed, this is why successive publication of Defence White Papers at regular intervals is an essential part of our strategic messaging. It improves domestic and regional understanding of our Defence posture and capabilities as well as the policies that underpin them.

‘The last such statement in 2016 is especially attentive to the tightening connections between Australian national interests, the Indo-Pacific region’s security, and the rules-based global order. Indeed, this underpins the rationale for what we have set out as three equally weighted Strategic Defence Objectives (SDOs) which underpin our security planning.

‘Firstly, deter, deny and defeat attacks on, or threats to, Australia and its national interests and northern approaches.

‘Secondly, to make effective military contributions to support the security of maritime South East Asia and support the governments of Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and of Pacific Island countries to build and strengthen their security.

‘And thirdly, to contribute military capabilities to coalition operations that support Australia’s interest in a rules-based global order.

‘In response to the rapidly changing strategic landscape and these three Strategic Defence Objectives, we require land power to be more agile and potent than it ever has been before. This must include greater mobility, lethality, protection and situational awareness to ensure land power can deploy quickly to where it is needed, apply force effectively, and achieve diverse missions and return home safely.

‘Australia’s responding to this demand by investing in new advanced capabilities such as protected vehicles, strategic lift to enable the deployment of our forces, including into highly urbanised and littoral environments, so they can conduct a broad range of tasks, from leading humanitarian assistance to making contribution[s] to high-end conflicts. We’re investing in building longer range firepower, enhanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to improve the reach and protection of our forces. We’re investing in our Special Forces capabilities that contribute to whole-of-government efforts to counter terrorism with leading-edge equipment that can be refreshed as new technology or threats emerge.

‘Importantly, these investments all rely on a relationship with industry to continue to evolve and respond to the growing array of threats; to offer our armed forces the capabilities to meet the demands of our environment. That’s why it’s critical we’re in the process of building a more robust, resilient and internationally competitive industrial base that better meets our Defence capability requirements. Just this year our Defence Industrial Capability Plan was released. This is a foundational document that provides a baseline of our industry today and a roadmap for where we need to get to. This plan and other policies such as the export strategy also recognise that a greater emphasis on industry, as a critical input to capability, can contribute to Australia’s—and also our international bilateral relationships’— defence goals in the Indo-Pacific.

‘Greater defence industry cooperation with partners and allies such as the US, will help enhance the interoperability of our forces. And a stronger Australian defence industry—with an eye to the global market—will also help find new avenues for cooperation with partners in the region, helping to build closer links economically and militarily, particularly in our neighbouring regions. Our Defence Industry Policy has a strong emphasis on innovation with the Next-Generation Technologies Fund and Defence Innovation Hub providing a single innovation development pipeline. This innovation is vital to ensuring that the ADF maintains its capability edge. Given the pace of technological change that I referred to it is absolutely critical that our industry, with our support, continues to evolve and adapt and meets the capability needs of the Australian Defence Force.

‘This is particularly important as efforts in non-traditional forums and non- traditional theatres will see us work together with partners to combat new and emerging threats, such as in the cyber and space domains, as well as from hybrid warfare. There is an increasing range of options at the lower end of the conflict spectrum which form a grey zone between traditional notions of war and peace. These options may not necessarily trigger conventional military responses but may nonetheless pose great strategic risk. We need to better understand these risks and to develop better, more effective responses. However, Defence’s ability to contribute to building a stable and secure Indo-Pacific region is not limited to these capabilities.

‘The White Paper in 2016, for the first time, prioritised international engagement as a core function of Defence, and for good reason. The stability and security of the Indo-Pacific depends more than ever on close partnerships that support international order and rules-based systems. Land power can help develop and provide value add-ons in this international engagement construct. The Army of the future must seek to actively engage and shape our region, rather than just respond to the actions of malevolent forces. Army must continue to be proactive in rethinking our contribution to joint war fighting, philosophy, strategy and concepts so that we as a Defence organisation can anticipate and deal with challenges in cooperation with partners before they evolve into conflicts. It’s for that reason that Defence has increased international engagement, particularly with the countries of the South Pacific and South East Asia, to support our collective capacity to address common threats and security challenges. We’re doing this through increasing ADF deployments into the region, supporting increased capacity-building efforts, and strengthening the security architecture of the region. In doing so, we’ll continue to further embed people-to-people links between land forces in the region and [the] habits of cooperation at all levels.

