KUALA LUMPUR: US President Barack Obama’s visit to Malaysia this weekend will provide assurance to Malaysia in terms of national security in regard to the territorial dispute over the Nine-Dash Line in the South China Sea, said the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia.
“It think it will bring us assurance on the Nine-Dash Line in the South China Sea. Malaysia will not be pushed around by its big neighbours (on that issue),” its President, Professor Datuk Dr Woo Wing Thye, told reporters after a talk on “The US Pivot to Asia and Its Implications for the Region” yesterday.
The talk was jointly organised by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute and the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia.
The Nine-Dash Line refers to the demarcation line used by the Chinese and Taiwanese governments for their claims of part of the South China Sea.
The contested area includes the Paracel Islands, occupied by China but claimed by Vietnam, and the Spratly Islands, disputed by the Philippines, China, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.