Three southeast Asian nations to designate shipping corridor in piracy battle | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-militants-idUSKCN0Z61C8
Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines on Monday agreed to designate a transit corridor for commercial vessels crossing a maritime zone hit by a spate of hijackings by Islamist militants in the southern Philippines.
Nearly 20 Indonesian and Malaysian tugboat crew have been kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf militants this year, with Jakarta airing fears that the problem could reach levels seen off the coast of Somalia.
Alarmed at the frequency of attacks, port authorities in some areas of Indonesia, particularly Kalimantan on the island of Borneo, have stopped issuing permits to ships taking coal to the southern Philippines.
Indonesia is the world’s largest thermal coal exporter and supplies 70 percent of the Philippines’ coal imports.