Malaysia fears military ‘miscalculation’ near Sabah amid US-China rivalry

Malaysia faces a growing risk of miscalculation near its state of Sabah as US-China rivalry drives more military activities into the waters around Borneo, its defence minister has warned, bolstering the government’s push for higher spending on its armed forces.

The concern is particularly acute for Malaysia, a South China Sea claimant that has long sought to keep close economic ties with China while avoiding alignment with either Beijing or Washington and is feeling further unease over the expanding US-Philippine military presence just north of Sabah.

Malaysian Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin told This Week in Asia that Putrajaya did not regard the Philippines, the United States, China or any other country as a specific threat, but said the increase in military activities across the region had created a more complex and potentially combustible security environment.

“When you have more military assets operating within a relatively confined geographical space, the possibility of miscalculation, misunderstanding or even a small incident escalating into something more serious naturally increases,” he said.

“Geographic proximity is therefore an important consideration for us,” Khaled added. “Even if an incident does not directly involve Malaysia, any escalation in areas close to us could have wider implications for our security and for stability in the South China Sea.”

His remarks provide the clearest explanation yet from Malaysia’s defence establishment of the thinking behind Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s push for higher military spending, after Anwar publicly singled out the expanding US-Philippine military presence on Balabac Island, just north of Sabah.