PM wants Vietnam to stop fishermen's encroachment into Malaysian waters

HANOI: Malaysia has asked Vietnam to immediately take concrete action to address the issue of Vietnamese fishermen's encroachment into Malaysian waters.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the issue had become rampant of late as the fishermen were not just encroaching into Malaysian waters, but also acting aggressive and provocative against the Malaysian maritime enforcers and local fishermen.

"If left unaddressed, such incidents could trigger a bigger issue. This is closely related to illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities in Malaysian waters.

"Such activities not only affect the activities and the source of income of the local fishermen, but the provocation is also worrying.

"Therefore, I have asked Vietnam's Prime Minister to take immediately take concrete action to stop the encroachment.

"I hope the Vietnamese government, on the basis of friendship, will take immediate action so that the encroachment of Vietnamese fishermen into our waters can be resolved," he told the Malaysian media here today after concluding a two-day official visit to Vietnam, yesterday.

Meanwhile, Ismail Sabri said during the visit he had also exchanged views with his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and agreed that Malaysia and Vietnam would remain neutral in this crisis.

The Prime Minister, however, stressed that Malaysia would not compromise in terms of foreign aggression against any sovereign country.

"We do not support such aggression, but our stance is that we will not interfere. We want the crisis in Ukraine to be solved diplomatically.

"On the sanctions against Russia, we state that we do not support the sanctions, let alone unilateral sanctions, we only recognise the sanctions if they are decided by the United Nations Security Council," he said.

Last but not least, Ismail Sabri said: "I also wish Vietnam good luck as the host of SEA Games scheduled for May."

-- BERNAMA