Opinion | Beijing’s dubious claims undermine Indonesia’s role as South China Sea’s honest broker

Beijing is squandering strategic capital with its actions in the Natunas

Its game of maritime chicken with Jakarta is doing nobody any favours

Reading Time:4 minutes

Indonesian troops at Natuna military base in the Riau islands. Photo: Handout

Published: 9:30am, 20 Jan 2020Updated: 3:22pm, 17 Feb 2020

This year Indonesia and China will celebrate 70 years of diplomatic relations. But the journey has not always been smooth sailing. When Indonesia broke off diplomatic ties in 1967, the relationship went into a deep freeze.

Even when ties were restored in 1990, it took more than a decade until the two sides could sign a Strategic Partnership in 2005 (upgraded to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2013).

Since then, Indonesia and China have enjoyed closer economic and diplomatic engagements. China is among Indonesia’s top regional partners and Beijing considers an open and warm relationship with Jakarta among its strategic priorities.

Even amid all the problems surrounding the South China Sea over the past decade, Indonesia and China have been trying to ensure that the strategic capital accumulated over the years is not lost. Some say that Jakarta has been at times less attentive to its fellow Southeast Asian neighbours because its relationship with Beijing takes precedence.

But the latest round of maritime incidents and diplomatic spats over China’s encroachment of Indonesia’s Natuna waters since mid-December could reverse this trend. For Indonesia, there are several layers to the problem.

Chinese vessels were fishing in Indonesia’s legally sanctioned exclusive economic zone (EEZ), thus violating Indonesia’s sovereign rights. That Chinese coastguards were escorting and hindering Indonesia’s law enforcement efforts further breaches Indonesia’s sovereignty. These are serious problems that cannot easily be swept under the rug.

Competing maritime claims. Click to enlarge.

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.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Beijing is squandering strategic capital with its actions in the Natunas Its game of maritime chicken with Jakarta is doing nobody any favours

Beijing is squandering strategic capital with its actions in the Natunas

Its game of maritime chicken with Jakarta is doing nobody any favours