PREPARING FOR THE MARITIME BORDER NEEDS ASSESSMENT

S E C R E T KUALA LUMPUR 001096 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/13/2016 TAGS: PTER ASEC PREL ID RP MY SUBJECT: PREPARING FOR THE MARITIME BORDER NEEDS ASSESSMENT REF: A. STATE 87969 ¶B. JAKARTA 7378 ¶C. MANILA 2466 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i., David Shear for reasons 1.4 b and d. ¶1. (S) Embassy Kuala Lumpur strongly endorses the DS/ATA and S/CT maritime border control technical needs assessment in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia and looks forward to working with the Department in arranging this visit. ¶2. (S) Post agrees with Embassies Jakarta and Manila with regard to desirability of a September/October timeframe for the visit in order to give us more time to prepare host government. We are currently engaging GOM officials to discuss the assessment, with a focus on the Prime Minister's National Security Division (NSD) and the NSD Maritime Policy Directorate. ¶3. (S) Itinerary and agenda will be contingent on successful coordination with the GOM, but we would propose that a visiting team meet with NSD officials in Kuala Lumpur, as well as senior police officials (including marine police), Malaysian Armed Forces officers, and Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA),customs and immigration officials. These meetings would precede a visit to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah state, where we would meet with Sabah's state security coordination body, senior military, police and other law enforcement officials. Finally, we would stop in some principal eastern Sabah ports, like Tawau, Semporna and Sandakan, where we would meet with local commanders and officials. SHEAR