![BN-OP684_indose_M_20160623072643[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/ELm5O2p.jpg "BN-OP684_indose_M_20160623072643[1].jpg")
http://www.wsj.com/articles/indonesias-widodo-wades-into-south-china-sea-dispute-1466683527
>JAKARTA, Indonesia—Indonesian President Joko Widodo traveled to the southern end of the South China Sea on Thursday, sending a blunt message to Beijing that his country would assert its sovereignty over waters at the center of a fishing-rights dispute between the two nations.
>Aboard a navy warship near Indonesia’s Natuna islands, which lie between Singapore and Borneo, Mr. Widodo held a meeting with members of his cabinet, discussing issues such as fishing, energy programs and defense plans for the area.
>The cabinet later issued a statement saying that the president’s visit was “an affirmation that the [Natuna] islands are the sovereign territory” of Indonesia.
>Indonesia for years has tried to avoid being dragged into territorial disputes in the region, where countries including China, Vietnam and the Philippines claim all or part of the South China Sea as their own. Tensions have grown steadily in recent years after China began building artificial islands on reefs and atolls it occupies in the area. In the coming weeks a United Nations-backed arbitration court in the Netherlands is expected to rule on a complaint from the Philippines over China’s sweeping territorial claims in the region.
...
>China doesn’t dispute Indonesia’s claim to the Natunas. But it says it has the right to fish in waters near the islands, which are home to nearly 100,000 Indonesians.
>On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that the two sides have overlapping claims “over the maritime interests in some waters of the South China Sea” and expressed hope that Indonesia could meet China “half way” in maintaining stability in the region.
>Indonesia says it has rights to an exclusive, U.N.-defined economic zone extending 200 nautical miles from the islands. There has been a series of recent run-ins between Indonesian authorities and Chinese fishing boats and coast-guard vessels in the area.
>After the first clash in March, Beijing argued that a Chinese fishing trawler was operating in what it called “traditional Chinese fishing grounds,” an argument that was rejected by Indonesia. In the most recent incident, Indonesian maritime forces fired warning shots at Chinese vessels and seized one they said was fishing illegally.
>Earlier this week, Rear Adm. Achmad Taufiqoerrochman, commander of the Indonesian navy’s Western Fleet, said the number of Chinese fishing vessels has risen around the Natunas since March, and the fishing was “an excuse” for China to lay claim to the area ahead of the U.N. tribunal decision.
...
>Until now, Indonesia has largely been measured in speaking about territorial disputes in the South China Sea. It refers to itself as a non-claimant country and has pushed for a long-delayed, regional code of conduct between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Southeast Asia’s 10-member political and economic bloc. At the same time, Indonesia says China’s so-called nine-dash line, a territorial demarcation appearing on some Chinese maps that runs through a wide swath of the South China Sea, has no basis in international law.
>With Thursday’s trip to the Natunas, Mr. Widodo is trying to send two messages, said Ian Storey, a Southeast Asia specialist at the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.
>“One to China that spats over illegal fishing shouldn’t derail Sino-Indonesian relations, and one to [Indonesians], that the government will resolutely defend the country’s sovereignty and maritime rights,” Mr. Storey said. “Ultimately, however, I don’t think Indonesia can continue to maintain the fiction that it is not a party to the South China Sea dispute,” he added.
>Experts in maritime law such as Damos Dumoli Agusman, secretary-general at the Directorate General for Legal Affairs and International Treaties at Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry, also suggest that Indonesia is being drawn into the broader territorial disputes in the region.
>While Indonesia isn’t a direct party to the dispute over who controls the South China Sea, he said, the lack of consensus on maritime delimitations mean that Indonesia is “being dragged into it.”
Get 'em widodo
Seems like China is planning to have these little sea skirmishes indefinitely. I wonder whether ASEAN should consider more military integration.
inb4 china condemns
so essentially the same countries that have been arguing over the same islands and oceans as they have been for thousands of years are arguing over the same islands and oceans as they have been for thousands of years
>>53395
You do understand how far away from mainland China these islands they claim are, right?
>>53399
limeys did it with fucklands
>>53452
That was over 100 years ago.
>>53572
>1980's
>over 100 years ago
what
>>53575
I thought you were talking about The Boxer rebellions
>>53572
Stay in school fool
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War
