Since late 2003, the security of shipping in Southeast Asian ports and waters, particularly in the Malacca and Singapore Straits, has emerged as a key concern for countries in and outside the region. Despite growing anxiety over the level of maritime crime in the region, and the potentially devastating impact of maritime terrorism (demonstrated when suicide bombers struck the destroyer USS Cole in the Port of Aden in 2000 and the French oil tanker Limburg in the Gulf of Aden in 2002), US proposals for a Regional Maritime Security Initiative (RMSI) have provoked controversy amongst Southeast Asian governments. Indonesia, however, crucially remains a weak link in this scheme.

Piracy and maritime terror in Southeast Asia