How India’s BrahMos deal is not just about Philippines but gives a stronger message to the region

In a major boost to its defence export plans, India has  signed a $375 billion deal to export the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile to the Philippines. According to the Philippines Defence Secretary, Delfin Lorenzana, they had sent a  written request to the BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited “to accept a proposal to buy three batteries of the supersonic missile system for $375 million”. Each battery  comprises two missile launchers, a radar and a command-and-control centre, and can fire two missiles within 10 seconds. This is the first major military export by India. This supersonic missile is an India-Russia joint venture which can be  launched from submarines, ships, aircraft, or from land platforms. India has been essentially known globally to be among the  top five arms importers, according to a March 2021 report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). But recently, the Indian government is looking to reduce its arms imports by boosting domestic production. New Delhi is  seeking a boost in defence exports in order to strengthen its defence manufacturing and production. At present, India is the twenty-fourth largest arms exporter in the world, but India’s  vision is “to expand its defence manufacturing sector and become a bigger arms exporter generating a revenue of $5 billion by 2025”. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has been  talking about “various defence equipment on offer” during bilateral talks and visits to friendly nations. There are changes being made to make such exports easier as well, for instance,  sanctioning of funds to Indian missions abroad for promoting indigenous arms. For the Philippines, the purpose behind the acquisition of the supersonic cruise missile is to improve its coastal defence and will be  used by the Coastal Defence Regiment of the Philippine Marines. The deal also included training for operators and logistics support. The main rationale for the Filipino government’s acquisition plan is to protect the island nation’s claims in the disputed South China Sea or the West Philippine Sea as they refer to it. The plan for this acquisition was  started as early as 2017 and was  approved by the Office of the President in 2020 as part of the modernisation programme of the armed forces of the Philippines. The ongoing pandemic which has hit the Philippines’ economy in a big way stalled the process and hence there was a delay from the end of the Filipino government in placing the order. The Philippines has been embroiled in a territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea since the early 1990s. From the Chinese occupation of the Mischief Reef in 1992, the clash around the Scarborough Shoal in 2012, the turf has intensified further in recent years with very frequent skirmishes, disagreements, between the Chinese navy, coast guards and their Filipino counterparts. The Chinese maritime militia has been constantly engaging in clashes and harassing the Southeast Asian claimant nations, sometimes even in their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). The legal weapon employed by the Philippines, whereby in 2016 the Permanent Court of Arbitration had rejected China’s nine-dashed line claims, had not stopped China from indulging in artificial island reclamation activities in these disputed islands to unilaterally enforce its maritime claims. China’s nationalistic fervour under President Xi Jinping has led to use of military tactics to impose its claims and this has exacerbated tensions with Japan in the East China Sea, Southeast Asia in the South China Sea, India in the Line of Actual Control (LAC), and also with Australia (economic coercion). Countries are now no longer shying away from undertaking strong anti-China policies and joining hands under the purview of ‘like-minded partnership’ to deal with an expansionist Beijing. Initiatives like the one being discussed, Quad, AUKUS all are indicative of this. China has rapidly expanded its defence and military capabilities which has made the Southeast Asian claimant countries very vulnerable. This has forced them to reach out to like-minded countries like India for further strengthening the bilateral ties especially in the realm of defence. There is an attempt by the Philippines to also diversify its major arms suppliers and look for other exporters besides the United States and South Korea. The defence agreement that would enable the export of defence equipment to Manila from India was  signed in early 2021. The defence relations between India and Philippines have also been on an upward trajectory with India  extending a $100 million defence related Line of Credit to Manila.  According to Rear Admiral (retd) Rommel Ong, who served as the Philippines Navy second in command till 2019, “The missiles were designed in part to counter China, which contests the Philippines’ claims to land features and fishing grounds in the South China Sea. The anti-ship missiles would be dispersed from north to south in the Philippine archipelago, to cover the west coast, which faces the South China Sea.” Furthermore, this will help increase the deterrence capability of the Philippines when facing a much militarily developed and advanced Chinese Navy. Richard Heydarian, associate professor at Polytechnic University of the Philippines,  said, “Smaller countries, by calibrated acquisitions of state-of-the-art and asymmetric capabilities can develop this overall minimum deterrence.” This sale enables India to ensure its place as a reliable defence partner to its Southeast Asian neighbours. This will provide India the much needed headway to export the BrahMos cruise missile to countries like Vietnam, Indonesia who have also made repeated appeals for its purchase as well. The Indian government, in order to give a push to its age-old Look East policy, had rechristened it to the Act East policy in 2014, but still there were critical voices pointing that India has a long way to go to establish a strong and meaningful presence in its extended neighbourhood. India since after the Galwan Valley clash of June 2020 has been deepening its ties with the United States and with the allies of the US as well like Australia and now the Philippines. India is engaging in “proactive defence diplomacy” in response to China’s naval incursions in the Indo-Pacific and also China’s encroachments in the disputed land border with India. This deal will undoubtedly have an impact on the India-China, India-ASEAN as well as the Philippines-China relations. This provides the perfect leeway for India to develop a strong defence linkage, partnership with countries of the ASEAN and put in some weight behind its constant mantra of ‘ASEAN centrality’ in its Indo-Pacific vision. Given that countries like the Philippines in the ASEAN have started to push back against China, it is time for major players of the Indo-Pacific like the US, India, Japan, Australia, UK among others to sweep in and again prove their credibility in the defence and security realm to the like-minded countries in Southeast Asia. Dr Premesha Saha is an Associate Fellow with the Strategic Studies Programme of the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. 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