The Five Power Defence Agreements (FPDA) came into force in 1971 as a consultative forum and was initially conceived as a transitional agreement to provide for the defence of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore until these new states could fend for themselves. The FPDA has evolved and adapted over the past forty years. It has developed a robust consultative structure, complemented by a standing multilateral military component, and a comprehensive exercise programme. The FPDA has gradually expanded its focus from the conventional defence of Peninsular Malaysian and Singaporean air space, through an annual series of Air Defence Exercises (ADEXs), to large-scale combined and joint military exercises designed to meet emerging conventional and non-conventional security threats extending into the South China Sea.

As the author has argued elsewhere, the FPDA has become “the quiet achiever” and an important component among the plethora of multilateral security mechanisms making up Southeast Asia's security architecture. This chapter reviews the development of the FPDA over the last forty years with particular attention to its programme of exercises in the period from 2004, when its most recent evolution took place.

Background (1971–2002)

During the first decade of its existence, the FPDA conducted only a handful of exercises with operational command alternating between Malaysia and Singapore. Each partner decided the degree of resources that it would contribute.

During the 1980s, the FPDA exercise programme incorporated regular land and sea exercises. The latter were initially designated EX STARFISH and were later renamed EX BERSAMA LIMA. Towards the end of the 1980s, the FPDA went into the doldrums as the external powers reduced their participation in FPDA exercises. In 1988, the five Defence Ministers took stock of the situation and decided to revitalize the FPDA consultative process. As a result, it was agreed that separate meetings of the Chiefs of Defence and Defence Ministers should become permanent and convene every two and three years, respectively.

In March 1990, the Defence Ministers agreed to shift gradually from purely air defence arrangements to combined and joint exercises in which land and naval forces would play a greater role.