Indonesia accepts Japanese patrol boats for Malacca Strait patrol

Reported here:

Indonesia, which has claim to most of the busy Malacca Strait, has taken up Japan's offer to provide patrol boats to help guard the pirate-infested waterway.

The decisison was announced by a Japanese foreign ministry official in Tokyo.

He says training programmes which aim to raise the skills of Indonesian coast guard sailors have also been carried out as part of an anti-piracy co-operation agreement between Japan and Indonesia.

Piracy is a common event in the Malacca Strait, which carries a quarter of global trade and nearly all oil imports for Japan and China.

It now ranks among Japan's top security concerns after a recent string of attacks on vessels suggested pirates are growing more violent.

Good.