China ‘sending a signal’ by deploying largest coastguard vessels near Indonesia’s Natuna

Ship tracking data show that the CCG’s leading ship had been patrolling the waters around Indonesia’s resource-rich Natuna Islands

Experts say the move was likely a ‘signal to both Indonesia and Vietnam’ as they finalised talks to delimit their EEZs in the South China Sea

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A Chinese coastguard vessel in the waters around Indonesia’s Natuna Islands. Photo: Indonesian Maritime Security Agency

Published: 8:00am, 12 Jan 2023Updated: 2:08pm, 12 Jan 2023

Beijing’s decision to send its largest coastguard vessels to patrol Indonesia’s Natuna Islands is a bid to “send a signal” to the region as it becomes increasingly assertive in the South China Sea, said regional maritime experts.

Last week, reports citing ship tracking data said the Chinese coastguard’s leading ship had been sailing the waters around the Natunas, located north of Indonesia’s province of Riau Islands.

The CCG 5901, the world’s largest coastguard vessel, reportedly left China’s Sanya port in Hainan Island on December 16 and arrived in Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) on December 30, according to BenarNews and Radio Free Asia citing ship tracker Marine Traffic.

Collin Koh, a research fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said Beijing’s deployment was certainly “to send a signal to both Indonesia and Vietnam”.

It came as both Jakarta and Hanoi finalised their 12-year negotiation to delimit their overlapping EEZs in the South China Sea, Koh said, noting that the pact was instrumental in facilitating Indonesia’s gas exports to Vietnam, under a deal agreed upon in 2017.

“So this development might have come across as rather disconcerting to Beijing, which has counted on intra-Asean divisions and fissures to prevent the emergence of a united front,” Koh said.

The Tuna field is located in the South China Sea between Indonesia and Vietnam’s Tuna block, within Indonesia’s EEZ but also inside the so-called “nine-dash line” that Beijing uses to claim historical rights over around 90 per cent of the disputed South China Sea.

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China ‘sending a signal’ by deploying largest coastguard vessels near Indonesia’s Natuna

Ship tracking data show that the CCG’s leading ship had been patrolling the waters around Indonesia’s resource-rich Natuna Islands Experts say the move was likely a ‘signal to both Indonesia and Vietnam’ as they finalised talks to delimit their EEZs in the South China Sea

Ship tracking data show that the CCG’s leading ship had been patrolling the waters around Indonesia’s resource-rich Natuna Islands

Experts say the move was likely a ‘signal to both Indonesia and Vietnam’ as they finalised talks to delimit their EEZs in the South China Sea