Officials from five other Southeast Asian countries have been asked to fulfill in February to explore options for a coordinated response to China’s continued aggression within the South China Sea.
Vice Admiral Aan Kurnia, head of the Indonesian Maritime Safety Agency (also often known as Bakamla), told reporters yesterday that he had invited his counterparts from Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam to fulfill in February 2022 to “share experiences and cultivate brotherhood ” – in line with a BenarNews report.
In the South China Sea, 4 of the five nations haven’t resolved maritime and territorial disputes with China and have felt the brunt of growing naval and naval power. Fifth Singapore has a special interest in protecting free and open international sea lanes, even though it has no direct territorial interests within the South China Sea.
Over the past decade, Southeast Asian claimants, especially the Philippines and Vietnam, have grown increasingly offended with China as Beijing asserted sovereignty over disputed regions of the South China Sea and built artificial islands within the Spratly Islands.
Indonesia, which has long maintained that it will not be a legitimate claimant within the South China Sea, is increasingly the goal of those decisive actions. China has for the past five years sent large fishing boats into Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) near the Natuna Islands, which Beijing says are a part of its broad “nine-dash line” maritime claim, often escorted by coast guard and maritime militia vessels. For example, almost 60 ships entered Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone in December 2019 and January 2020.
In the ultimate months of 2021, the 2 countries engaged in a low-level dispute over an exploration rig on an oil rig near the Natuna Islands in Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone. As I reported last month, this resulted in winBeijing formally asking Jakarta to stop oil and gas drilling in the realm, a request strongly denied by the Indonesian government, which ended a six-month drilling project last week.
While it’s difficult to predict what tangible conclusions the February summit will bring, it’s a positive step towards greater coordination amongst Southeast Asian governments within the face of the challenge posed by China within the South China Sea.
While many maritime Southeast Asian countries face similar challenges, their cooperation is hampered by a scarcity of coordination and unity that’s the results of each clogged policymaking processes and unresolved maritime and territorial disputes amongst these claimants.
Indonesia’s demand for unity may also be interpreted as an acknowledgment of the gravity of the challenge China faces within the country’s exclusive economic zone, in addition to the country’s inability to cope with it by itself. As a result, this often is the first indication that Indonesian politicians – or at the least those closest to the situation within the Natuna region – are waking as much as a decade of denials. These activities will due to this fact be closely monitored in the approaching months and years.
Fortunately for these countries, there’s all the time the choice of using international law.
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and these countries share a culture of international law.
For example, Singapore and Malaysia have asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule on problems with sovereignty over maritime features. Similarly, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) resolved a sovereignty dispute between Indonesia and Malaysia over several islands.
Myanmar and its neighbor Bangladesh have turned to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to resolve their maritime delimitation dispute (ITLOS). When the Philippines filed a criticism against China on the international arbitration tribunal, it was the primary time a lawsuit had been filed over South China Sea disputes.
Source: TheDiplomat.com, Council on Foreign Relations
