Cambodian Parties Agree to Draft Laws to Implement Electoral Reforms

 
Cambodia’s ruling and opposition parties agreed Monday to draft laws on key electoral reforms, the centerpiece of a deal that broke a one-year political deadlock following disputed elections, party leaders said.

Working groups from Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodia’s People’s Party (CPP) and the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) are to meet Aug. 18 to discuss proposed legislation on restructuring the National Election Committee (NEC) and the implementation of other poll reforms, CNRP lawmaker Eng Chhay Eang said.

The draft laws should be based on “principles” stemming from the agreement clinched between Hun Sen and CNRP leader Sam Rainsy on July 22 and proposals by the two parties to amend the constitution incorporating the reforms, he said.

However, if the two parties are unable to come to an agreement on the draft laws, the matter would be referred to the top leaders to break the stalemate, according to Eng Chhay Eang.

The main reform that has been agreed upon under the deal between the two leaders is the overhaul of the composition of the NEC, with four members to be chosen by the CPP, four by the CNRP, and one mutually agreed upon by both groups.

The candidate selected by both parties, Pung Chhiv Kek, the head of the Cambodian rights group Licadho, has imposed several conditions before accepting the post, including immunity from prosecution for all NEC members.

The CPP had rejected the request for immunity, saying it was not international practice to offer such extensive protection to election organizers, but agreed to other demands such as the NEC’s financial autonomy and independence from the government.

Election reform groups have also called for a thorough review of the country’s election laws to ensure that the voting process in new elections is just and fair.

Head of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Election in Cambodia (NICFEC), Hang Puthea, said that registration of voters should be undertaken by the NEC itself rather than local councils.

He also called for provisions to allow Cambodians overseas to vote and to grant election observers access to every polling offices on voting day.

End to standoff

The CNRP had alleged that the last general elections in July 2013 were rigged in favor of Hun Sen’s CPP.

When the NEC dismissed the claims and declared the CPP the victor in the elections, the CNRP boycotted parliament and called for new polls and for Hun Sen to step down.

The two parties ended their political standoff with the July 22 agreement, which saw CNRP lawmakers swear their oath before the country’s King Norodom Sihamoni last week and take their seats in parliament.

The government reopened Freedom Park, the only sanctioned protest venue in Phnom Penh, which had been closed most of this year, and freed several CNRP lawmakers accused of stoking violent protests over the site’s closure.

CNRP Deputy President Kem Sokha said Monday that he learned from his lawyers that he would not need to present himself at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court for any questioning over the protests, as demanded by the court earlier.

Kem Sokha also said that he believed that three CNRP youth leaders under arrest for the protests would be released soon and that the charges of “insurrection” against seven party lawmakers would also be dropped.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sar Kheng had issued a letter calling for the release of the three activists, according to Kem Sokha.

Vietnam to send suspected samples to the US for Ebola testing

According to the announcement by the World Health Organization (WHO), the risk of Ebola virus transmission from person to person across borders is high for the countries bordering the Ebola-hit countries in Africa such as Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. However, the risk is average for other countries in Africa and low for other continents.
Professor Hien said that the risk of Ebola entering Vietnam is low because the transmission mechanism of Ebola is direct contact with blood, secretions, and body fluids of patients or infected animals.
"The virus is not transmitted through the respiratory or gastrointestinal system (unless eating uncooked infected meat). Only patients with symptoms are contagious. However, male patients after recovery can carry the virus in semen for seven weeks," Professor Hien said.
Technically, Prof. Hien said that Vietnam can afford to diagnose Ebola virus but does not have sufficient equipment for biosafety to perform Ebola test in Vietnam. The tests must be carried out in a laboratory with the level four - the highest level of biosafety -- while Vietnam’s laboratories are only three level. Only nine countries worldwide have laboratories that are eligible for diagnosis of this dangerous virus.
The sample must be taken under a very strict process. Vietnam has reached an agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States to send samples of suspected cases to this lab.
Since March this year, the number of Ebola cases in Africa has increased sharply in both number and geographic scope. Starting in Guinea with 49 cases and 29 deaths, it has gradually spread to other countries such as Nigeria, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The number of cases and deaths has increased weekly. At present there are nearly 1,800 cases, including 200 medical staff.
On August 8, the WHO declared a global state of emergency for Ebola epidemic, when the death toll rose to approximately 1,000 and the epidemic map had Nigeria.
Vietnam has not yet recorded any cases, but it has deployed special measures to control the disease.
On August 13 the Ministry of Health will train staff of hospitals in the northern region on the prevention and treatment of Ebola. A similar course will be held in HCM City for hospitals in the southern region on August 15.
Drastic measures taken to keep out deadly Ebola virus

