JAKARTA, 8 May 2004 — Indonesia and Malaysia yesterday rejected a suggestion that US anti-terrorism patrols could be mounted in the Malacca Straits and said only the countries sited along the crucial waterway should protect it.
Visiting Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar and his Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirayuda aired the rejection in comments to reporters after closed-door talks. The US military commander in the Asia-Pacific, Adm. Thomas Fargo, said earlier this month that the US was considering the possibility of deploying forces in the Strait as part of its counterterrorism efforts. The US should not go ahead with its proposal, Wirayuda said. “It is within the boundaries of our own sovereign rights and jurisdiction to deal with the issue.”
Hamid said it was “the right of littoral states to decide the welfare and safety of navigation in the Malacca Straits and not for other countries or a foreign power to decide how the safety of (the straits) should be monitored.”
