KL welcomes aid to help patrol Malacca Strait

Malaysia has not asked countries using the busy Straits of Malacca to contribute to the cost of maintaining security in the waterway although Kuala Lumpur has to fork out a large sum of money for that purpose, Foreign Ministry parliamentary secretary Ahmad Shabery Cheek said.
However, Malaysia would not turn down any offer of assistance or cooperation from user countries. 'Malaysia feels that any form of assistance would contribute towards burden sharing,' he said, responding to Senator Heng Seai Kei at the Dewan Negara here yesterday.
Mr Heng had asked whether the littoral states of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia had ever approached countries like Japan and the United States to partly shoulder the cost of ensuring security in the sea lane.
Mr Ahmad Shabery stressed that whatever it was, the rights and sovereignty of the littoral states would have to be respected. He further said that Kuala Lumpur would welcome training and capacity-building programmes related to maritime security in the Melaka Straits.
To deal with oil slicks, Mr Ahmad Shabery said a revolving fund of 400 million yen (S$5 million) had been set up by the Malacca Straits Council.