Malaysia responds to pirates and China
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) and Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) shadowed a hijacked oil tanker in the South China Sea, before a group of eight pirates managed to escape in a lifeboat on 18 June.
The vessel, Orkim Harmony, carried a cargo of nearly 6,000 tons of petrol worth US$5.6 million. The vessel disappeared en route from Malacca to Kuantan on 12 June, prompting the MMEA to activate a search.
The missing vessel was eventually discovered by a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion aircraft within the Cambodia-Vietnam maritime border on 17 June, with its name modified to
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