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| First Australian Hobart class Destroyer under-construction |
By Prashanth Parameswaran
The region’s military buildup is a lot more secretive than it should be, Transparency International finds in a new report.
Asia’s military buildup is occurring largely unchecked by institutions and unknown to publics, raising serious governance concerns, a leading anti-corruption watchdog found in a report released November 4.
Of the 17 states that London-based Transparency International assessed in the Asia-Pacific region in its “Government Defense Anti-Corruption Index,” eleven are considered to be at least at “high risk” of defense corruption, including China, India, Pakistan and six of the seven Southeast Asian states (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar).
“The intention underlying the rapid growth of military capabilities of countries is not always clear to their own people, never mind their neighbors and the outside world,” the report finds.
Only 6 out of the 17 countries studied were found to publish their defense budgets with enough detail to enable public oversight, and not a single country was assessed to have adequate legislative oversight of defense spending.
Read the full story at The Diplomat