AI
China under pressure to boost Malacca Strait safety
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said during a visit to Singapore that he hoped to have US troops fighting terrorism in Southeast Asia "pretty soon". His comments fuelled speculation that the United States wants to deploy US forces in the Strait of Malacca, the narrow and busy shipping lane straddled by Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore that is seen as a likely terrorist target.
Do we want to protect the Strait of Malacca or are we going there because Malaysia’s Prime Minister Dr Mahathir has been strongly encouraging his country’s oil exports be sold for euros instead of U.S. dollars, or both?
#msg-3297017
This is a little reminiscent of the Strait of Hormuz controversy in the Persian Gulf.
#msg-3317697
I find it strange that China with well over 80 percent of their imports being shipped through the narrow strait is unlikely to join Japan in financing safety measures yet is eager to collaborate and cooperate with friends in the region and with neighbours to do what it could to ensure security on the high seas.
-Am
China under pressure to boost Malacca Strait safety
23 Jun 2004 11:00:46 GMT
By Jane Macartney
SINGAPORE, June 23 (Reuters) - China's focus on security in the narrow Strait of Malacca through which almost all its oil imports travel is long overdue but Beijing is unlikely to join Japan in financing safety measures, a Chinese official said on Wednesday.
The issue of policing the narrow sea lane between Malaysia and Indonesia that carries more than a quarter of world trade and half its oil has gained increasing attention in recent weeks amid warnings from Singapore of a possible attack or hijack on a tanker by militants bent on violence.
"Our attention to this has been very much overdue," Gao Zhiguo, executive director of the China Institute for Marine Affairs under Beijing's State Oceanic Administration, told Reuters.
More than one million tonnes of oil a year -- well over 80 percent of China's imports -- are shipped through the narrow strait, Gao said.
"We want to help to maintain the security of the sea lanes," said Gao. "But China is not as big a country as many think since it has only a coastal navy and economically it is not able to provide help yet."
However, Beijing was eager to collaborate and cooperate with friends in the region and with neighbours to do what it could to ensure security on the high seas, he said.
Southeast Asian officials and academics attending a conference in Singapore on relations between the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China put a series of questions to Chinese delegates on Beijing's readiness to help littoral states along the strait.
"Burden-sharing is important...and the cost of navigational safety is enormous," said Malaysian academic Mak Joon Num of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
MILITANT LINK?
Japan, which relies on shipments through the strait for almost 100 percent of its oil needs, pays millions of dollars to help Indonesia and Malaysia with navigational safety along the strait, officials said.
"We have been trying for some time now to get an answer out of China as to whether they are prepared to give financial help to ensure the security of shipping," said one Western official who declined to be identified.
"Countries like Indonesia have little to gain from maintaining the security of the strait because these are ships carrying goods to other countries, but it is their job to pay for safety measures," he said. Thomas Fargo, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur there was no evidence that pirates who attack fishing vessels and other traffic in the vital sea lane had ties with militant groups such as Jemaah Islamiah (JI). Singapore, whose busy container port lies at the strait's southern end, has hinted at connections between pirates and groups such as JI, which carried out a bombing on Indonesia's Bali island in 2002 and is widely linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
Fargo tiptoed around questions about possible deployment of U.S. special forces to help police the strait, stressing the primacy of intelligence sharing and training efforts.
The suggestion of U.S. forces in the region has drawn an angry response from Malaysia and Indonesia, and Chinese officials said such an action appeared to be beyond the U.S. purview.
Washington plans to hold talks with other Asian nations on what it calls its Regional Maritime Security Initiative, an as yet ill-defined plan to boost cooperation.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP114529.htm
excerpt:
Several recent acts of terrorism in Saudi Arabia have caused oil prices to rise. Mr. Traviati says the attacks on oil supply lines to Asia could have an even more widespread effect. "The region is relying more and more on the Middle East for their crude and one of the concerns we have, is a potential terrorist threat in the Malacca Straits."
A quarter of the world's maritime trade and about half of the world's crude oil pass through the Strait of Malacca, which narrows to 1.5 nautical miles at one point. Bordering Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, the Strait is already infested with pirates, and experts say oil tankers passing through such a narrow artery make an attractive target for terrorists.
The main shipping lane could easily be blocked by sinking a freighter or turning an oil tanker into a floating bomb.
Earlier this year, a chemical tanker was hijacked in the Strait. And though the hijackers abandoned ship an hour later after doing no damage, the incident raised concerns about the vulnerability of shipping.
Thailand has for six years considered bypassing the Strait altogether by building an oil pipeline across its narrow southern isthmus, from the Indian Ocean to the Gulf of Siam. Last week, the government revealed that it was in talks about the project with a major Chinese energy company.
