DEFENCE WHITE PAPER maximising shared prosperity, shared security and shared identity among countries along the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions. These partnerships, in turn, serve to enhance Malaysia’s bridging and building cooperation capacity, and in turn, ASEAN centrality. 59. A reliable defence force is the key to protect Malaysia’s interests over the land, maritime, air and cyber electromagnetic domains. Malaysia’s maritime and continental roots necessitate the MAF and security agencies to jointly play important roles to effectively protect the nation’s interests and defend its sovereignty as well as territorial integrity. 60. All of the above factors impact the force structure of the MAF. Based on geographical factors that include the two-theatre reality and current security landscape, the MAF needs to be transformed into an integrated, agile and focused force. A more integrated force is needed to effectively defend Malaysia’s interests in handling traditional and non-traditional security threats. A more agile MAF will be able to respond better to various future operation scenarios. Finally, a more focused force can optimise resources towards achieving the objectives and goals of required operations. All of these are imperative, in order to more effectively protect Malaysia’s interests as a maritime nation with continental roots, serving as a bridging linchpin between the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions. PACIFIC OCEAN PACIFIC OCEAN MALAYSIA MALAYSIA INDIAN INDIAN OCEAN OCEAN Malaysia, a bridging linchpin... 31