Masafumi Kuroki, executive director of the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) is unable to shed any light on China’s warning of possible attacks on Chinese-flagged shipping in the Malacca Strait at the beginning of July.
On 2 July China's Ministry of Transport (MOT) announced that under China's International Ship Security Regulations (ISSR) its security alert had been raised to Level 3.
This is China’s highest alert level, implying that an attack was likely or imminent.
With no explanation given, the move left countries bordering the Malacca Strait, shipowners and global security analysts both concerned and perplexed.
Kuroki, speaking at a ReCAAP briefing in Singapore today, said that his organization asked its contact in China for further details, but received no explanation.
“My understanding is that the security alert has now been dropped to Level 2,” he said.
China’s warning comes as piracy attacks in Asian waters have dropped to the lowest levels seen ReCAAP began keeping comprehensive records in 2007.
The organization reported today that a total of 28 incidents were reported in the first six months of this year, of which 25 were actual attacks and three were attempts.
These figures represent a 32% drop in incidents as compared to the same period in 2018.
The majority of the incidents involved theft from vessels at anchorages or while underway. Nine of the 20 robberies took place in anchorages in the Indonesian archipelago.
Kuroki noted that the number of such incidents in Indonesia was halved from the 2018 tally, while the two other locations habitually plagued by similar robberies, Bangladesh and Vietnam, had no incidents reported so far this year.
He suggested that this was a result of better policing of anchorages and ports.
Kuroki did express concern about the increase in robberies carried out on tugs towing barges through the Singapore Strait. There were eight such incidents, all of which occurred in the westbound lane of the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS). This, he suggested, could suggest that the attacks were being conducted by an organized crime syndicate.
During the period there was only one incident involving the abduction of crew. This involved the crew of a local fishing craft off East Sabah in the Sulu Sea between Malaysia and the Philippines.
Kuroki said the crew, which comprised of nomadic sea gypsies, was released after their captors realized that they had no money and there was no point in holding them any longer.
No incidents of piracy were reported in the Malacca Strait during the period.
