Malaysia rejected the use of foreign forces in fighting terror threats in Southeast Asia yesterday, saying their presence could trigger a radical backlash among the region's mostly moderate Muslim community.
But Malaysian Defense Minister Najib Razak told a security forum in Singapore that his country was open to discussions with the US and other nations on expanding cooperation in intelligence sharing and surveillance.
"What we should avoid is the presence of foreign forces in Southeast Asia, not because we distrust those from outside the region, but because a foreign military presence will set us back in our ideological battle against extremism and militancy," Najib said.
"The lessons of Iraq should be clear to us: ill-prepared liberators do make mistakes and the failure of good intentions can cause great damage to social and political stability."
Washington is expected to begin negotiations this month with Asian nations on a formal plan to enhance security efforts in the region, dubbed the Regional Maritime Security Initiative.
Najib said he would be holding talks with Admiral Thomas Fargo, the head of the US Pacific Command, on the proposal in Malaysia before the end of the month.
Widely reported comments in March that US special forces or the Marines could be used a part of efforts to enhance security in the busy Malacca Strait had provoked open opposition from both Malaysia and Indonesia, which straddle the key waterway.
More than 50,000 commercial vessels travel the 805km channel each year, carrying about a third of the world's trade and 80 percent of Japan's oil needs.
The wealthy city state of Singapore, home to one of the world's busiest ports, has long urged nations that benefit from the trade in the Strait to play a greater role in improving security.
"No country can defeat terrorism by itself," Singapore's coordinating minister for security and defense, Tony Tan, told the forum, which is organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, based in London.
In a bid to smooth ruffled diplomatic feathers in the wake of the strong reaction to early reports of the plan, US officials used this weekend's forum to play down any military involvement and make clear it would only be at the request of the countries concerned.
Admiral Walter Doran, the commander of the US Pacific Fleet, said on the sidelines of the forum the American plan does not involve the presence of additional outside troops such as US elite forces, nor the setting up of any bases.
A summary of a closed-door dialogue yesterday attended by representatives of about 20 countries, including the US, said there was agreement on the need to strengthen and improve security in the Strait of Malacca.
"Indonesia recognized the legitimate interests of other countries in the safety and security of the Straits and was willing to accommodate and engage them," the summary said.
Two suggestions were floated to improve regional cooperation. One called for the enlargement of an existing forum called the Malacca Straits Security Board. A second idea proposed by Indonesia is for an ASEAN Maritime Security Cooperation forum.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS