Southeast Asian neighbors look to protect commercial vessels from piracy

Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines earlier this week agreed to several measures, including a designated transit corridor, to protect shipping interests in shared maritime areas that have been targeted by Abu Sayyaf militants.    The neighboring Southeast Asian nations of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines earlier this week agreed to several measures aimed at curbing piracy of commercial shipping vessels in shared high-risk areas.
   Those measures could include a designated transit corridor, increased air and sea patrols, and military escorts for cargo ships, according to a joint statement from the countries’ defense ministers.
   Several tugboat crew have been kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf militants this year, causing some port authorities in Indonesia, particularly Kalimantan on the island of Borneo, to stop issuing permits to ships taking coal to the southern Philippines. Indonesia is the world’s largest thermal coal exporter and supplies 70 percent of the Philippines’ coal imports, according to Reuters.
   An estimated $40 billion in cargo passes through the Sulu Sea in the southwestern area of the Philippines and the Celebes Sea further south each year.
   “The ministers have agreed in principle to explore the following measures, including a transit corridor within the maritime areas of common concern, which will serve as designated sea lanes for mariners,” the defense ministers said a meeting in Manila.
   The meeting was the second in as many months for government officials from the three nations to discuss the issue of increased hijackings, robberies and kidnappings in the busy Malacca Strait. Afterward, Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said leaders would share best practices piloted by Indonesia and Malaysia during a joint effort to defend the strait against pirates as a model for three-way cooperation.