BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN – The defence ministry is set to receive its largest budget of $796.3 million in the upcoming 2024/25 fiscal year as it seeks to improve military intelligence and surveillance amid geostrategic uncertainty.
Despite lower government revenue, the proposed defence budget represented a 28.5% jump from the current FY 2023/24, which ends on March 31. The figure was also a 10.7% rise from the previous high of $719.15 million a decade ago.
In his budget speech at the Legislative Council on Saturday, Second Minister of Defence Pehin Dato Hj Halbi Hj Mohd Yussof said a strong defence strategy is needed to protect national interests in an increasingly complex and unpredictable security landscape.
Similar to priorities in the previous year’s budget, the ministry will continue strengthening capabilities through the acquisition, maintenance and upgrading of assets to fend off security threats.
“The Ministry of Defense and Royal Brunei Armed Forces are actively working to improve intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance, where a new system will be used in the near future,” the minister said.
“Attention is also focused on the ability to monitor and detect underwater threats to ensure an effective response in maintaining the territorial integrity of Brunei,” he added.
The Defence White Paper 2021, which sets out Brunei’s medium- to long-term defence policy and strategy, identified the South China Sea dispute as one of the sultanate’s major security challenges.
Adopting a deterrence and diplomacy approach to its defence strategy, Brunei began deploying drones in 2022 and received two patrol ships from Singapore last year to boost maritime surveillance.
The defence ministry also procured four Airbus C295MW tactical transport aircraft, two of which were delivered in January. The new aircraft would be used for strategic airlift, humanitarian and disaster relief operations, as well as search and rescue missions.
Pehin Dato Hj Halbi further said a defence capability committee has been set up to plan and manage military assets and infrastructure in a more systematic manner and based on long-term needs.
“The replacement, upgrading and service life extension programmes for capability systems and infrastructure will be done in stages based on the level of priority, before moving on to new acquisitions in the future,” he said.
Speaking on National Development Plan (RKN) projects, the minister said regular maintenance is a requirement that must be taken into account in future defence budgets to ensure its assets can continue to be used in the long term.
Brunei’s historic high defence budget coincides with record global military spending in 2023 amid rising geopolitical tensions caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Israel-Palestine war.