Five Power Defence in an ASEAN world

This paper attempts to recognise the fact that the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) cannot be studied in isolation. The regional context of the arrangements must be taken into account. These defence arrangements exist in the shadow of a significant regional association and one that was in existence before FPDA, namely the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). ASEAN began with five members and while it is now seven members strong (of significance including Vietnam) it is still in process of maturing with Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia now officially approved to join the association in July 1997.

In 1971, ministerial representatives of Malaysia, Singapore, Britain, Australia and New Zealand became signatories to a set of loose consultative arrangements known as FPDA. The loosely binding nature of these arrangements reflected a sign of the times; namely the British policy to withdraw troops from "East of the Suez" and a changing regional situation. This situation was in significant contrast to the defence treaty in place before FPDA, termed the Anglo-Malaysian Defence Agreement (AMDA), which was much more binding in nature and more a manifestation of the complicated situation of commitment that Britain's had placed herself in since colonisation.

Sqnldr Neil Edward South

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
University of Malaya
PL5065 1997 Sou

1997

kelly

Project Paper

A515625721