S'pore welcomes RI's Strait patrol plan

S'pore welcomes RI's Strait patrol plan

Jake Loyd-Smith, Associated Press

Singapore on Sunday welcomed Indonesia's plan for the two countries and Malaysia to hold joint naval patrols against terrorism and piracy in the vital Malacca Straits.

But Singapore Defense Minister Teo Chee Hean stressed that the city-state also wanted to involve other trading nations and port users in plans to protect the critical waterway, which carries half of the world's oil supply and a third of its trade.

"We welcome the proposal from the Indonesian Navy Chief for greater maritime cooperation for the security of the Malacca and Singapore Straits," Teo said in a statement sent to The Associated Press.

Singapore officials and security experts have warned that terror groups could hijack ships in the waterway and use them as floating bombs, or sink a vessel to block the channel, which has narrow and shallow choke points.

"It's also very important to recognize that the international community - shippers, the International Maritime Organization, trading nations, port users and so on - are also involved in this security issue," Teo's statement said.

He didn't name any other countries.

Indonesia's navy chief Adm. Bernard Kent Sondakh said on Thursday he wanted to set up joint patrols with Malaysia and Singapore. Malaysia on Friday embraced the plan for the 900 kilometer straits.

The Malacca Straits are the preferred sea traffic route between the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

The waterway is flanked by Indonesia's Sumatra island and peninsular Malaysia. Singapore, which has been the most vocal of the three in urging better security, sits at the straits' southern end.

Washington in March proposed deploying elite U.S. forces in the straits to bolster security. But that suggestion was rejected by Muslim-majority Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta as an infringement on their sovereignty, putting the focus on what the three Southeast Asian countries could do themselves.

Teo said he'd discussed enhanced maritime security with Indonesian military chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto when the pair met on the sidelines of a security conference in Singapore last month.

"We agreed that we should ask our navies to move ahead with greater cooperation for maritime security," Teo said.

Singapore had also moved to bolster security in the straits with Malaysia, Teo said. At the same June conference Malaysia and Singapore discussed "more information exchange, coordinated patrols, as well as linking up our operations centers," he said.