Swallow Reef, a coral atoll occupied by Malaysia since 1983, has undergone nearly 283,000 square meters of land reclamation. Construction has been oncgoing and includes a naval station with an air-defense system, an airport with two aircraft hangers and a paved runway, a marine research facility, and a diving resort. The paved runway is over 1,300 meters long, allowing the operation of fighter jets in addition to transport and commercial airplanes.
Thitu Island, the largest of the Philippine-controlled islands in the Spratly archipelago, has been enlarged by over 56,000 square meters since the Philippine government occupied the island in the 1970s. Military installations, mostly built around that time, include a military base, an unpaved and eroding runway as well as concrete bunkers. Approximately 200 residents live on the island and a small contingent of Philippine armed forces are stationed there.
On September 11, 2012, the government of Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda nationalized three islands in the Senkaku/Diaoyu chain, which are claimed by China and Taiwan. Uotsuri-shimai is one of the three islands. The other two are Minamiko-jima and Kita-ko-shima.
West Reef, also known as West London Reef, has undergone 65,000 square meters of land reclamation since mid-2012. Vietnam had already built several small military structures across the reef and recent construction activity has included a number of buildings that could have future military use.
On June 21, 2012 the State Council promoted Sansha City on Woody (Yongxing) Island from a county to a prefectural level administrative entity, the second highest administrative division. Sansha continued its responsibility for managing the Paracels, the Spratlys (claimed by China as the Nansha Islands), the Zhongsha Islands (a collection of features that includes the Macclesfield Bank) and their surrounding waters.
Alison Szalwinski is Vice President of Research at NBR. Ms. Szalwinski provides executive leadership to NBR’s policy research agenda and oversees research teams in Seattle and Washington, D.C. She is the author of numerous articles and reports and co-editor of the Strategic Asia series along with Ashley J. Tellis and Michael Wills, including the most recent volumes, Strategic Asia 2020: U.S.-China Competition for Global Influence (2020), Strategic Asia 2019: China’s Expanding Strategic Ambitions (2019), and Strategic Asia 2017–18: Power, Ideas, and Military Strategy in the Asia-Pacific (2017). Prior to joining NBR, Szalwinski spent time at the U.S. Department of State and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.… Read More »Alison Szalwinski
Olivia Truesdale is an intern with the Political and Security Affairs group at NBR. She supports project activities such as research, drafting, proofreading, and fact checking. Prior to joining NBR, Ms. Truesdale was a Nonimmigrant Visa Unit intern at the U.S. Embassy, Seoul, and an exchange student at Yonsei University. She is a senior and studies foreign languages and cultures, specializing in Korean and Spanish, at Scripps College in Claremont, California.
The Australia-India-Indonesia (AII) trilateral is an example of how the power structure in Asia has become multipolar. Conceived formally in Bogor in 2017, the AII has gradually progressed through senior-level meetings held in Canberra in 2018 and New Delhi in 2019. The grouping adds to the existing trilaterals in the region, such as the Japan-U.S.-India, Australia-India-Japan, and recent Australia-France-India groupings. The AII also complements the Quad (comprising Australia, India, Japan, and the United States), which has become a pragmatic mode of multilateral cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. Considering the myriad such groupings in the region, this essay examines what value the… Read More »The Australia-India-Indonesia Trilateral: Fostering Maritime Cooperation between Middle Powers
The Indo-Pacific region is facing a host of daunting maritime challenges, including increasingly frequent and extreme weather events due to climate change, ocean pollution, pressure on fishing stocks, and threats to maritime commerce, among many others. The Republic of Korea (ROK) has an important stake in mitigating these concerns. Yet, none of these problems can be solved by any single government; instead, they require cooperation among like-minded states to achieve solutions. One way in which South Korea can contribute is through participation with the Quad coalition of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, possibly through creation of a maritime… Read More »South Korea, the Quad, and Maritime Security
The Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, signed by China and the members of ASEAN in Phnom Penh in 2002, reaffirms freedom of navigation and overflight, peaceful settlement of disputes, and self-restraint in the conduct of activities.