WikiLeaks logo
The Global Intelligence Files,
files released so far...

The Global Intelligence Files

Search the GI Files

The Global Intelligence Files


FOR EDIT - US/MALAYSIA - Evolving Strategic Cooperation

Released on 2012-10-18 17:00 GMT

Email-ID 5199510
Date 2011-06-08 17:46:50
The United States is expanding strategic cooperation with Malaysia as part
of its re-engagement in the Asia Pacific, seeking to move the relationship
beyond immediate challenges like counter-terrorism, counter-piracy and
non-proliferation to include greater attentiveness to maritime security.

The US and Malaysia have long cooperated on security issues, and in recent
years, the it has begun to re-engage in the Asia Pacific. Indonesia is the
cornerstone [LINK] of US re-engagement with Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN), but the US has also prioritized its bilateral
relationship with Malaysia, a natural economic partner inhabiting the
strategically critical Malacca Strait that the US has also identified as a
key ally in its bid to reshape relations with the Muslim world.

But now the U.S. is seeking to redirect its relationship with Malaysia
toward maritime security, with an eye toward China's rise.

The Obama administration has held several high-level bilateral meetings
with top Malaysian leaders, showing its interest in revitalizing
relations. Malaysia recently sent a medical team to assist with
nation-building in Afghanistan and moved from observer to participator in
the US-Thailand-led annual Cobra Gold military exercises. It has expanded
legal authorization for enforcing United Nations rules against trafficking
weapons of mass destruction-related materials. On the economic front,
Malaysia joined the US-led Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations.
Meanwhile, the US upgraded its commitment to ASEAN, joined the ASEAN
Defense Ministers Plus group, and in 2011 the US is joining the East Asia
Summit (along with Russia), a forum that Malaysia originated as an
Asian-centric discussion group with limited US influence.

Washington and Kuala Lumpur have both emphasized ongoing priorities for
bilateral cooperation including trade and investment, counter-terrorism,
Afghanistan, nonproliferation, and counter-piracy. Malaysian Prime
Minister Najib Razak has also called for a new regional rapid-response
team to deal with natural disasters, an area where the US has offered to
become more involved, citing the recent Japanese disaster.

These topics were no doubt covered when Defense Secretary Gates met with
Najib June 3 at the 10th Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, but recently it
has become clear that the US is laying the groundwork for cooperation that
goes beyond these oft-cited issues.

For the U.S., Malaysia is also a key player in attempting to forge a new
security arrangement in the South China Sea, where territorial disputes
run rife, and where Malaysia is a claimant. While Malaysia is not involved
in as frequent clashes in the South China Sea disputes as its neighbors
China, Vietnam and the Philippines, nevertheless it has claims to defend
and economic interests in sub-sea resources and maritime trade. The United
States does not take sides in particular claims, but is concerned about
China's rapidly developing capability to exclude others from this sea and
air space, and is seeking to get ASEAN states to create a regional network
for managing territorial disputes and prevent China's (or other states')
territorial assertions from igniting conflict.

Therefore the United States wants to begin shifting cooperation with
Malaysia to focus more on precisely the threats posed by China's rising
maritime power. The US wants to expand defense activities covering what it
calls maritime domain security and awareness. Speaking in Kuala Lumpur, US
Pacific Command Chief Admiral Robert Willard said that domain security,
especially maritime security, provides a "common cause" for nations to
work together, not only on the naval level but also between coast guards
and the full gamut of other government agencies, creating
"whole-of-government collaboration" to improve awareness and security.
This would also include air power, an area where American support for
Malaysia dates back to the early 1980s.

Malaysia is willing to expand cooperation with the US, but is
simultaneously exceedingly wary of getting entangled in any future
US-China conflict that polarizes the region. Najib's keynote speech at the
Shangri-La conference displayed the wishful thinking that conventional war
is a thing of the past, that cooperation with the US and China is not
mutually exclusive, and that multilateralism is the only way to address
security threats in the region. Malaysia has every reason to take this
approach. China and Malaysia are rapidly expanding trade and investment
ties, most recently evidenced when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited the
country and a nominal $3 billion worth of deals were struck. Notably, when
Najib urged ASEAN to forge a "more binding" code of conduct for behavior
in the sea (a code that interested parties have discussed since a
declaration in 2002, with no progress to report), he said that while Kuala
Lumpur will work toward a united ASEAN position on the subject, it also
will not jeopardize its bilateral relationship with China.

Signs of growing cooperation between the US and Malaysia suggest
significant possibilities given their history and alignment of strategic
interests in the Strait of Malacca. But as with most of the US'
re-engagement efforts in ASEAN amid other foreign policy concerns,
concrete progress may be slow. In particular there is the problem of
divergent interests within ASEAN. The US claims the offer is on the table
and Malaysia can respond as to how to proceed. Malaysia is most averse to
a situation where it has to choose between the US and China, and will
avoid and delay doing so at all cost. Even if it were not consumed with
domestic pre-election politics that preclude sharp policy changes, it
would seek a middle course.

Ultimately, however, Malaysia's strategic interest lies with the most
powerful navy, and that means the United States. The current dilemma for
Malaysia is therefore how to maintain beneficial relations with both the
US and China -- as with other states -- and avoid moving too fast or too
far in a particular course of action that would cause a negative reaction
from the other side. Since the US-China are currently in a period of
playing down their tensions, the balance is somewhat easier to maintain.
But Beijing and Washington have a fundamental conflict of strategic
interests in the South China Sea and their latest detente is manifestly

Matt Gertken
Senior Asia Pacific analyst
US: +001.512.744.4085
Mobile: +33(0)67.793.2417

Matt Gertken
Senior Asia Pacific analyst
US: +001.512.744.4085
Mobile: +33(0)67.793.2417