‘Act to stop repeated maritime intrusions’

KOTA KINABALU: Stronger action ought to be taken by the government to defend the country’s sovereignty over Sabah that faces external threats and intrusions from overlapping maritime claims in the South China Sea, says Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan.

“Sabah is directly exposed to the ongoing conflict arising from the numerous overlapping sovereign claims to islands, reefs and rocks in the South China Sea,” he said in a statement yesterday.

He said it is needed to ensure the maritime and airspace sovereignty of the nation, particularly Sabah.

Kitingan, who is Sabah STAR president, said he has been following the development on the conflicting claims in the South China Sea.

“I found that the threat to Sabah’s maritime sovereignty has been worrying of late in view of it being in the front line of the overlapping claims issue.

“This calls for a more serious intervention from the federal government through the Ministry of Defence and the relevant agencies,” Kitingan said, adding that it is part of the safeguards for Sabah under the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

Encroachments involving China’s military assets in the South China Sea are nothing new.

He said that throughout 2021, the Malaysian Navy reported 23 cases in the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EZZ).