Japan, Malaysia and Thailand stage maiden piracy drill
Source: Reuters
By Jalil Hamid ON BOARD JCG YASHIMA IN THE ANDAMAN SEA, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Coast guard officials from Japan, Malaysia and Thailand on Friday staged their first joint exercise to fight piracy in the Malacca Strait, one of the world's busiest waterways and key to Asian trade. The three-hour drill in calm waters between Thailand's island of Phuket and Malaysia's Langkawi island began with "pirates" hijacking a Japanese supertanker and kidnapping some of its crew. Malaysia's police commandos later stormed the tanker before arresting the "kidnappers". Japanese officials said the exercise, which involved 154 men, two helicopters, a Japanese coast guard ship and Thai and Malaysian patrol boats, underlined the need for better regional coordination to fight piracy and other cross-border crimes. "We hope to expand the membership to include other countries," said Captain Nobuharu Kagami, director of the piracy countermeasures office of Japan's Coast Guard. "The safety of the Malacca Strait is very important to Japan." The anti-piracy office was launched this month to expand Japan's cooperation with other Asian coast guard agencies and raise Tokyo's regional profile. Piracy has dropped since Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore began joint air patrols as well as coordinated sea patrols in the Strait, once known as the Spice Route, two years ago. But the threat remained. The London-based Lloyd's Market Association last August removed a war-risk rating for merchant ships transiting the strait following the improvement in security, especially on the Singapore and Malaysian side of the waterway. But ships calling at ports in northeast Sumatra in Indonesia would still be subject to war-risk charges, Lloyd's said. The Lloyd's Market Association's Joint War Committee had declared in 2005 that the strategic channel was vulnerable to "war, strikes, terrorism and related perils". after it was plagued by a wave of pirate attacks and crime. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, security experts have also warned that increasing lawlessness in the sea lane could spawn an attack by al Qaeda or one of its affiliates. The Malacca Strait, which snakes between Indonesia and Malaysia, links Asia with the Middle East and Europe. It carries about 40 percent of the world's trade, including 80 percent of the energy supplies of Japan and China. More than 60,000 merchant ships ply the waterway every year. Malaysia ruled out threats of maritime terrorism, pointing to increased policing. "We are confident the activities of maritime terrorism never exist in our waters," Abdul Manaf Othman, assistant commander for operations of the Malaysian Marine Police, told reporters on board the Japanese coast guard ship, JCG Yashima. "At present the littoral states are doing their best to make sure the strait is free from these maritime syndicate activities," he said.
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