Australia pushes for RI sea-lane access
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian and Australian officials yesterday finished their two days of talks on the opening of archipelagic sea lanes, including an East-West passage in the Java Sea, for international ship traffic.
"Much of Australia's trade and our naval deployments use the Indonesian archipelago and our interest is to see that these interests are reflected in the Indonesian archipelagic sea lanes proposal," said A.L. Vincent, who led the Australian delegation in the meetings here yesterday.
Among the passages being requested by Canberra is an East-West lane in addition to the North-South passages already defined by Jakarta.
After having its archipelagic concept recognized in the 1982 United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea, Indonesia is now in the process of defining a number of sea lanes for the passage of international ships.
Three North-South passages have been identified, but there is a strong lobby from Australia, Britain and the U.S. to include an East-West sea lane along the Java sea.
According to officials, the three North-South passages designated are the sea lane across the Karimata and Sunda straits, the Makassar and Lombok straits, and through the Maluku Sea towards the Arafura Sea.
A designated sea lane would allow foreign ships to pass with fewer constraints than if they used the "innocent passage" rule.
The head of the Indonesian delegation at the meeting, Hasyim Djalal, said that the designation of archipelagic sea lanes will have little impact on commercial ships, which have always navigated through Indonesian waters using the innocent passage rule.
The sea lanes are essentially for warships, said Hasyim, who is Indonesia's ambassador-at-large on law of the sea.
He stressed that despite the existence of the archipelagic sea lanes, Indonesia has no intention of forbidding the innocent passage of foreign ships.
Among the luxuries given by sea lanes not afforded in innocent passage is the ability of foreign submarines to remain submerged without surfacing and showing their flags while passing through Indonesian waters.
Sea lanes also allow for the fly over passage of shipboard aircraft.
At the end of yesterday's meeting Hasyim said Jakarta would study the arguments presented at the meeting. Another meeting is tentatively scheduled in June.
Last month Indonesia also held consultations with the United States in Bandung, West Java.
Vincent, however, strongly denied the suggestion that Australia's interests in such a passage were more military than commercial,
While acknowledging the naval interests, Vincent described an East-West sea lane as "a confidence-building measure for our commercial shipping."
Later on, Vincent told The Jakarta Post that archipelagic sea lanes in essence contain valuable rights for shipping.
"I think shippers have it very much in mind that they would like to ensure that the lane Indonesia designates does recognize the maze presently followed by shipping going through the archipelago," said Vincent, who is a legal advisor to the Australian foreign ministry.
Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas, after meeting his Australian counterpart last week, said that among the problems of opening an East-West sea lane is the shallowness of the Java Sea and the fact that it is laden with underwater cables. (mds)