ABSTRACT
Higher consumer confidence and private consumption across Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and the Philippines, offset trade declines caused by the weakened external economic environment. Southeast Asia accounted for 11.6% of total Asian defence spending in 2012. Singapore retained the highest defence budget in Southeast Asia in 2012, although its 2.3% annual increases in defence spending in 2011 and 2012 was substantially below the sub-regional average. Today it consists of nine state-owned defence corporations and 41 ordnance factories. The ADF trains with a view to future operational deployments in Southeast Asia and possibly further afield, as well as in defence of the Australian continent. The small, professional Royal Brunei Armed Forces are an important source of employment in this oil-rich state. Despite being well-trained, they could offer little resistance on their own to a determined aggressor. Nepal’s army continues to struggle to integrate former Maoist insurgents following a 2006 peace accord and the subsequent transition from a monarchy to a republic..