Vietnam is doing all it can to prevent the Ebola virus from entering the country, said deputy minister of health Nguyen Thanh Long at a meeting of the National Steering Committee for Ebola Virus Prevention in Hanoi on August 11.
"No case has been detected so far in our country. However, there is a risk of the virus entering Vietnam through foreign visitors, especially those returning from West Africa," Long said.
Even though the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently declared Ebola an international public health emergency,Long said that people should not worry too much about contracting the disease.
"It is lucky that trade exchange between Vietnam and the four countries with Ebola in West Africa is not high as the virus is transmitted by direct contact with tissue, blood and bodily fluids of infected animals or people," he said.
The deputy health minister warned that Vietnamese people should not go to Africa, especially areas where Ebola has broken out, and advised people to practice good personal hygiene.
Currently there are 15 Vietnamese citizens in Liberia, including 10 in Ebola-stricken areas. However, all of them remain in good health, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Prime Minister asked provinces and cities to draw up disease prevention plans and set up quarantine areas. Health quarantine and supervision measures have been strengthened at all international border gates, where passengers arriving from West African areas with Ebola outbreaks will fill out medical declaration forms.
Vietnam to halt tours
The Vietnam Tourism Administration has advised all operators to temporary halt all tours to countries heavily affected by the Ebola virus such as Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
The administration has called on tour operators to provide enough information to tourists and travellers on preventing Ebola and following medical check-ups as requested by quarantine and health officials.
All hotels and guest houses must increasingly monitor the health of those who stay there, especially international tourists, and provide timely information to relevant agencies if there are any suspected cases.
Ebola has killed nearly 970 people and officials believe there have been suspected cases in Southeast Asia but so far, there have been no official confirmations.
Noi Bai airport quarantine intensified amid growing Ebola virus concern
Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long on August 11 inspected the health quarantine work at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport, a major gateway of northern Vietnam to the world, as the Ebola virus disease is raging through West Africa.
Long said the disease situation is getting complicated with growing numbers of the infected and dead and likely to enter Vietnam.
The Ministry of Health has ordered the application of medical declarations at all international border gates, he said, adding those who have to fill the documents are passengers boarding flights from affected areas in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, among others.
A representative from the Centre for International Health Quarantine of Hanoi said special teams were set up to supervise all international flights to the place, adding that they have devised measures in case there are suspect cases of the disease.
Also on August 11, the health ministry issued a decision on activating an emergency operations centre (EOC), which is assigned to gather, analyse and share information on the situation of emergency diseases with central and local agencies as well as domestic and international organisations and individuals.
It is also in charge of outlining plans and coordinating the operation of sub-committees under the ministry’s Steering Committee for Prevention and Control of Dangerous and Emerging Diseases.
At a meeting in Hanoi the same day, Tran Dac Phu, head of the ministry’s Department of Preventive Medicine, said Vietnam has not recorded any Ebola-infected cases so far, and warned of observable risks of the disease in the country through arrivals from Africa.
The ministry has requested all relevant agencies and provincial People’s Committees to strengthen supervision, especially at border gates, and ready equipment, he added.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals.
It then spreads in the community through human-to-human transmission, with infection resulting from direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids.
The disease is a severe acute viral illness often characterised by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding.
On August 8, the WHO declared a state of international emergency over the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and reported 961 deaths of the disease.

Multilateral diplomacy – important part of VN’s foreign policy: PM

Ex-chief of the World Trade Organisation Pascal Lamy.

PM Nguyen Tan Dung on August 12 attended an international conference on multilateral foreign policy and policy recommendations for Vietnam along with former WTO Director General Pascal Lamy, former UN Under-Secretary General Jayantha Dhanapala, and former Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo.

