On June 27, the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) international exercise began in the Pacific Ocean, this time involving military units from 29 countries. The evolution of the format of these exercises corresponds closely to the changes in the political situation in the Indo-Pacific region as a whole.
The relationship between the RIMPAC exercises and other US Field training exercises in the Indo-Pacific
The RIMPAC naval exercises of the last 10-15 years have stood out from the various other international events organized by and involving the US Department of Defense in that their political component is just as significant as their military component. In political terms, the only other events of comparable significance are the Malabar exercises conducted jointly by the US and Indian navies since the mid-1990s.
However, to a certain extent, there is a political element to all the Pentagon’s joint activities with US allies and close partners.
For example, the most recent Balikatan exercises held jointly by the US and the Philippines were conducted for the first time in areas of the South China Sea where the overlapping claims of the PRC and the Philippines have become an increasing acute issue. Inevitably, these exercises were seen as sending a clear message to China. Also, for the first time, the exercises extended to the Taiwan strait, an area of water used by the Chinese navy for shows of force aimed at what it sees as “Taiwanese separatists,” and also for wider-ranging missions in the Pacific Ocean.
Nevertheless, the main goal of these exercises was strictly military: to practice mechanisms for mounting a rapid response to the certain potential military threats in the area. Units of both the US and Philippine Armed Forces are seen as having a role in such a response, and they are rehearsing operations requiring close cooperation.
The joint military exercises between the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea that took place in late June in the East China Sea should be assessed mainly from the same strictly military perspective. According to experts, the direct participants in these exercises focused primarily on rehearsing mechanisms to ensure “operational intercompatibility in a typical war scenario.” It should be added that these exercises were also intended to give concrete form to Washington’s long-standing ambition to form a triple military and political alliance with the above-mentioned partners. The trilateral summit held last August at Camp David, the country retreat of the US President, represented a milestone in this regard. But these exercises also undoubtedly had a foreign policy message directed at “aggressive North Korea, and its supporters China and Russia.”
Impact of political considerations on the composition of RIMPAC participants
Up until the end of the 2000s, the United States was still hopeful that it would be possible to influence the position of China, which was rapidly becoming the No. 2 global power, in the international arena. During the exchange of high-level visits which took place back then, US President Barack Obama probed the attitude of the Chinese leadership, headed by Hu Jintao, to the then emerging hypothesis about the possibility of the US and China managing global processes jointly.
And although by the fall of 2011 the PRC’s negative reaction to such proposals had already become quite obvious, it was nevertheless clear that these hopes were not completely without foundation. That was made clear by the decision to invite China to participate in RIMPAC 2014. The invitation was accepted and for the first time Chinese naval ships appeared in Honolulu, one of the main bases of the US Navy in the Pacific Ocean. Naval vessels and units of the participating nations’ Armed Forces have gathered at this base for the purpose of the exercises ever since they were first held in 1971.
The PRC was also represented at the next biennial RIMPAC exercise. But there was no such invitation for the following exercises, held in 2018. While, in January 2018, everything was (seemingly) OK in terms of China’s participation, by May that year, the journal Politico reported on behalf of the organizers of RIMPAC-2018 that China’s invitation had been withdrawn. The stated reason was the “continued militarization of the South China Sea,” something that Beijing had allegedly been engaged in for a long time.
Thus, for the first time, one of the various zones of the Indo-Pacific region where the military and political confrontation between the two ‘leading global superpowers’ has since become particularly acute, was clearly defined. The RIMPAC exercises have become one of Washington’s tools in its attempts to involve as many countries as possible in its ongoing current anti-China intrigues.
The original Cold War RIMPAC members included all five Anglo-Saxon countries. However, New Zealand stopped participating in 1985 under some pretext, but then rejoined them in 2012, and since has participated in all the exercises. But another of the key participants, Japan, joined even earlier, at a time when it was gradually becoming the main regional ally of the United States. With the end of the Cold War and China’s transformation into the USA’s main geopolitical opponent, the factor of difficulties in Sino-Indian relations gained special importance for Washington. These difficulties made it easier for the US to involve one of the two Asian giants in various kinds of anti-China groupings and activities. And since 2012 India has been a permanent member of RIMPAC.
The participation of certain Southeast Asian countries, especially the Philippines, and the leading countries of continental Europe, is becoming increasingly prominent in the exercises. Ships from France, Germany and other European countries have consistently participated in RIMPAC in recent years.
RIMPAC-2024 and the PRC’s response to the exercises
This year’s RIMPAC exercise, which began on June 27 this year and will continue until August 1, has already been declared the largest in the history of the exercises. The basic facts concerning the exercises can be found on the US Department of Defense website. Vice Adm. John F. G. Wade, Commander of the US 3rd Fleet, has described the three main goals of RIMPAC-2024 as: “Safety, Environmental Stewardship and Professionalism.”
The main action, designed, apparently, to demonstrate the last of these three goals, will be the destruction of the decommissioned US amphibious assault ship Tarawa, a huge vessel with a displacement of 40 thousand tons, which entered service in the mid-1970s—not so long ago. It will be curious to see how the “professionals” manage to sink it. And, by the way, what international environmental organizations make of this exercise.
The general attitude to these exercises in the PRC is expressed by the leading Chinese newspaper Global Times, which described it as a “paper tiger”—a Chinese expression traditionally applied to an person that is trying to intimidate an opponent despite its own weakness. China’s response, however, was not limited to words, and as the RIMPAC-2024 exercise began, a group of Chinese Navy vessels headed by the aircraft carrier Shandong were sent to the South China Sea.
Finally, let us reiterate the fact that, regrettably, the RIMPAC international naval exercises are developing in a way that mirrors the rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific region as a whole.
Vladimir Terekhov, expert on the issues of the Asia-Pacific region, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”