Malaysian Embassy responds

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