MALACCA STRAIT SECURITY IMPROVING GRADUALLY : US SEVENTH FLEET CHIEF

Tanjung Benoa, Jan 31 (ANTARA) - The commander of the US Pacific Seventh Fleet, Vice Admiral John M Bird, said here on Saturday security in the Malacca Strait was improving gradually.
"I do not think that the strait is not safe now. Our position is that of a partner to help secure one of the most important straits in the world by providing training, supporting equipment and other things," he said when interviewed by ANTARA in the command room of the USS Lassen DDG-82 which had dropped anchor at Bali's Tanjung Benoa port.
The destroyer-class ship equipped with Aegis and Tomahawk missile systems is in the country on a goodwill visit for several days. It came to Indonesia after a call at Dili port in East Timor.
While in Indonesia, Vice Admiral Bird would make courtesy calls on a few of the country's top officials, including the chief of the Indonesian Navy's Eastern Fleet Command in Surabaya, East Java.
"With fellow navy officials from Indonesia we have certainly conducted navy-to-navy talks professionally as through them it was easy to build mutual understanding," he said.
Until some time ago the International Maritime Agency based in Malaysia often reported that the Malacca Strait was not safe enough for ships to sail through due to a high piracy rate. Consequently, it had called on the international shipping community to be extra careful when passing through the strait between the Malayan Peninsula and Indonesia's Sumatra island.
The Indonesian navy supported by various maritime security agencies in the country has been working hard to disprove the accusation. From year to year, the number of piracy cases in the strait had dropped significantly, especially after intensive patrols were done in coordination with naval forces from neighbouring countries.
However, piracy to extract ransoms for political purposes, especially in waters off the Somalian coast, had increased in frequency since in the middle of 2008.
Soon after visiting Indonesia, Vice Admiral Bird would return to his base in Hawaii but the ship commanded by Anthony L Simmons would remain in Bali for several days more.
Bird said beside Indonesia, another country the US had helped under the same scheme was Thailand. Thailand was known to have an important access to the strait that affects around 70 percent of world trading.
In line with the easing of tension in military cooperation between Indonesia and the US, Bird said, his country's navy had already conducted cooperation in the form of joint exercises to an "advanced stage."
"In a year we have conducted low-scale joint exercises up to 120 times. This is certainly encouraging," he said.
In particular, he thanked the Indonesian government that had appreciated the essence of the USS Lassen DDG-82's goodwill visit. "This is my first visit to Bali. I have so far only read and heard about it. I now see that Bali is really beautiful," he said.
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