Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore reaffirm commitment to free and safe Strait of Malacca

Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore have reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining the freedom, openness, and safety of the Strait of Malacca and Singapore Strait for international shipping. This reaffirmation was made during the 17th Co-operation Forum, attended by the Malaysia Marine Department, Indonesia’s Directorate General of Sea Transportation, and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).

The joint statement emphasized the importance of respecting navigational rights and freedoms, both in principle and in practice, and affirmed that the waterways are "Strait Used for International Navigation," where the right of transit passage applies under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and customary international law.

Singapore Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow highlighted that the Straits of Malacca and Singapore (SOMS) are a critical artery for global trade, with over 100,000 vessels passing through annually, carrying nearly a quarter of global seaborne trade and a third of the world’s oil and gas supplies. Siow reiterated the significance of the Cooperative Mechanism, established in 2007, which formalizes countries' commitment to cooperate on navigational safety and pollution prevention through shared interests in risk anticipation, infrastructure upgrades, and collective incident response.

Brief written by urgent.news from Malay Mail's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.