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.