Singapore Shells Out for Security

24.03.2012

If arms imports are a measure of a region’s dominance, then the balance of power has definitely shifted in Asia’s favor. It shouldn’t be a surprise that India, South Korea, Pakistan and China are the world’s top arms importers. But right below these Asian military powerhouses comes… Singapore.

According to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released Monday, the city-state is the fifth-largest importer of arms for the 2007 – 2011 period, accounting for 4% of global arms purchases – surprising for a country with a population of just 5.1 million residents. The U.S. benefited most from the city-state’s military acquisitions, with its defense contractors involved in 43% of Singapore’s arms purchases.

But as tensions in the South China Sea rattle nerves in the region, Singapore is finding that it is not alone in prioritizing defense spending. Across Southeast Asia, arms imports grew by 185% during the 2007 – 2011 period from the previous five year period, reaching their highest level since the end of the Vietnam War, according to the report. Deliveries to both Malaysia and Singapore surged by nearly 300% and Indonesia-bound deliveries rose by 144%, while deliveries to Vietnam grew 80%.

Singapore, worried about its relative size and geographical position, has always spent an amount on defense disproportionate to its population. Since independence, it has instituted mandatory military service for all males. Though some residents have questioned spending such a large amount on defense and have called for greater social spending, analysts say the country is particularly sensitive to its geopolitical location as it is surrounded by countries with ethnic and religious make-ups quite different from its own.

For the rest of Southeast Asia, though, the spike in imports can largely be credited to the region’s growing importance as tensions between the US and China escalate, particularly as America shifts its focus away from the Middle East in its much-discussed “pivot” to Asia.

“There are strong tensions in the region over maritime borders, mainly in the South China Sea, and ships and other weapons with a maritime role as well as aircraft and other weapons with a dual maritime and over-land role accounted for most of the imports,” SIPRI said in the report.