Yogyakarta, (Antara) - The Republic of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore have agreed to seek ways to speed up responses to a range of incidents that may occur in Malacca Strait, such as marine vessel accidents and oil leakage.
"We agreed to provide a rapid response when accidents occur," said Secretary General of the Transportation Ministry Sugihardjo at a press conference in Yogyakarta on Monday.
According to him, the forum of three countries associated with the Malacca Strait has forged an agreement on how to provide good services for shipping on the waterway and how to protect the marine environment.
Meanwhile, Malaysia's Deputy Director General of the Marine Department Dato Rossid bin Musa said that at present, three countries were still in talks to determine the best response to disasters at sea.
"I believe that the three countries have a standard operating procedure on how to coordinate maritime disasters when they occur," he noted.
As reported, Indonesia staged the 41st Tripartite Technical Experts Group (TTEG) and the 9th Cooperation Forum---a safety conference on maritime shipping lanes in the Malacca Strait and Singapore.
According to Sugihardjo, the cooperation of several countries was also assessed in line with the realization of President Joko Widodo's vision of a World Maritime Fulcrum to strengthen the national identity as a maritime nation.
"Malacca Strait is one of the world's strategic shipping lanes," he stated.
Apart from the three countries, 10 members of TTEG, including representatives from Australia, China, Denmark, India, Japan, and Germany, were present at the meeting.
It is estimated by the Automatic Identification System that in a year, some 70-80 thousand ships or more sail through Malacca Strait.(*)
