On US Warship in Malacca Strait, Foreign Minister: Normal, Regional Patrol
Foreign Minister of Indonesia Sugiono stated that the United States warship is in the Malacca Strait to conduct patrols in the area.
“I think it’s normal, patrolling the region,” Sugiono said at the Presidential Staff Office in the Presidential Palace Complex, Jakarta, on Wednesday (22/4/2026).
According to Sugiono, such patrols are not new as they fall under the principle of Freedom of Navigation Patrol.
“There is something called Freedom of Navigation Patrol. It’s not new, not something new,” he explained.
Head of the Indonesian Navy Information Service, First Admiral Tunggul, stated that based on monitoring from the Automatic Identification System (AIS), the US warship USS Miguel Keith was detected in the waters east of Belawan on Saturday (18/4/2026) around 3:00 PM WIB.
“Based on the monitoring results from the published Automatic Identification System (AIS) device, it is true that USS Miguel Keith was monitored on AIS at 3:00 PM WIB in the waters east of Belawan, heading northwest at a speed of 13.1 knots (18/4/2026),” Tunggul told Kompas.com on Saturday.
Tunggul explained that the US warship was exercising the right of transit passage in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), specifically Articles 37, 38, and 39.
“The US warship was conducting navigation, namely the Right of Transit Passage in accordance with Articles 37, 38, and 39 of UNCLOS 1982, passing through the Malacca Strait, which is a strait used for international navigation connecting the high seas/EEZ,” he explained.
However, Tunggul did not respond to whether the activity was related to a specific military operation, such as those linked to the issue of hunting Iranian tankers.
Previously, international media reports emerged stating that the US military would expand operations to hunt tankers linked to Iran into the Indo-Pacific region, including areas around the Malacca Strait.
The statement was made by US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, who said they would conduct maritime interdiction activities against ships suspected of involvement in illegal oil transportation.