The Philippines has proposed an information-sharing system for Southeast
Asia to help protect its waters from security challenges such as piracy,
illegal fishing and drug trafficking.
The proposal was tabled on Wednesday
at the start of a three-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
maritime forum attended by deputy foreign ministers and senior foreign ministry
officials in Manila.
The objective is to "provide
timely, relevant and material information to appropriate action agencies to
enable them to combat non-traditional security threats at sea", the
proposal said.
These threats include drug
trafficking, gun smuggling, human trafficking, illegal fishing and weather
disturbances, according to the proposal a diplomat gave to reporters.
The Philippines noted more than
half of the world's annual merchant tonnage passed through Southeast Asia's
waters, making cooperation vital.
No details were given as to how
the information would be shared.
The proposal did not mention
territorial disputes involving some ASEAN countries that experts say threaten
regional stability.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam.
China is embroiled in territorial
disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam and some other Southeast Asian nations
over the South China Sea.
China claims sovereignty over
nearly all of the South China Sea, which is believed to hold vast amounts of
oil and gas, is a rich fishing ground and is home to shipping lanes vital to
global trade.
The Philippines, Vietnam,
Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims to parts of the sea.
A senior diplomat who was at the
talks Wednesday said the discussions had not touched on the disputes, focusing
rather on maritime cooperation efforts.
He said Indonesia also tabled a
similar information-sharing proposal, though there was no immediate indication
as to how the ASEAN countries reacted to the concept.
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