By Prashanth Parameswaran
Move said to help prevent unintended incidents in the high seas.
Southeast Asian defense ministers agreed Tuesday to establish a hotline enabling them to communicate quickly and securely in a crisis situation on the sidelines of a regional retreat in Malaysia.
Malaysian defense minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a press conference following the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) retreat in Kuala Lumpur that he and his nine Southeast Asian counterparts had witnessed a signing ceremony for the so-called direct communication link (DCL) initiative which would help with confidence-building and rapid response during crises, thereby preventing unintended incidents in the high seas.
“The DCL aims to build confidence and trust and promote rapid response cooperation in times of emergency,” Hishammuddin said according to Malaysia’s national news agencyBernama. “Our biggest concern is unintended accidents and unintentional incidents in the high seas,” he added.
The hotline proposal was initially broached by Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah during Brunei’s chairmanship of ASEAN in 2013 and was subsequently taken up under the framework of the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting. The purpose of the DCL, Brunei’s defense ministry explained last year, was to provide a means by which any two ASEAN defense ministers may communicate with each other to arrive at mutual decisions in handling crises – especially those in the maritime realm – to defuse misunderstandings, prevent escalation and promote rapid response.
Read the full story at The Diplomat