‘Exercises such as Jabiru, co-hosted by Australia and Thailand in May 2018, exemplify the interoperability and confidence-building objectives of well-designed international engagement. This exercise involved over 100 participants from military, policy and government organisations from over 20 nations in the Indo-Pacific. It’s the longest continuously running peace operations-related exercise in the region, with 2018 marking its 20th anniversary. It serves to improve understanding of strategic and operational planning for participation in complex and multi-dimensional UN peacekeeping operations, including lectures and presentations across a wide range of peacekeeping topics: international humanitarian law, rules of engagement, protection of civilians, and women, peace and security. While our involvement in this exercise is greater than just land forces, it’s a key enabler for regional land force participation in peacekeeping operations and is a very good example of Australia’s joint leadership with South East Asian partners contributing to regional peace and security, and a spirit of cooperation.

‘I mentioned before military modernisation in the region and how this is changing the strategic landscape. Developing effective doctrines that address the challenges of leading and deploying more capable military forces, in particular land forces, will be crucial for addressing some of the challenges in the region. Even more important will be instilling traditions of transparency and information sharing to reduce risks and strengthen mutual understanding. This is why Australia so strongly supports the Association of South East Asian Nations and other multilateral organisations in the Indo-Pacific. By strengthening these broader multilateral architectures, we underscore the rules-based order that the international system has been built on and the habits of cooperation with regional partners, habits that will always stand to benefit all of us in a crisis.

‘Cooperation through strengthened regional architectures is essential. It helps normalise and build expectations of transparency and ensures that strategic competition does not turn into conflict. In this context, I should note that mini-lateral groupings are also proving to be useful forums for facilitating countries coming together to tackle emerging issues. I mentioned, in this context, in February this year the former Defence Minister hosted her counterparts from many countries in the region in Perth for a sub-regional meeting to address the ongoing challenge of terrorism and how we can work to address it. This forum, which Indonesia will host next year, draws together longstanding assistance that Army has provided into the region in relation to counter-terrorism. We conduct annual counter-terrorism exercises with most of our South East Asian partners and have provided, and will continue to provide, training at bilateral levels. But we’re also prepared to take action in support of the challenges faced by those partners, such as the support we provided to the Philippines in relation to the siege in Marawi.

‘The Army in Motion and Accelerated Warfare concepts, as recently articulated by the Chief of the Army, are reflections, I think, of the Army recognising these challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, and realising that land power and land forces need to be transformed so that they can continue to have a positive and enduring effect and contribute to a stable Indo-Pacific region.

‘In conclusion, let me say this: now, more than at any other time, an ability to combine capabilities, operate in cross-domain environments and anticipate a more diverse range of challenges and threats, will determine our success in securing Australia’s national interests. How we must do so, at the same time, is to be guided by innovation and creativity, and by agility, given the nature and pace of change in our region. As competition continues to increase we need to shore up our partnerships to develop and widen shared interests and interdependence. We need to do so on the basis of clear rules-based systems, ensuring that we have levels of hard power that we can rely on and that permit us to safeguard and enforce these same systems. In that regard Army is, and will continue to be, a critical part of the Australian Defence Force’s capabilities.

‘Thank you very much.’

Figure 14. A member of 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment demonstrates room clearance drills to members of the Royal Thai Army during Exercise Chapel Gold 2018 in Thailand. Chapel Gold is an Australian-Thai exercise where jungle training skills and counter-insurgency techniques are honed. (Image: DoD)

Figure 15. A platoon commander from the Royal Thai Army briefs the Officer Commanding Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment during the jungle warfare / counter insurgency exercise, Exercise Chapel Gold 2018. (Image: DoD)