Indonesia emphasises strengthening maritime cooperation with China
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, Djamari Chaniago, has emphasised that Indonesia will continue to push for the strengthening of cooperation in priority maritime sectors with China.
“In the maritime sector, Indonesia sees vast opportunities to strengthen positive cooperation with China,” said Djamari during his speech at the celebration of China’s 77th National Day in Jakarta on Tuesday evening.
As the world’s largest archipelagic nation, Indonesia has significant interests in ensuring a maritime region that is safe, peaceful, stable, and beneficial for cooperation and sustainable development, the Minister stated.
He reminded that the maritime sector is one of the five main pillars of the Indonesia-China partnership, which also comprises the pillars of politics, economy, people-to-people relations, and security.
With the maritime sector serving as a key pillar of the partnership, Indonesia must continue to build maritime connectivity and pursue joint measures to respond to increasingly complex future challenges.
“Maritime cooperation needs to be continuously directed towards strengthening maritime safety and security, connectivity, marine environmental protection, and the development of the blue economy,” he added.
According to Djamari, the maritime cooperation pursued by Indonesia with China holds an extremely important position in achieving peace and stability in the region.
He expressed hope that the partnership with China “can continue to provide a positive contribution to the creation of a peaceful, stable, inclusive, and prosperous region”.
However, he cautioned that cooperation in this field must remain based on respect for the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, equality, mutual benefit, and non-interference in each other’s domestic affairs.
In another part of his statement, the Coordinating Minister emphasised that Indonesia is also continuing to strengthen its security partnership with China through increased concrete cooperation that can enhance mutual trust between the two parties.
“Indonesia will continue to encourage the strengthening of cooperation in the fields of law enforcement, information exchange, capacity building, as well as the prevention and eradication of transnational crime,” he said.
Other defence and security sectors that will continue to be strengthened with China include cyber security, counter-terrorism, and joint coordination in addressing other non-traditional security challenges, Djamari noted.