The conference takes place in the context that multilateral foreign affairs have become an inevitable trend and increasingly important role in international relations in the 21st century.
Many countries are paying heed to mechanisms of multilateral cooperation to meet rising demand for broader cooperation to cope with increasingly fierce global challenges.
The main purpose of the conference is to look back nearly 30 years of implementing multilateral foreign policy of Vietnam, draw learnt lessons, and propose policy recommendations for Vietnam and ASEAN.

In his speech, PM Dung stressed the importance of multilateral diplomacy and expressed pride that Vietnam has served as stint as a non-permanent member of the UN for the 2008-2009 term and Chair of ASEAN in 2010.“Vietnam has organized a host of major multilateral events, wining confidence from the international community as a contribution to elevating its international status. The country is fully cognizant of the role of institutions and multilateral forums for regional security and economy, and acknowledges the ongoing process of economic transformation.” Dung said.
He stressed that multilateral diplomacy helps defend national independence and sovereignty.  Multilateral forums are the place to protect and promote regional security and an equal international partnership for mutual benefit in conformity with international law.
The Government leader also touched upon tensions in the East Sea and the protection of national justice through mechanisms and multilateral forums.

Former WTO Director General Pascal Lamy, a leading expert in multilateral diplomacy, gave a presentation on "The big trends of multilateral foreign affairs in the 21st century".
Lamy referred to the global complex situation and analyzed trends, such as the globalization process, the process of rebalancing the economy and environmental challenges.
The speech by former UN Under Secretary General Jayantha Dhanapala focused on the role of the UN and other multilateral institutions before new challenges to peace and security in the 21st century.
Jayantha Dhanapala presented new security concepts that are not only limited to military aspects as before, but also include aspects such as the economy, resources and people. He quoted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as confirming the mutual relationship between security and development.
The former UN leader said that the doctrine of the 20th century was dominated by capitalism and socialism under which he refereed to "all doctrines" that are emerging for the time being like terrorism, nationalism, and consumerism.

Vietnam's leading multilateral foreign policy speaker, VuKhoan who is also former Deputy Prime Minister with practical experience in multilateral operations talked about "Perceptions of Vietnam: Opportunities and Challenges for small and medium countries in implementing multilateral foreign policy."Opening the presentation, Khoan analyzed how a small country, a big country and a middle income country is.He asserted the special importance of multilateral diplomacy for Vietnam in protecting national independence and raising national status, boosting the country’s economic development, while maintaining national sovereignty and protecting the interests of small countries before pressure from major powers.However multilateral foreign affairs also pose huge challenges such as risks of being sieged and interest disputes among countries, Khoan noted.

After verdict, KR suspect remains defiant

 
Im Chem has long lived in fear that the Khmer Rouge tribunal would come to her placid village and detain her. But this week, the feeling is particularly palpable.
On Thursday, hundreds of kilometres away in Phnom Penh, senior regime leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan were found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison.
Chem, who is being investigated as part of the government-opposed Case 004, is considered by prosecutors at the UN-backed court as one of five people beyond the senior leadership “most responsible” for the crimes of the ultra-communist regime.
During the Khmer Rouge’s bloody reign, she is alleged to have led internal purges and presided over the deaths of tens of thousands. She is worried that the tribunal is moving closer to indicting her.

Villagers gather at a pagoda in Anlong Veng to watch the sentencing of Nuon Chea and Khieu Sampan Charlotte Pert

“We want to hear the exact words from the court that they are stopping and will not deal with any more cases, so that we can live with happiness in our minds,” she says, before offering a grim, but fanciful, warning.
“But if they still continue, it could make the Khmer Rouge come back again. And more problems will come in the future, because it will affect all [former] Khmer Rouge that are living around the country.”
While the 72-year-old has a legitimate reason to believe she may one day see the inside of a courtroom, her words reflect the feelings of many former cadres in Anlong Veng, where the last hard-line communist soldiers ceremonially changed into government army uniforms in early 1999 – marking the end of the civil war and the Cambodian communist movement.
Although the tribunal has made it clear that they are only going after high-ranking regime officials, lower-level former cadre here are still beset by fear that if the court pushes on, they could be implicated.
“They are so scared. They don’t want the court to continue to other cases, because they are afraid that one day the court will come to arrest them,” says Yim Phanna, the governor of Anlong Veng since 2006 and a former guerrilla commander who led mass defections to the government in March 1998.
Anlong Veng has been the beneficiary of swathes of government development funds since the war ended, and Phanna says people here – some of whom were jungle fighters for almost 30 years – want to look towards a prosperous future, rather than a war-torn past.

