Multilateral cooperation amongst ASEAN militaries has been successful, but still needs to improve if the vital sea lines of communication (SLOC) of the Malacca Strait are to remain clear, particularly with the rise of two strategic military competitors to the east and west, namely China and India.

One of the fundamental problems amongst ASEAN countries is territorial disputes, said Richard Bitzinger, a visiting senior fellow at RSIS. ‘The three countries operate ‘coordinated patrols’, but mostly this is letting each other know when one country’s navy or coast guard is going out to patrol.’

In short, most Malacca-Singapore Strait patrolling and security building has been like most other ASEAN security activities: ‘mostly ad hoc and mostly single-nation actions’. In the region there is a ‘very urgent need for more airborne maritime patrolling’.

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