Ekip
21 March 2016•Update: 28 March 2016
By P Prem Kumar
KUALA LUMPUR
Australia has said that it is committed to assist Southeast Asian countries in maintaining peace and stability in the much disputed South China Sea, amid recent military activities by China on a man-made island.
Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on Monday that the government would continue to send ships and planes to ensure freedom of navigation and overflight in the Sea, which has multiple ownership claims.
“We have been extremely consistent in saying that our activities will continue by sending our ships and planes to that part of world in accordance with rule of law. That’s not a position we have changed,” she told reporters after a bilateral meeting with Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.
Hussein told reporters that Malaysia lacks the capability to resolve the South China Sea situation on its own, due to the complexity and multiple ownership disputes in the area.
He said he would meet his counterparts from Vietnam and the Philippines, other parties with stakes in the area in which China has reportedly built a military base.
"Malaysia together with Vietnam and the Philippines will look at the consistency and the facts. But before we decide that it's wrong, we better get our facts right," he said.
Hussein added that the meetings would have to wait until a new defense minister is appointed in Vietnam and after presidential elections in the Philippines.
China claims almost all the resource-rich South China Sea, and has overlapping claims with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.
Its reclamation work, which includes the building of airfields on some of the disputed islands, has prompted the U.S. and its allies to express alarm over the maritime expansion, which they suspect is aimed at extending its military reach.
Last year, the Philippines filed a complaint against China with the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which is expected to issue a ruling -- which Beijing has already said it would ignore -- later this year.
On Monday, Hussein also touched on the rising threat of militant groups in the region saying Malaysia and Australia had agreed to share information and intelligence knowledge on regional terror activities.
Among the information would be potential terror attack areas in Malaysia, Australia and in the Asia-Pacific by terror groups namely Daesh, the minister said.
"It is vital for us to combat this threat because we must not allow the templates that we have seen in the Middle East at the moment to be replicated."
Hussein also said Malaysia had requested information on developments on militant activities from China and neighbouring Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines.
