Seoul, South Korea (Washington Insider Magazine) – The Rim of the Pacific drills, which will take place in 2022, will include major US allies from all around the world, including Australia, Japan, and India, which have decided to join Washington in the Quad group, as well as 5 countries bordering the South China Sea, one of the globe’s most volatile regions for military conflicts.
According to CNN, army forces from 26 nations will participate in the exercises, which will take place between San Diego and Honolulu from June 29 to August 4. The exercises will involve 170 aircraft, 4 submarines, and 38 surface vessels, according to a statement released by the US Navy’s 3rd Fleet on Tuesday. Around 25,000 people will be involved, including ground forces from 9 different nations.
China has already been ramping up its troops and broadening its reach in the Indo-Pacific, including militarizing islands in the South China Sea, which it alleges as its sovereign jurisdiction almost entirely.
RIMPAC 2022 will bring together three countries with opposing claims to China’s territory: Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Indonesia, which neighbors the South China Sea and has recently experienced maritime problems with China, will also participate, as will Singapore, which lies at the 1.3 million-square-mile sea’s southwestern border.
However, as tension with China grows in the region, the Quad nations — Australia, Japan, India, and the United States – have been boosting military ties.
Since 2020, the 4 nations have carried out 2 naval exercises. However, since last year, their leaders have met 4 times, including in in-person meetings at the White House in September and in Tokyo on May 24.
The exercises will involve amphibious operations, missile, gunnery, air defense, and anti-submarine operations, along with mine clearing operations, counter-piracy operations, explosive ordnance disposal, salvage, and dive operations, according to the US Navy.
China’s foreign affairs minister, Wang Yi, has referred to the organization as an Asian “NATO,” criticizing it of “stoking geopolitical rivalry” and “trumpeting the Cold War mentality.”
The United Kingdom, Canada, Colombia, France, Chile, Denmark, Ecuador, Germany, Mexico, Israel, New Zealand, South Korea, Peru, Tonga, Sri Lanka, the Netherlands, and Thailand are also participating in RIMPAC 2022.
Carl Schuster, a former operations director at the Joint Intelligence Unit of the US Pacific Command, said the RIMPAC roster demonstrates Washington’s political influence around the world.
He also remarked on the presence of Tonga, a Pacific island nation, in the drills, which comes at a time when China is attempting to expand its dominance in the South Pacific’s minor nations.
The 28th session of RIMPAC, which started in 1971, will be held in the near future.