People digging a water canal under the guard of an armed Khmer Rouge soldier in Battambang in 1976. Courtesy of the documentation center of cambodia via AFP

“I think I support this verdict, [but] now it should stop. Don’t waste the money.”
Sang Sa Roeung, who guides tourists around the derelict house of his former boss, Ta Mok, the notorious zone leader known as “the butcher”, who died in 2006 before he could go to trial, takes a less conciliatory approach.
Leaning on a hut at the entrance to the site, his prosthetic leg peeking out from the bottom of his trousers, Sa Roeung says the verdict against Chea and Samphan has left him “heartbroken”, because all the Khmer Rouge leaders did was try to save the nation from Vietnamese imperialism.
“I am still wondering why the international judge did not listen to their [arguments], because they said yuon [a term for Vietnamese considered derogatory by many] were killing Khmer,” he says, as a group of beer-swilling men seated behind him nod in agreement.
He calls for the court to be shuttered, because he believes it will come after men like him if it pursues further cases, such as that involving Chem.
Chem is one of three individuals targeted for prosecution as part of Case 004. With fellow suspect Ta Tith, she is accused of being part of a joint criminal enterprise “to purge the Northwest Zone and execute all perceived enemies of the DK [Democratic Kampuchea] regime”.
Chem served as the head of Preah Net Preah district, in the Northwest Zone, from June 1977 – when the purges began – until the fall of the regime.
As part of this role, Chem is believed to have run the Phnom Trayoung security centre, where an estimated 40,000 people died from starvation, overwork and executions.

People in the pagoda watch as the trial is explained Charlotte Pert

While Case 002/02, involving Chea and Samphan, will only start evidentiary hearings later this year and is likely to take years to adjudicate, Chem, unlike other suspects in Cases 003 and 004, appears to be healthy.
In years to come, if these cases ever get off the ground – which most observers believe will not happen due to the government’s vociferous opposition – she could be alive and fit for trial.
When Post Weekend visited her house on the outskirts of Anlong Veng town on Thursday afternoon, Chem had just returned from her daily ritual of planting crops a kilometre away.
With a wide smile, she explained that despite her age, she always rides a bicycle back and forth.
When the subject of the accusations against her are brought up, her face darkens. Conditions at Phnom Trayoung under he watch are said to have been brutal.
“I deny all the accusations against me. I was doing the same as other normal people during that time. Three of my kids also died,” she says, speaking louder, as two of her grandchildren scuttle around and hug her legs.

Suspect in Case 004, Im Chem, at her home Charlotte Pert

“During that time, what we did was try to protect the nation. We tried to help people live in happiness. And in Trapeang Thma [the regime’s largest irrigation project and a crime site in Case 004], I came late, so I don’t know about the people who were killed [there]. I just urged people to do farming.
“Why are they accusing us of crimes against humanity?”
Sitting on a wooden bench underneath her stilted house, Chem starts to get more agitated. On the wall behind her is a Cambodian People’s Party election poster from last year bearing the smiling face of Prime Minister Hun Sen beaming down on new roads and development projects.
“If they want to continue with the other cases, it seems like they want to bring Cambodia back into civil war,” she says, noting the fact that the premier has made the same argument.
In February 2012, Chem was visited and notified about the investigation by the tribunal’s then international co-investigating judge, Laurent Kasper-Ansermet.
While the case continues to be stalled in its investigative phase and is subject to deep divides between Cambodian and international investigators as to whether it should be pursued, Chem has recently been assigned two lawyers, who she says have visited her once and made her feel better about the case.
While she did not want a foreign lawyer, her Cambodian lawyer, Bit Seanglim, said the court would not recognise him if she did not have one, she says.
She no longer wants to talk to the media about the allegations.

