Singapore/Tokyo – As Chinese gray-zone activities in the South China Sea continue to push regional boundaries, Malaysia has set a clear threshold: Any disruption to the country’s offshore oil and gas platforms would cross a red line, its defense chief has warned.
“If our national interest — the oil and gas platforms — is disrupted or affected physically, then that will be the red line,” Malaysian Defense Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin told The Japan Times in an interview on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore last week.
The epicenter of this friction is the Petronas-operated Kasawari gas field, located roughly 200 kilometers off Bintulu, Sarawak region, in the disputed South China Sea, where a regular China Coast Guard presence has been reported within Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
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