U.S. plans to deploy troops in Malacca Straits

U.S. plans to deploy troops in Malacca Straits

Agence France-Presse, Washington/Kuala Lumpur

The United States plans to deploy Marines and special operations
forces on high speed vessels along the Straits of Malacca to
flush out terrorists in one of the world's busiest waterways.

The deployment of U.S. forces along the narrow straits
straddling Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia is part of
Washington's new counterterrorism initiative to help Southeast
Asia, said Admiral Thomas Fargo, the top U.S. military commander
in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Regional Maritime Security Initiative is being devised by
the United States military to combat transnational threats like
proliferation, terrorism, trafficking in humans and drugs, and
piracy.

It allows sharing of information and intelligence that puts
standing operating procedures in place with Southeast Asian
countries for effective action against terrorists and other
criminals, Fargo said.

"There is very large, widespread support for this initiative,"
said Fargo, who heads the Hawaii-based U.S. Pacific Command,
directing Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force operations
across the vast region.

"I just came back from Singapore and had a very solid
conversation with the Singaporeans, and they're going to help us
with this," he told U.S. legislators quizzing him this week on
budget allocations for his command, the largest in the United
States.

Asked whether the Pacific Command was adequately resourced to
implement the initiative, Fargo said that while previous
mechanisms used in the war against drugs would be relied upon,
new approaches were being considered.

"You know, we're looking at things like high-speed vessels,
putting special operations forces on high-speed vessels, putting
Marines on high-speed vessels so that we can use boats that might
be incorporated with these vessels to conduct effective
interdiction," he explained.

He did not discuss specific plans. The Philippines is the only
country in Southeast Asia where hundreds of American troops are
stationed -- to train local soldiers to battle terrorists in the
country's troubled south.

On whether Malaysia and Indonesia would extend cooperation to
the US initiative, Fargo said: "I expect a broad range of
support.

"All of the countries are concerned about the transnational
threat. This is a pretty vast space and no country can do this by
themselves. So it's going to be a multinational, mutilateral
effort, if you will, to deal with this particular problem."

But Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said on
Sunday that Kuala Lumpur has no plans to seek military help from
the United States to guard the Malacca Straits against possible
attacks on commercial ships by Islamic militants,

The task of guarding the world's busiest shipping lane was the
joint responsibility of the littoral states, Malaysia and
Indonesia, he said.

"In principle, ensuring security in the Straits of Malacca is
the responsibility of Malaysia and Indonesia, and for the present
we do not propose to invite the United States to join the
security operations we have mounted there," Najib was quoted by
the official Bernama news agency as saying.

Fargo cited India as one of the first countries to provide
patrols along the Straits of Malacca immediately after the Sept.
11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States.