Sang Sa Roeung, who fought under brutal Khmer Rouge leader Ta Mok Charlotte Pert

“I have denied the accusations against me since the beginning...I cannot accept [them]. So if the court asks me about this, I will refer them to talk to my lawyers.”
Chem exhorts the families of victims who want her to go on trial to think about their own elderly mothers, and what it would be like for them to be detained at the court.
She is haunted by the idea of her family watching her dragged away and put in the dock.
“I have said again and again, I will not go to the court at all, even [if] people from the court come to arrest me. I have done nothing wrong, so why do I need to go to the court?”

Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan were sentenced to life on Thursday but face a second trial. The allegations in Case 002/02 include: • Genocide against the Cham and the Vietnamese
The prosecution will argue that the number of Chams killed relative to the overall population demonstrates that the regime aimed to eradicate their religion. To preserve the purity of their society, the Khmer Rouge ordered the removal of all Vietnamese nationals. This meant either sending them back to Vietnam or extermination.
• Forced marriages and rape
An integral policy employed by the Khmer Rouge in an attempt to remould society into an agrarian and classless body was forced marriage. This included rape and was widespread.
• Internal purges
A wave of executions from the top to the bottom of the Khmer Rouge ranks began in earnest in 1977. Many arrests were made based on names handed over by prisoners while they were being tortured.
• S-21 Security Centre, Kraing Ta Chan Security Centre, Au Kanseng Security Centre and Phnom Kraol Security Centre
While Kaing Guek Eav or ‘Duch’, chief of the notorious school-turned-prison S-21, where some 14,000 died, was jailed for his crimes in 2010, there were detention centres throughout the country where similar atrocities took place.
• 1st January Dam Worksite; Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction site, Trapeang Thma Dam Worksite
In order to establish an agrarian society the Khmer Rouge forced people to work under harsh conditions, including long hours without break. None were exempt, not even pregnant women. Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan were reportedly seen visiting these sites.
• Treatment of Buddhists (limited to Tram Kok Cooperatives)
Leading up to the rule of the Khmer Rouge, all religion was banned. Buddhist monks were sent to Tram Kok where they were forced to disrobe and prohibited from taking part in any religious ceremonies, including funeral ceremonies and lighting of incense.
• Targeting of former Khmer Republic Officials
During the Khmer Rouge rule, former Khmer Republic officials or those suspected of having connections with officials were scrutinised in the fields, with those speaking out against the CPK disappearing. In Tram Kok, a document with the names of 11 former Lon Nol officers was found.

General wanted in murders

 
A military general and adviser to Deputy Prime Minister Ke Kim Yan has fled the country and is wanted on suspicion of the double murder of his mistress and their daughter, police said yesterday.
Major General Kim Marintha, 57, is suspected of carrying out the premeditated murder of his mistress, Va Dary, 27, and their 6-year-old daughter, Kem Thavichda, on February 15.
A joint task force, which has been investigating the case since mid-March, yesterday raided one of several businesses owned by Marintha, GST Express Bus Company, where investigators believe the murders took place. About 30 police cordoned off the GST premises at 2pm and conducted a lengthy forensic examination of the scene, where weapons believed to have been used in the homicide were later discovered.

Several staff members of the company were held during the raid for questioning.
Police have identified three suspects – Marintha, his son Kim Seng Rithy, and his son-in-law Chea Samnang, 34, who was arrested on Saturday in Preah Sihanouk province. Samnang had fled the capital after getting wind of the investigation and was tracked to Mondulkiri province by police before his arrest near Sihanoukville.
Prosecutor-general Ouk Savuth arrived at the scene about 3:30pm, after which Samnang was ushered into the building for questioning following an earlier appearance at Phnom Penh Municipal Court.
Brigadier General In Bora, chief of the Ministry of Interior’s Penal Police Department, said Marintha had fled and police were seeking his arrest.
“Our penal police forces now are working hard on this case. He has escaped, and our police are searching for him,” he said.
On March 20, the badly decomposed bodies of Dary and Thavichda were found dumped in scrub land near Pech Nil in Kampong Speu province’s Phnom Sroch district.
“As a result of the four-month investigation, three suspects have been identified and one has been arrested in connection with the double murder and disposal of the bodies,” the Child Protection Unit (CPU), which helped coordinate the case, said in a statement yesterday.
Captain Bun Thol, a penal police officer at the Ministry of Interior, said Samnang had confessed to helping his father-in-law dispose of the bodies, “which were wrapped in plastic, put inside a big icebox and taken in the tycoon’s Lexus to Pech Nil on March 18”.
Samnang was officially charged yesterday by the municipal court prosecutor with being an “accomplice to an intentional murder”. After visiting the crime scene with police yesterday, Samnang was remanded into the court’s custody for further questioning.

