June 6th 2004
SINGAPORE (AP) — Malaysia will talk with the Pentagon about increasing anti-terrorist security in the Straits of Malacca, a strategic waterway connecting ports in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, its defense minister said Sunday.
The discussions will be held later this month with the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Admiral Thomas Fargo, Najib Tun Razak told a regional security conference in Singapore.
But Najib said Malaysia would not allow any American "troops or assets" to enter the strategic waterway, and that any new security measures would be handled by nations along the straits.
The narrow, 550-mile waterway straddling Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore is a key commercial maritime route carrying a third of the world's trade and half of the world's oil supply.
The United States and Singapore believe the 50,000 commercial vessels — from cruise ships to supertankers — that travel through the straits each year are vulnerable targets for al-Qaeda and its South Asian affiliates.
Singapore says it is open to American involvement in security in the straits, but the Muslim nations of Indonesia and Malaysia have rebuffed U.S. offers to help provide intelligence, conduct joint patrols and send U.S. Marines into the waterway.
Najib said there was a need increase security in the waterway but "not at the expense of territorial integrity."
"It will be counterproductive to have foreign ships, or assets in the region," Najib said at the 3rd Shangri-La Dialogue.
