JAKARTA: Indonesia’s military has stepped up naval and aerial patrols of the Natuna Sea area because of a rising number of foreign fishing vessels in the region.
The South-East Asian nation has deployed three ships and two aircraft in the gas-rich North Natuna Sea, and two additional vessels are on the way to join the group, Yudo Margono, commander of the Joint Regional Defense Command, said in statement.
The deployment came after Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi said China and other neighbouring countries should comply with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and reiterated Jakarta’s position that it will never acknowledge Beijing’s nine-dash line, a demarcation it uses to show its claims in the area.
Marsudi sent a diplomatic note to Beijing protesting the intrusion of Chinese vessels into Indonesia’s special economic zone in the area, according to a statement on the Cabinet Secretary’s website.
China is in dispute with several South-East Asian countries over its claim to areas of the South China Sea.
On Dec. 12, Malaysia submitted to the United Nation’s Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf information on what it believes are its its sovereignty rights in the area.
Beijing responded that it has "historic rights" in the region and that fishing boats had been carrying out "legal and reasonable" activities.
China lays claim to huge swathes of the South China Sea, where it is accused of building military installations and artificial islands -- and ramming fishing vessels.
Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei also have claims in the South China Sea.
Beijing claims the majority of the resource-rich waterway through the so-called nine-dash line, a vague delineation based on maps from the 1940s as the then Republic of China snapped up islands from Japanese control. - Agencies/Asian News Network
The South-East Asian nation has deployed three ships and two aircraft in the gas-rich North Natuna Sea, and two additional vessels are on the way to join the group, Yudo Margono, commander of the Joint Regional Defense Command, said in statement.
The deployment came after Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi said China and other neighbouring countries should comply with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and reiterated Jakarta’s position that it will never acknowledge Beijing’s nine-dash line, a demarcation it uses to show its claims in the area.
Marsudi sent a diplomatic note to Beijing protesting the intrusion of Chinese vessels into Indonesia’s special economic zone in the area, according to a statement on the Cabinet Secretary’s website.
China is in dispute with several South-East Asian countries over its claim to areas of the South China Sea.
On Dec. 12, Malaysia submitted to the United Nation’s Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf information on what it believes are its its sovereignty rights in the area.
Beijing responded that it has "historic rights" in the region and that fishing boats had been carrying out "legal and reasonable" activities.
China lays claim to huge swathes of the South China Sea, where it is accused of building military installations and artificial islands -- and ramming fishing vessels.
Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei also have claims in the South China Sea.
Beijing claims the majority of the resource-rich waterway through the so-called nine-dash line, a vague delineation based on maps from the 1940s as the then Republic of China snapped up islands from Japanese control. - Agencies/Asian News Network
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