Authorities question Chea Samnang earlier this month in Kampong Speu where the remains of Kim Marintha’s slain mistress and daughter were found. PHOTO SUPPLIED

Va Srey Thun, 27, Dary’s sister, spoke yesterday of her shock at seeing the bodies of her sister and niece.
“On February 14, my older sister and her daughter travelled with Oknha Kim Marintha to visit her hometown in Kampong Cham province. She returned back to Phnom Penh the next day,” she said.
“That afternoon, [Marintha] called my mother and told her that my older sister and her daughter had gone to buy glasses in Sorya Mall and had disappeared. Her mobile phone was switched off.
“I was very shocked and almost lost consciousness when I saw their bodies packaged in plastic. I think that it was very, very cruel. I would like to ask police pursuing the killers to give them the strongest punishment under the law,” she said.
On top of his high-level political connections to former Royal Cambodian Armed Forces chief Kim Yan, Marintha boasts substantial business interests in the Kingdom. As well as GST, he is also director of the Rubber of Friendship VC Company, the Arra Best Corporation, and Fataco Corporation.
In 2009, Vietnamese-owned Fataco came under fire for its role in alleged forced drug trials sponsored by the Vietnamese government in Phnom Penh’s Orkas Khnom drug detention centre, where it experimented on drug addicts by giving them doses of its product Bong Sen – a herbal concoction which the firm claims can “cure” addiction.
The trials were later praised by Deputy Prime Minister Kim Yan.
James McCabe, the CPU’s director of operations, said that Marintha had fled the country and local police were working with international policing agencies to bring him to justice.
“The Joint Task Force is utilising the assistance of international policing agencies. Warrants have been issued for the two outstanding suspects,” he said.

“We have evidence that suggests [the murder] was premeditated, because he purchased the black bags and [icebox] in advance.”
Police officers at the scene of yesterday’s raid said Marintha had fled to Thailand. Calls to phones registered to Marintha went unanswered yesterday evening.
“It’s one of the most serious crimes you can commit, the murder of a child,” McCabe said. “But Cambodia is moving forward, and we are committed to bringing all the persons who committed the crime to justice.”
With two of the main suspects in the case on the run, Srey Thun worries that she may be a marked woman.
“I knew the bodies were my older sister and her daughter, because I recognised her clothes and ID card,” she said.
“I am now very concerned about my own safety and security. I am afraid the offenders will hire hit men to kill me.”

Japan's defense plans raise hackles in China

 

Japan's new defense white paper has done little to mend fences with Beijing, with the Chinese government complaining that its Asian neighbor is using the "China threat" to justify a bigger defense budget.Japan will spend about $49 billion on defense in the fiscal year to March 2015 -- up about 3% from the previous year -- in the face of what it says is a worsening security environment in the region. It cites tensions on the Korean peninsula and territorial disputes in the sea lanes running south from northern Asia as its key concerns.

Under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan is becoming more assertive about its defense posture, and is looking to upgrade its military over the next four years with bigger helicopter carriers, more anti-submarine patrol aircraft, surveillance drones, better amphibious warfare capability, and first deliveries in 2018 of its new fifth-generation fighter, the U.S.-made F35 Joint Strike Fighter.

In terms of regional defense, Japan benefits substantially from its security alliance with the United States, and is a big buyer of U.S.-made weaponry. It also builds its own submarines, surface ships and fighter variants.

China, which will likely spend about $200 billion this financial year on defense -- second only to the United States -- is a significant buyer of Russian aircraft, ships and submarines, but is concentrating on its own domestic capabilities. It launched its first aircraft carrier in late 2012, with two more likely to be built by the end of this decade. It is also developing its own fifth-generation stealth fighter, the twin-engined J20, with the first deployment expected in 2018.