Proponents say such a pipeline would increase security and lower the cost of shipping oil from the Middle East, and lower shipping time to China, the world's second largest oil importer, by as much as a week
Source: Voice of America
http://www.axcessnews.com/commodities_062204.shtml
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said during a visit to Singapore that he hoped to have US troops fighting terrorism in Southeast Asia "pretty soon". His comments fuelled speculation that the United States wants to deploy US forces in the Strait of Malacca, the narrow and busy shipping lane straddled by Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore that is seen as a likely terrorist target.
Do we want to protect the Strait of Malacca or are we going there because Malaysia’s Prime Minister Dr Mahathir has been strongly encouraging his country’s oil exports be sold for euros instead of U.S. dollars, or both?
#msg-3297017
This is a little reminiscent of the Strait of Hormuz controversy in the Persian Gulf.
#msg-3317697
I find it strange that China with well over 80 percent of their imports being shipped through the narrow strait is unlikely to join Japan in financing safety measures yet is eager to collaborate and cooperate with friends in the region and with neighbours to do what it could to ensure security on the high seas.
-Am
China under pressure to boost Malacca Strait safety
23 Jun 2004 11:00:46 GMT
By Jane Macartney
SINGAPORE, June 23 (Reuters) - China's focus on security in the narrow Strait of Malacca through which almost all its oil imports travel is long overdue but Beijing is unlikely to join Japan in financing safety measures, a Chinese official said on Wednesday.
The issue of policing the narrow sea lane between Malaysia and Indonesia that carries more than a quarter of world trade and half its oil has gained increasing attention in recent weeks amid warnings from Singapore of a possible attack or hijack on a tanker by militants bent on violence.
"Our attention to this has been very much overdue," Gao Zhiguo, executive director of the China Institute for Marine Affairs under Beijing's State Oceanic Administration, told Reuters.
More than one million tonnes of oil a year -- well over 80 percent of China's imports -- are shipped through the narrow strait, Gao said.
"We want to help to maintain the security of the sea lanes," said Gao. "But China is not as big a country as many think since it has only a coastal navy and economically it is not able to provide help yet."
However, Beijing was eager to collaborate and cooperate with friends in the region and with neighbours to do what it could to ensure security on the high seas, he said.
Southeast Asian officials and academics attending a conference in Singapore on relations between the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China put a series of questions to Chinese delegates on Beijing's readiness to help littoral states along the strait.
"Burden-sharing is important...and the cost of navigational safety is enormous," said Malaysian academic Mak Joon Num of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
MILITANT LINK?
Japan, which relies on shipments through the strait for almost 100 percent of its oil needs, pays millions of dollars to help Indonesia and Malaysia with navigational safety along the strait, officials said.
"We have been trying for some time now to get an answer out of China as to whether they are prepared to give financial help to ensure the security of shipping," said one Western official who declined to be identified.
"Countries like Indonesia have little to gain from maintaining the security of the strait because these are ships carrying goods to other countries, but it is their job to pay for safety measures," he said. Thomas Fargo, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur there was no evidence that pirates who attack fishing vessels and other traffic in the vital sea lane had ties with militant groups such as Jemaah Islamiah (JI). Singapore, whose busy container port lies at the strait's southern end, has hinted at connections between pirates and groups such as JI, which carried out a bombing on Indonesia's Bali island in 2002 and is widely linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
Fargo tiptoed around questions about possible deployment of U.S. special forces to help police the strait, stressing the primacy of intelligence sharing and training efforts.
The suggestion of U.S. forces in the region has drawn an angry response from Malaysia and Indonesia, and Chinese officials said such an action appeared to be beyond the U.S. purview.
Washington plans to hold talks with other Asian nations on what it calls its Regional Maritime Security Initiative, an as yet ill-defined plan to boost cooperation.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP114529.htm
excerpt:
Several recent acts of terrorism in Saudi Arabia have caused oil prices to rise. Mr. Traviati says the attacks on oil supply lines to Asia could have an even more widespread effect. "The region is relying more and more on the Middle East for their crude and one of the concerns we have, is a potential terrorist threat in the Malacca Straits."
A quarter of the world's maritime trade and about half of the world's crude oil pass through the Strait of Malacca, which narrows to 1.5 nautical miles at one point. Bordering Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, the Strait is already infested with pirates, and experts say oil tankers passing through such a narrow artery make an attractive target for terrorists.
The main shipping lane could easily be blocked by sinking a freighter or turning an oil tanker into a floating bomb.
Earlier this year, a chemical tanker was hijacked in the Strait. And though the hijackers abandoned ship an hour later after doing no damage, the incident raised concerns about the vulnerability of shipping.
Thailand has for six years considered bypassing the Strait altogether by building an oil pipeline across its narrow southern isthmus, from the Indian Ocean to the Gulf of Siam. Last week, the government revealed that it was in talks about the project with a major Chinese energy company.
Proponents say such a pipeline would increase security and lower the cost of shipping oil from the Middle East, and lower shipping time to China, the world's second largest oil importer, by as much as a week
Source: Voice of America
http://www.axcessnews.com/commodities_062204.shtml
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