The role of the five power defence arrangements in the Southeast Asian security architecture

Abstract

This paper discusses the evolving Southeast Asian security architecture by focusing on the role of a “mini-lateral” defence coalition, the Five Power Defence

Arrangements (FPDA). Examined from the Singaporean and Malaysian points of

view, the paper investigates whether the FPDA complements or is being gradually

supplanted by other regional security instruments in Southeast Asia. The other mechanisms covered in the paper include the activities undertaken by Malaysia and

Singapore with the United States bilaterally, mini-laterally with Indonesia through the Malacca Strait Patrol (MSP), and multilaterally through the emerging ASEAN

Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) process. The overall argument of the paper is

that for Malaysia and Singapore the FPDA continues to complement these bilateral,

mini-lateral and multilateral security instruments, yet each in very different ways. In

that sense, the FPDA plays a clear, although limited, role in the Southeast Asian

security architecture.