Alatas says no to talks on South China Sea border
Alatas says no to talks on South China Sea border
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas dismissed
yesterday an offer from a Chinese official to discuss border
delineation in the South China Sea, saying that Indonesia and
China did not share any border in the area.
"We welcome the spirit of the Chinese statement as expressed
through its spokesman. But Indonesia does not feel that it has a
problem about delineation of a sea border with China," Alatas
said after meeting with President Soeharto at the Bina Graha
presidential office.
"We don't feel the need to delineate a sea border because we
do not share a border with China," he said.
He was commenting on a report from Beijing last week according
to which a Chinese foreign affairs spokesman, Chen Jian, stressed
that China did not have any claim on Indonesia's Natuna Islands
in the South China Sea. Chen was quoted as saying, however, that
China was willing to hold talks with Indonesia in order to settle
demarcation in the area.
Last year, Indonesia sent a diplomatic note immediately after
it found that an official Chinese map located Natuna on the
Chinese side of the "broken lines", leaving the impression that
the islands fell within Beijing's territory.
Alatas said yesterday that Indonesia had not received any
official response from Beijing to its note querying the meaning
of the broken lines. "Let's have that answer first," he said in
relation to the Chinese offer of border talks.
The minister said that, as far as Indonesia was concerned, the
Chinese frontier ended well to the north of Indonesia's
territory.
Indonesia had, he added, settled its borders to the east and
west of Natuna with Malaysia, and was currently negotiating to
settle a demarcation line with Vietnam.
The area around the Natunas, regarded Indonesia's northern
frontier, is rich in gas reserves and a $40 billion extraction
project is currently underway.
Alatas reported to President Soeharto yesterday on a series of
overseas trips he is planning to make soon.
The foreign minister leaves for Cambodia today for his first
trip to that country since it held its first post-civil war
general elections two years ago. He will be there until June 29.
Indonesia played a crucial role in the long negotiations that
led to the end of the war in Cambodia in 1991.
Alatas said he would travel to Geneva on July 8 for a sixth
round of meetings with his Portuguese counterpart and United
Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali regarding the
status of East Timor.
The results of the recent dialog in Austria between East
Timorese leaders on both sides of the conflict would also be
reviewed in Geneva, he said. (emb)