Risk Intelligence examines security incidents and concerns in Asian waters in the first quarter of 2025.
Of the maritime security developments in Asia during the first quarter, the return of container vessel boardings during Singapore Strait transits stood out. Such activity had gone unreported since early-September 2015, almost ten years ago.
The 2015 incident bore the same characteristics as the five container ship boardings that took place between 13 and 30 March 2025. While the vessel was underway in the Phillip Channel, following the Singapore Strait Traffic Separation Scheme eastbound lane, a perpetrator boarded the vessel during hours of darkness. On encountering a crew member, he bound and gagged the crew and then escaped with engine spares. Another crew member found his gagged and bound colleague lying on the deck, and untied him.
Perpetrators preying upon vessels of all types have generally employed the same tactics during the past ten years. This has changed in recent weeks. While often reported to be carrying knives, and at times being armed with guns, recent incidents have revealed that perpetrators have begun to use airsoft guns. These gun-like devices, while not lethal weapons, are nonetheless capable of inflicting serious injuries, as illustrated by the hospitalisation of one seafarer in Singapore who had been struck in the eye by a pellet fired from an airsoft gun. Fortunately for him, his eye was saved.
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It remains the case that perpetrators operating on these waters will flee once detected by the crew, however, if cornered, they are not hesitant to resort to violence. While the knives, guns and other devices will initially be used by perpetrators as a means to hold approaching crew at bay, there have been some cases resulting with serious injuries to crew. One example took place during the boarding of a crude oil tanker in December, during which a seafarer suffered deep knife wounds to his hands when a perpetrator unexpectedly encountered him, resulting in a one-week hospital stay before an additional lengthy period of recuperation at home.
In view of the above average frequency of vessel boardings during Singapore Strait transits, the Singapore Police Coast Guard (PCG) has stepped up its efforts to monitor the area and render warnings to specific vessels being targeted. Although obliged to remain within Singaporean territorial waters, The PCG has, on more than one occasion, detected suspicious sampans shadowing cargo ships, and taken steps to alert vessel command of potential boardings and boardings already underway.
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It is not clear what measures have been implemented by other authorities policing the Singapore Strait. Turning to the arrests of perpetrators, The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency arrested perpetrators suspected of stealing scrap from a barge at the far eastern end of the Singapore Strait in April 2024. One month earlier, a unit of the Indonesian Navy’s First Fleet Quick Response made a similar arrest of perpetrators at the eastern end of the Singapore Strait. With respect to the arrest of perpetrators preying on bulk carriers, tankers and container ships, there are no similar recently documented enforcement actions.
As in the past, the first quarter saw bulk carriers dominating the statistics with 48% of all reported boardings involving bulkers. Product and crude oil tankers followed, representing 24% of all reported incidents. The five container ship boardings represented 11% of the total. Otherwise, barge boardings stood at 9%, and there were two general cargo ships boarded and one unmanned oil platform boarded, far from the Singapore Strait in the South China Sea.
Beyond the Singapore Strait, aside from the oil platform incident mentioned above, vessels have been boarded at the ports of Balikpapan, Tanjung Priok and Belawan, while the Tarahan anchorage above the Sunda Strait has also been the scene of tanker boardings.
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Beyond theft and armed robbery activity in Asia, geopolitical activities continue to draw the attention of the media and those concerned with potential impacts on the freedom of navigation.
One such event was the visit by the US Secretary of Defense in the Philippines at the end of March which was met by a Chinese show of force in the form of naval patrols in disputed waters. Prior to the visit, the Philippine and US navies conducted exercises during which personnel utilised defunct offshore platforms as monitoring stations. In practice, it is understood that these platforms will remain in regular use to monitor Chinese forces in the area. These exercises followed an incident during which two Philippine Coast Guard ships, deployed 25 to 30 nautical miles east of Scarborough Shoal in the West Philippine Sea as part of a routine maritime patrol, were blocked by Chinese vessels.
China also conducted military exercises that were seen as a test run of its capabilities to enforce a blockade of Taiwan. Against this backdrop, G7 foreign ministers took a tough stance on China, stepping up language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to "one China" policies. This elicited a retort from China in the form of a statement in which China lashed out at accusations that its actions are endangering maritime safety, saying that the G7 members are “filled with arrogance, prejudice and malicious intentions”.
Fortunately for maritime shipping, the various geopolitical activities and sabre-rattling have not impeded the freedom of navigation to any significant degree in Asia.
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