The following is
my answer to a Quora question: “Why does not Australia
build a military base in Malaysia or Thailand?”
Australia cannot simply decide to go to
another country and build a military base. Even the United States cannot do that. Countries have to be invited in, and a series
of legal agreements have to be signed. Hosting
a foreign military may have sovereignty issues, and is not taken lightly. Australia did have a base in Butterworth,
Malaysia, which they inherited from the RAF. This was part of the Five Powers Defence Arrangement,
and played a large role in the defence of Malaysia during the Emergency and the
Konfrontasi. Custody of the base
was handed over to the RMAF in 1988, but they still have a detachment there to
this day. Australia has never officially
had troops in Thailand, but soldiers were sent there for R&R during the
Vietnam War. Australia has never managed
any facility there.
Within Southeast Asia, Australia has
always concerned itself with containment of Indonesia. To that end, it has a major base in Darwin,
and unofficial deployments to Timor Leste. Outside of the FPDA, Australia has no need for
the expense of a base in Southeast Asia.
Within and without the FPDA, Australia has an arrangement for logistics
support in Singapore. This was a holdover
from arrangements with the Western allies during the Vietnam War.
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