EYES IN THE SKY LAUNCHED TO ENHANCE MARITIME SECURITY

A concept conceived just three months ago to enhance security in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore has become a reality as ministers and military officials from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand joined hands to launch the Eyes in the Sky's (EiS) maiden flight on 13 Sep.

Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, Dato' Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak, officiated at the opening ceremony at Subang Air Base, giving flight to the EiS concept that he had proposed at the Shangri-La Dialogue in June.

"It is our primary duty as littoral states to maintain the safety of the Straits of Malacca, and it is an important addition to what we have been doing," he said.

"It's about doing things better in the spirit of ASEAN sovereignty, and the beginning of co-operation between the littoral states," he added.

The EiS is a component of the Malacca Straits Security Initiative aimed at attaining maritime domain awareness over the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. It will initially be undertaken by the three littoral states Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore together with Thailand.

The armed forces of the participating countries will provide resources like maritime patrol aircraft and a combined maritime patrol team on board the aircraft.

With an EiS Operations Centre established in each of the participating countries, the aircraft will conduct two patrols a week, along the designated sectors of the area of operations.

Speaking about Singapore's participation in EiS, Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean, who was at the opening ceremony, said: "It is certainly an initiative that Singapore strongly supports."

"It is a very good illustration of the three principles which we agreed upon littoral states have primary responsibility for security in the Malacca Straits, the international community and user states have a role to play, and whatever is done should be respectful of the sovereignty of the littoral states as well as in accordance to international law," he said.

The EiS littoral states hope to garner support from international communities to lend a hand.

Said Dato' Sri Najib: "We have provided the guidelines and invited them to participate with platforms with sensors on board. We will determine the designated areas for them to patrol and we will have our people on board together with them."

"They will operate the consoles and relay the picture down to the monitoring and action task force and if it is necessary to do any intervention, it will be done by the respective countries."