Navies ponder agreement on strait cross-border patrols
Fadli, The Jakarta Post, Batam
Navy officers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand met for a two-day meeting on Thursday in Batam to discuss ways to boost security in the crucial Malacca Strait.
Western Fleet Commander of the Indonesian Navy Rear Adm. Tedjo Edhi said that the main issue discussed during the meeting was the mechanism to allow patrol boats from one country to pass through another country's sea territory when chasing pirates in the channel.
"For instance, if a pirate attack occurs in Indonesian waters, then the Indonesian Navy will chase the perpetrators even if they've already entered Singapore's territory. Those were the kinds of issues we discussed here," he told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the meeting.
The meeting was a follow-up of an Aug. 2 meeting in Kuala Lumpur of navy officers from the three littoral states responsible for guarding the Malacca Strait, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. During that meeting, it was agreed to let Thailand participate in guarding the strait.
The Batam meeting was the first time Thailand had joined talks on boosting security in the strait.
The Strait of Malacca, linking the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea, is a narrow 600-kilometer stretch of water used by more than 50,000 commercial ships each year, and carries more than one-third of global shipping trade and one-half of the world's crude oil shipments. All of Japan's crude oil needs are transported through the strait. South Korea and China also rely extensively on crude supplies shipped through it.
But the strait has been plagued by rampant pirate attacks for the past several years.
Thailand's navy representative Capt. Jiamsak Chantarasena said that due to the limited budget of his government amid rising oil prices, Thailand may not be able to contribute in a significant way to securing the strait.
He said that the size of Thailand's contribution in securing the strait including how many navy personnel and how many patrol boats would be dedicated would be decided by his government.