Indonesia sends note to China over Natuna case
Indonesia sends note to China over Natuna case
JAKARTA (JP): A foreign ministry official confirmed yesterday reports that Indonesia has sent a diplomatic note concerning China's inclusion of the Natuna islands in its maps.
Also yesterday, Air Force Commander Marshall Rilo Pambudi, said air patrols in the Natuna area would be intensified.
The Director of Asia and Pacific Affairs, Kusnadi Pudjiwinarto, told journalists that the note had been sent to the Chinese government "some time ago".
Following a discussion at Jayabaya University, Kusnadi told journalists who asked him about the diplomatic note that Beijing had yet to reply.
"I don't know why (Beijing has not replied)," he remarked.
During the Air Force's 49th anniversary celebrations at Halim Perdana Kusuma airport, Pambudi asserted that the air force would step up its patrols in the Natuna area.
"Especially since a mega project is being built there, ABRI (the armed forces) has prepared for its safekeeping," Rilo said.
He added that the air force has already conducted routine patrols over the area but now "the intensity will continually be increased."
Beijing has claimed a section of the Natuna seabed located some 250 kilometers north of Natuna Besar island.
Sandwiched between western Kalimantan and the Malaysian peninsula, the Natuna islands are about 1,100 kilometers north of Jakarta.
The area promises to be an economic gold mine with an estimated deposit of recoverable natural gas at some 45 trillion cubic feet.
The state-owned oil company Pertamina and American oil giant Exxon in a US$35 billion deal have agreed to jointly develop the gas field. When completed, the Natuna will become the largest offshore natural gas project in the Asia Pacific.
Indonesia has already begun trying to market the gas to countries, like South Korea which has already showed a keen interest in purchasing Liquefied Natural Gas from the Natuna gas field.
Workshop
According to Kusnadi, the Indonesian government first learned of the incorporation in 1993 when a Chinese delegate attending the fourth South China Sea workshop in Surabaya, East Java, exhibited a map of China's territorial claim in Southeast Asia which touched the northern tip of the Natuna area.
However, until now Beijing remain silent on the issue and it has only been through the press and expert views that the issue has been raised.
Indonesia has been facilitating an annual workshop aiming at cooling down tensions on the overlapping claims of the Spratly and Paracel islands which are disputed among six countries -- China, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
Tension between China and the Philippines began to broil recently when Chinese warships took control of Mischeef Reef which Manila claims.
When asked whether the issue was discussed during the recent ASEAN-China dialog in Beijing, Kusnadi replied that it was only touched on.
It's better to discuss it bilaterally, Kusnadi said.
He said that Beijing's claim is based on historical principals, a principal which Kusnadi remarked should have been long discarded.
Though he did not recommend any remedies, Kusnadi felt that one possible option was to seek mutual development of the area in order to ease tensions. (mds)