Barry Desker
Minister Juwono Sudarsono, you referred to the US as the primary provider of security in Southeast Asia and the sea lines of communication. The US remains the only major part which has not acceded to the law of the sea convention. As the Bush administration is recommending to congress early ratification of the convention this year, would you not agree that the message from this meeting should be that there is support by Asian policy makers and analysts for early ratification of the convention and that such ratification is in the US security interest? Thank you.
Tommy Koh
Last year I had the pleasure of chairing the break-out group on maritime security and with your permission I would like to briefly share with the meeting the four very positive developments which have occurred in the past 12 months.
First, the three lateral states, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, have enhanced their cooperation and coordination in combating Parisian armed attacks at sea. This they have done both by sea patrol and air patrol.
I wish also to acknowledge the important contribution that at least one user state, Japan, has made by way of naval assets to one of the lateral states.
Second, the number of incidents of piracy and armed attacks in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore have continued to decline.
Third, the regional agreement known as RECAP has come into force. This is important because it enables the countries of the region to collate, analyse and share accurate information and it complements the International Maritime Bureau which is an industry run organisation based in Kuala Lumpur.
Finally, the IMO meeting in Kuala Lumpur in September last year arrived at a provisional agreement which would establish for the first time a cooperative mechanism involving the three lateral states, user states and other stake holders in managing the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. This is in line with article 43 of the UN convention on the law of the sea.
I would like to conclude by making a pitch at our friends here. There is a very important international treaty known as the 2005 protocol to the 1988 convention for the suppression of unlawful acts against the safety of maritime navigation and I would like to make a plea to our friends from the various countries to consider ratifying this protocol. Thank you very much.
Mrs Vruong[?]
This is for the Philippine Defence Secretary. He called for regional cooperation and joint action. The Philippines signed a status of forces agreement just a few days ago with Australia. What would be the impact of this agreement on maritime security? Thank you.
Ms Anwar
I would like to address my questions to Professor Juwono. Firstly, following up on Tommy about the demand by the lateral states for the use of states, for example, to contribute to the maintenance of the security of the sea links of communications, but given the sensitivities of countries like Indonesia, in particular, which you know is extremely nationalistic and is extremely sensitive about the presence of foreign military navies and so on in the region, maybe you can outline to us more clearly the limit of that kind of assistance that user states can give to Indonesia and to the lateral states.
Secondly, maybe you can add to us, is the recent defence agreement between Indonesia and Singapore going to have any significant impact at all on the types of cooperation that will be taken in terms of maritime security here?
Finally, whether the recent peace settlement in Ache has had any contributory impact at all on maritime security. Thank you.
Dr John Chipman
Thank you. One more before we come back to the panel. If you could raise your plaque even higher, Michael Yahuda[?], yes and then Yamaguchi Sen[?] after that.
Mr Yahuda
Thank you very much. My question is directed to Minister Juwona Sudarsono, and in his presentation he argued very strongly about the new linkages between the countries of north-east Asia and the three trilateral states that are directly involved in security of the Malacca Straits. Given the general view that since China and Japan are in the sense both cooperate and compete with each other, are there signs of them linking up in the way that you indicated on the general basis, is a sign particularly of them linking up to cooperate on security in the waterways of Southeast Asia, or would you say that there is still evidence of a kind of a rivalry between them?
Mr Sen
Thank you Mr Chairman. I was just wondering if any of the panellists could give sort of an idea on the future of management of arms build-up in this region? Because I am quite interested in the regional corporation for maritime security, not only outside powers, but regional powers that should be more responsible in the future as the other economy is going up. If we look at this region South China Sea is a sort of inland sea where even a modest size of brown water navies or land-based air asset could provide a lot of assets for the regional security.
So if other nations or Sri Lanka or regional nations could cooperate in building up a sort of harmonised army/navy network in this region for maritime security, it could be good. It could be the sort of quite new type of arms control on the contrary to the European experience where excessive military power caused the attention in the Southeast Asia, for this region. The lack of capabilities to deal with risks is a question so harmonised build-up could be the path of result. So I would like to ask some ideas from the panellists on this issue. Thank you very much.
