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| Indo-Pacific Region |
By Dr. Robert Farley
One of the many ways in which the East Asian balance of power does not resemble the “classic” Cold War is in the structure of the arms trade. During the Cold War Soviet arms dominated the Eastern European market, as well as the markets of politically connected Soviet client states in the Middle East and Africa. Western supply was more varied, with the United States occupying a central position but French, British, German, and other arms suppliers sometime vying for the same customers as the Soviets (especially in the Middle East). Nevertheless, in the Cold War a commitment to an arms supplier often implied a geostrategic commitment to one superpower.
East and Southeast Asian states have yet to replicate this pattern in the post-Cold War era. At this point, China’s primarily arms sales targets remain in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Pakistan also buys a substantial amount of Chinese arms, but China’s major regional arms clients (Burma, North Korea, and to an extent Cambodia) remain distinctly second-tier in terms of purchasing power. The increasing sophistication of Chinese equipment, assuming reliability problems can be dealt with, could incline other regional states to purchase Chinese weapons. However, committing to Chinese supplies also risks a political commitment to the PRC, which might sit poorly with the United States. For its own part, the United States has major customers in Taipei, Seoul, and Tokyo, notwithstanding those nations’ own robust defense industries. The U.S. has also made inroads into Southeast Asia, with significant sales to Indonesia and the Philippines.
Read the full story at The Diplomat