Thai officials yesterday assured US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that violence in their country's Muslim-dominated south was being addressed and that it wasn't tied to global terrorists, while Rumsfeld urged more regional cooperation against sea piracy.
Rumsfeld appealed to Thailand and neighboring countries to step up teamwork in fighting piracy in the Malacca Strait, where the problem has worsened recently, Thai Defense Minister General Thammarak Isarangura Na Ayutthaya said after meeting with Rumsfeld.
More than 50,000 ships pass through the 900km-long Strait -- which borders Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia -- carrying half the world's oil and a third of its commerce.
The US Navy has offered to help patrol the waterway, insisting that this would not impinge on the sovereignty of bordering countries, but Malaysia and Indonesia have rejected the idea. At a defense conference in Singapore over the weekend, Malaysia's defense minister invited Thailand to join patrols to boost security along approaches to the Strait.
Thammarak said Thai officials assured Rumsfeld that an outburst of violence in Thailand's predominantly Muslim south since early last year was not international terrorism, but a local problem the government will deal with.
"He [Rumsfeld] urged us to brief him on the situation in the south, and I reassured him that we believe it is an internal affair and there are no international terrorists involved," Thammarak told reporters.
Rumsfeld also met with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin said earlier that the discussion would focus on bilateral cooperation "as Thailand and the US have long been allies."
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