Another workshop on South China Sea here

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is to host next week the latest round of regional workshop discussing cooperation in the South China Sea, which it sees as a potential flashpoint given the multitude of overlapping territorial claims in the area.

The five-day workshop, "Managing Potential Conflicts in the South China Sea", will open at Pacet, a resort in the Puncak hills just outside Jakarta, on Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas will address the forum, comprising officials, scholars and experts, on Wednesday.

This will be the 8th such gathering since Indonesia hosted the first one in Bali in 1990. Since then, the workshop has been held annually in different places, but never in Jakarta to reflect the informality of the meeting. Even officials taking part are attending in their private capacities

Bandung, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Bukittinggi, Balikpapan and Batam have all hosted the event.

Some of the countries taking part have been calling on host Indonesia to turn the meeting into a formal gathering, but given that all decisions must be based on consensus, the proposal has been rejected by the floor.

The workshop evolved out of the overlapping territorial claims by China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei over the Spratly Islands, which straddle the center of the South China Sea. Besides its strategic location, the area is also believed to be rich in hydrocarbon reserves.

Indonesia has been acting as an "honest broker" in the conflict, believing cooperation among countries bordering the sea could reduce the likelihood of conflict as they negotiate their way out of the territorial dispute by peaceful means.

Besides Indonesia and the six countries with territorial conflicts, other participants will come from Cambodia, Laos, Singapore and Thailand.

In addition to confidence-building measures, the workshop has already started to develop various cooperation programs in navigation and shipping, in scientific research cooperation, in studying natural resources, in marine environmental protection and in marine legal matters, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The workshop is jointly organized by the ministry's Agency for Research and Development, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies and the Informal Working Group on the South China Sea at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The Canadian International Development Agency is also sponsoring the event. (emb)