The Indonesian military also continued increasing its capabilities to deal with various kinds of crimes in the sea such as piracy in Somalia.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the incidence of piracy has dropped very sharply in the Malacca Strait following increased sea security exercises including in the area.
"We have kept increasing sea security exercises including in the Malacca Strait. Even on the Nusantara Day a joint exercise had been done involving special forces of the Indonesia Defense Forces (TNI) including in the Malacca Strait and therefore piracy has dropped sharply," he said at a year-end press conference here on Friday.
He said the Indonesian military also continued increasing its capabilities to deal with various kinds of crimes in the sea such as piracy in Somalia.
"We continued conducting exercises. And so if a similar incident happened we were ready to deal with it," he said.
To secure the Malacca Strait the minister said Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand had conducted patrol cooperation covering sea and air patrols.
As a result of the cooperation since 2005 the rate of crimes in the 900-kilometer long sea passage continued to drop drastically.
Based on the International Maritime Bureau record the number of piracies in the Malacca Strait dropped from 38 in 2004 to zero in 2011.
Meanwhile according to the data of the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) Unit the rate of piracy in the Malacca Strait dropped from 35 in 2005 to zero in 2011.
And according to data of the Indonesian Navy only one case occured in 2011 compared to 34 in 2004.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
