DEFENCE WHITE PAPER 18. ASEAN and ASEAN-led mechanisms continue to serve as indispensable platforms for mitigating all of these challenges. ASEAN unity and centrality are a foundation for managing power dynamics and regional uncertainties. In June 2019, ASEAN issued the “ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific”. This document reiterates ASEAN’s inclusivity principle, while stressing ASEAN’s central role in leading closer cooperation, shaping the regional architecture and ensuring peace, stability and prosperity for the peoples in Southeast Asia as well as in the wider Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions. Overall, this document interprets ASEAN’s commitment to be an honest broker in creating a safe, peaceful and prosperous environment. The Complex Southeast Asian Neighbourhood 19. Malaysia’s security is directly tied to the stability of Southeast Asia. While ASEAN, as one community, has been successful in managing many regional problems, the fact is that relations between and among ASEAN member states are more dynamic and complex. 20. Malaysia is the only country that shares borders with the vast majority of Southeast Asian countries, either land or maritime. Due to the nation’s geographical centrality in Southeast Asia and colonial legacies in the region, Malaysia has yet to resolve land demarcation and maritime delimitations issues with some of its neighbours. 21. In addition to territorial and sovereignty disputes, there are other bilateral issues affecting Malaysia’s interests in the neighbourhood. These include: (1) conflicting interests extended from territorial disputes (e.g. illegal fishing in Malaysian waters); (2) contentious spillover from internal conflicts of neighbouring countries; and (3) refugee crises sparked by regional states’ domestic issues. 22. Bilateral disputes aside, there are also shared problems that bind Malaysia and other regional countries together. These problems: (1) affect nearly every country in the area or neighbourhood; (2) could not be handled effectively by any country alone; and (3) necessitate cooperation and collective action among the affected countries. Such problems encompass both traditional and non-traditional security challenges, including extremism, sea robbery, piracy and cross-boundary environmental issues such as haze problems resulting from forest fires in neighbouring countries. 23. Geographical location confers both advantages and disadvantages. While proximity is the source of bilateral issues, it also has put Malaysia and our immediate neighbours in a state of interdependence in security, economy and social spheres. A case in point is maritime security challenges. Strategically located astride the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, Malaysia is at the crossroads of key trade flows between the East and West. More than 30 percent of global seaborne trade passes through the Straits of Malacca and Singapore which makes it imperative for the littoral states, i.e. Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, to maintain and strengthen cooperation between them. None of these three littoral states is singly able to ensure the security of the strategic waterways. 24. Currently, Malaysia together with Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand are coordinating maritime patrol programmes, under the Malacca Straits Patrol (MSP), to combat sea robberies and other forms of maritime security issues. Additionally, the four countries also work with the London-based International Maritime Organisation (IMO), a United Nations specialised agency, to ensure the safety of navigation and to mitigate pollution risk from ships plying the Straits of Malacca. A similar initiative was implemented to increase the level of maritime security in the Sulu and Sulawesi Seas through the Trilateral Cooperative Arrangement (TCA) between Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines signed in 2016. These collaborations 23