China Coast Guard ship 3303 passes near the Imam Bonjol warship 383 as the Indonesian Navy pursues the Han Tan Cou fishing vessel entering Indonesia's Natuna waters on June 17. Antara/Photo Courtesy of The Navy's Western Region Fleet Command (Koarmabar) via The Jakarta Post/ANN
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo told China on Monday that Indonesia’s territorial integrity was “non-negotiable”, as the government prepared to deploy a multitude of military and naval assets to the Natuna island chain in Riau Islands province, where a maritime spat with Chinese vessels is slowly turning into a show of strength against a foreign power.
The government is planning to bolster its defences in the waters around the Natunas, where Chinese coast guard vessels have since last month been repeatedly spotted encroaching on Indonesian-controlled waters and Chinese fishing boats found illegally fishing.
Over the past week, Jakarta and Beijing have been embroiled in a diplomatic tug-of-war over the latter’s claim in Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone in the North Natuna Sea, which borders Vietnam and Malaysia and is located adjacent to the disputed South China Sea.
The government responded with a series of firm actions, from summoning the Chinese envoy in Jakarta and lodging an official protest with Beijing, to making a show of rejecting China’s illegal claims to the waters and planning to increase its presence in the waters off the Natunas.
China’s claims over the South China Sea, which has put it at odds with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, were invalidated in a 2016 international arbitration ruling. Jakarta has used the ruling as a legal precedent for refuting similar claims based on tradition or history.
Jokowi said after a Cabinet meeting that the Indonesian position was that there was no bargaining when it came to sovereign rights.
“I think all the existing statements have been very clear that there will be no negotiating our country’s sovereignty, that our territory is non-negotiable,” he said.
Jokowi’s statement serves as a preamble to his planned visit to Natuna regency this week, which the Natuna administration’s communications officer Defrizal confirmed on Monday.
“[On Monday night] a team from the State Protocol and the Presidential Guard will have arrived in Natuna ahead of the President’s visit,” he said.
The Palace has yet to announce the exact date of Jokowi’s visit, but Defrizal said that initial preparations had been concluded.
Natuna Regent Hamid Rizal would leverage the upcoming visit to ask the president to designate the area an outpost province with special administrative status, the official said.
Jokowi’s imminent arrival in Natuna will be his second in the context of agitated ties with China and his fourth overall.
In 2016, a similar maritime skirmish with Chinese coast guard vessels led the president to host a limited Cabinet meeting on board a warship in the waters of the Natuna Islands, which analysts said amounted to strong military posturing in defence of Indonesian sovereign rights.
The gesture put into motion a series of legal efforts that eventually resulted in the renaming of the waters adjacent to the disputed South China Sea the North Natuna Sea, angering Beijing.
Jokowi also visited Natuna to witness the commencement of the Air Force’s Angkasa Yudha exercise in 2016 and again in 2017 to watch a Quick Reaction Strike Force exercise.
The newly formed Joint Defence Area Command announced the deployment of at least six Indonesian warships to the area “until the vessels leave”, unit commander Vice-Admiral Yudo Margono said.
The forces would adhere to the rules of engagement and not fall for China’s provocations, Indonesian Military spokesman Major General Sisriadi was quoted by Antara news agency as saying.
Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD also said the government would send some 120 civilian fishermen from Java’s coasts to operate in Natuna waters while the nation’s grey hulls stood by for protection.
Mahfud is expected to meet with other stakeholders from the marine and fisheries industry for talks over the coming days.
China’s Foreign Ministry claims the ships were performing “routine” activities to protect China’s legitimate rights and interests in the “relevant” waters, but Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said its claims were “unilateral, have no legal basis and have never been recognised by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea [Unclos]”.
Retno told reporters on Monday that Indonesia had to take a stand because China had “violated some aspects of the friendship it had offered”.
“It is not that we are no longer friends or want to incite war. As a dear friend, we merely ask that you respect the rules that we have agreed upon together,” she said.
THE JAKARTA POST/ANN
