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.