Responding to a request made by the three littoral states - Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, India has said it is ready to provide security in the Malacca Strait, one of the world's busiest sea lanes and a victim of piracy.
External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh, who is Jakarta to attend the ASEAN plus 3 meetings and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), said it is in India's national interests to ensure the Strait remained a crime free sea lane.
"Details can be worked out but in principal 'Yes'," Singh told the local Jakarta Post.
Such cooperation is not new to India. "We are neighbours. Nicobar Island and the northern part of Sumatra are only 128km apart and the Malacca Strait is equally important strategically," he added.
The US is likely to raise the piracy issue and possible threats from terrorists along the Strait during the ASEAN Regional Forum in Jakarta on Friday. Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed on joint patrols in the 805km-long Malacca Strait through which most Japanese and Chinese imported oil and one-third of the world's traded goods pass. But Malaysia and Indonesia have rejected a US proposal to conduct joint patrols in the Strait.
In 2002, India and Indonesia had begun joint naval patrols off the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal to check poaching, smuggling and drug trafficking.
