Malaysian Embassy responds

The Embassy of Malaysia refers to a report in The Jakarta Post dated April 26 entitled TNI denies deal over warships withdrawal.

The Embassy regrets that the report is not only a misrepresentation of facts but also mischievous in nature. In an effort to ease tensions in the Sulawesi Sea and in accordance with the cooperative spirit of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the naval chiefs of both countries have met recently in Batam and have agreed to simultaneously reduce the number of warships from the respective countries in the area.

Based on that understanding, both countries subsequently agreed to scale back their naval presence to one warship from each country. The agreement was reached in good faith to avoid any untoward incident happening in the region, and to positively contribute to confidence-building measures in the spirit of good neighborly relations with long standing close and cordial bilateral ties.

As the media has such an important role to play to enhance the people to people relations and to promote better bilateral relations between the two neighborly countries, the Embassy hopes that in your future reporting of Malaysia-Indonesia relations, you will take due care to verify the facts of your reports in order to avoid unnecessary problems that a factually inaccurate report could cause.

HAMIDAH ASHARI Counselor/Head of Chancery Embassy of Malaysia Jakarta

Note : The denial was based on the statement made by TNI chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto.

-- Editor