Malaysia Joins Container Security Initiative

Malaysia yesterday agreed to implement the U.S. Container Security Initiative, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency announced (see GSN, Dec. 3, 2003).

Agency and Malaysian representatives signed a Declaration of Principles to cooperate in the initiative in January 2003. As part of the effort,  the U.S. agency will station inspectors at the port of Klang to help Malaysian officials screen cargo containers destined for the United States. Klang is the 18th port to join the initiative since it was first proposed in January 2002, according to the agency.

“The primary purpose of CSI is to protect the global trading system and the trade lanes between CSI ports and the U.S. By implementing CSI, the government of Malaysia is helping to make a safer, more secure world trading system,” Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner said in a statement (U.S. State Department release, March 8).

In neighboring Singapore, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge today praised U.S. allies in Asia for their cooperation in the war on terrorism.

“The American people know that we will always find friends and strengths in international partners — in the Asia-Pacific region, in the United Nations — in a ‘true culture of cooperation,’” Ridge said in a speech (Martin Abbugao, Agence France-Presse, March 9).

Meanwhile, Adm. Gregory Johnson, commander of U.S. naval forces in Europe, warned yesterday that maritime security remains a weak link in the U.S. war on terrorism.

“We have to develop a much more robust security regime in the maritime dimension … it is quite flimsy at the moment,” Johnson said. 

About 95 percent of international commercial cargo is transported by ship, with 11 million containers in transit every day. That gives terrorists a large number of targets, Johnson said.

“There’s only a tiny, tiny portion of 1 percent of those containers that we know about before they reach our ports,” Johnson said. “The volumes are such that over time any would-be terrorist is going to work this out,” he added (Crispian Balmer, Reuters, March 8).

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