June 2nd 2003
By S Ramesh
Countries worldwide should take the call to beef up maritime security seriously, say defence ministers and armed forces chiefs attending the Asia Security Conference in Singapore.
This is one of the issues dominating discussions on the final day of the Shangri-La dialogue on Sunday.
Kicking off discussions on maritime security, Singapore's Defence Minister Tony Tan said with the hardening of land and aviation targets, terrorists are likely to look at maritime targets.
He said: "When we cracked down on the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist network in Singapore last year, we discovered that the group had made preliminary plans for suicide attacks on US military vessels entering into the harbour".
Saying international cooperation against terrorism is important, he gave, as example, Singapore's agreement with the United States on container security.
But this led a Malaysian speaker to allege Singapore did so to boost its own competitive advantage.
Dr Tan disagreed with this.
DPM Tan said: "How do you ensure that of the thousands of containers that go into your country, none of them will have these weapons which can be used by terrorists or which can at some stage be detonated or blow up a port?"
He noted that questions like those about sovereignty have been raised but with goodwill and cooperation these operational problems will be resolved.
"This US container security initiative will be a firm feature of world shipping and port operations in the coming years. I would certainly encourage Malaysian ports like Port Klang and Tanjung Pelapas to consider joining the initiative," he added.
The closing session of the Shangri-La Dialogue touched on the topic of a changing security environment, and conference delegates saw differing views among some defence ministers on this subject.
Among them - should the United States or the United Nations be involved in the reconstruction of Iraq and whether Islam is a religion of violence"
Najib Tun Razak, Malaysia's Defence Minister, said: "Islam rejects extremism. It's important for us at every opportunity to mention this and hopefully people will be more sensitive when they deal with the problems of terrorism."
Delegates can expect a progress report on the fight against terrorism when they meet again in May 2004.
