Foreign Minister: US Ship in Malacca Strait Part of Freedom of Navigation

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Foreign Minister Sugiono stated that the presence of a United States warship in the Malacca Strait is not something new and forms part of the freedom of navigation in international waters. “I think they usually patrol the area; there is something called a freedom of navigation patrol. This is not something new,” Sugiono said in response to reporters’ questions after a press conference at the Presidential Staff Office (KSP) in Jakarta on Wednesday. This was in response to reports regarding a US-owned vessel crossing the Malacca Strait, which borders the territories of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, on Saturday (18/4). Previously, the Head of the Indonesian Navy’s Information Service, First Admiral TNI Tunggul, stated that the US-owned vessel crossing the Malacca Strait was merely conducting transit or Transit Passage Rights. The Malacca Strait is one of the international shipping lanes and is legally permissible to pass through according to Articles 37, 38, and 38 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which has been ratified by Indonesia. Furthermore, on that occasion, Foreign Minister Sugiono conveyed that his side is still in the process of discussing the US submission for the use of airspace, which remains under discussion. “When speaking about overflight access, it is an intent conveyed by the American side. It will then go through a process and discussion mechanism, what the mechanism is like, and so on in Indonesia,” Sugiono said. He assured that the discussions will consider Indonesia’s sovereignty and national interests as priorities, given that the government has an obligation to protect the Indonesian nation and all of Indonesia’s homeland.