Asia boosts weapons buys, military research as security outlook darkens
By Greg Torode and Jun Yuan Yong
Spending on weapons and research is spiking among some Asian countries as they respond to a darkening security outlook by broadening their outside industrial partnerships while trying to boost their own defense industries, a new study has found.
The annual Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment released on Wednesday by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said outside industrial help remains vital even as regional nations ultimately aim for self-reliance.
"Recent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, coupled with worsening U.S.-China strategic competition and deterioration of the Asia-Pacific security landscape, may lead to a rising tide of defense-industrial partnerships," it read.
"Competitive security dynamics over simmering flashpoints ... feed into the need to develop military capabilities to address them."
Spending on defense procurement and research and development rose $2.7 billion between 2022 and 2024, it showed, to reach $10.5 billion among Southeast Asia's key nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The spike comes even as the nations spent an average of 1.5% of GDP on defense in 2024, a figure that has kept relatively constant over the last decade.
The study, released ahead of this weekend's annual Shangri-La Dialogue defense meeting in Singapore, said Asia-Pacific nations still rely on imports for most key weapons and equipment.
Such items range from submarines and combat aircraft to drones, missiles and advanced electronics for surveillance and intelligence gathering.
The informal Singapore gathering of global defense and military officials is expected to be dominated by uncertainties stemming from the protracted Ukraine conflict, Trump administration security policies and regional tension over Taiwan and the disputed busy waterway of the South China Sea.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are increasingly active and making inroads, the study said, though European companies have a prominent and expanding regional presence, via technology transfer, joint ventures and licenced assembly deals.
The UAE now operates a diversified network of collaborators, such as China's NORINCO weapons giant and rival India's Hindustan Aeronautics.
Joint development operations are not always easy, the study said, offering lessons from India's two-decade collaboration with Russia to produce the BrahMos supersonic anti-ship missile.
While the feared weapon is fielded by India, exports have been hampered by lack of a clear strategy, with deliveries to its first third-party customer, the Philippines, starting only in 2024, the study added.
Closer Russia-China ties could further complicate the weapon's development, particularly if Moscow chooses to prioritize ties with Beijing to develop a hypersonic version of the missile.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
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A detail from the poster advertising the 'Constellation of Complicity' exhibition, which opened on July 24 at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center in Bangkok, Thailand. China's government has accused the organizers of an exhibition in Thailand of undermining its 'core interests,' after the publication of a report that the show's co-curator removed and altered artworks at the request of the Chinese embassy in Bangkok. The Reuters news agency reported last week that the Bangkok Art and Culture Center (BACC) had removed materials about China's treatment of ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang and its policy toward Hong Kong from an exhibition featuring artists from authoritarian nations. In a written response to Reuters yesterday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that the exhibition 'promoted the fallacies of so-called 'Tibetan independence', 'the East Turkestan Islamic Movement' and 'Hong Kong independence',' distorted China's policies and 'undermined China's core interests and political dignity.' The exhibit, titled 'Constellation of Complicity: Visualizing the Global Machinery of Authoritarian Solidarity,' opened at the BACC on July 24. According to the center's website, it features artworks from Myanmar, Iran, Russia, Syria, the diaspora community, and 'regions with cultural and autonomy demands.' It said that the exhibition sought to interrogate the 'formal and informal alignments between authoritarian states through the lens of artists who have lived through – or in exile from – their consequences.' Reuters' report quoted Sai, an artist from Myanmar who has co-curated the exhibition, as saying that three days after the show opened, Chinese embassy staff, accompanied by Bangkok city officials, 'entered the exhibition and demanded its shutdown.' The news agency also quoted an email dated July 30 in which BACC said: 'Due to pressure from the Chinese Embassy – transmitted through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and particularly the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, our main supporter – we have been warned that the exhibition may risk creating diplomatic tensions between Thailand and China.' The email said the gallery had 'no choice but to make certain adjustments.' According to a report by Khaosod English, China was originally included in the list of repressive countries, but the word had been covered with black tape, 'both in the Thai and English descriptions of the exhibition.' It quoted Sai as saying that the names and regional affiliations of three artists, from Hong Kong, Tibet, and the Uyghur diaspora, had been 'covered with black tape,' while the Tibetan and Uyghur flags in one installation were removed. 'Later, all of Tibetan artist Tenzin Mingyur Paldron's video works were taken down, and postcards referencing Xi Jinping and a book were removed,' he added. 'It is tragically ironic that an exhibition on authoritarian cooperation has been censored under authoritarian pressure,' Sai told Reuters. 'Thailand has long been a refuge for dissidents. This is a chilling signal to all exiled artists and activists in the region.' Sai reportedly fled abroad after Thai police sought to find him. The censorship of the exhibition is a sign of Beijing's willingness to leverage its diplomatic clout to prevent the expression of criticism of Chinese policies, whether by Chinese nationals or foreigners. Indeed, it is just the latest in a line of Chinese attempts to shut down film screenings, exhibitions, and other cultural events abroad. In 2009, Beijing demanded that the Palm Springs International Film Festival withdraw two China-related films; the same year, Chinese hackers attacked the website of the Melbourne International Film Festival over its decision to screen a documentary about the exiled Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer. In both cases, the organizers refused, after which Chinese films were subsequently pulled from the festival line-ups, apparently under Chinese government pressure. Similarly, in July of this year, Chinese officials sought to halt the initial screening of the Philippine film 'Food Delivery: Fresh From The West Philippine Sea,' which details the experiences of Filipino troops and fishermen facing Chinese pressure in the South China Sea. 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According to Sai, BACC also 'never wanted to censor' the 'Constellation of Complicity' exhibition and 'showed remarkable courage and professionalism in resisting repeated demands from the Chinese Embassy.' But the reported participation of the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority in the enforcement of the exhibition's censorship sends a worrying sign of Thailand's shrinking commitment to freedom of expression – and raises fears that close Thailand-China relations will exact a cost on the Thai creative community.
