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November 20, 2024 | 06:03 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia, Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir, responds to the joint leaders’ statement between Indonesia and China on joint development, alluding to the “areas of overlapping claims” in the South China Sea.
Kamala said on Wednesday that the U.S. supports Indonesia and its neighboring countries in addressing the South China Sea within the framework of international law as stipulated in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Kamala mentioned that this commitment was also discussed during the meeting between President Prabowo Subianto and President Joe Biden on Tuesday, November 12, in Washington DC.
She said Biden and other senior U.S. officials are committed to supporting a free and open Indo-Pacific.
“And, we support Indonesia's sovereignty over its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ),” Kamala said.
Prabowo’s foreign stop to China on November 9 sparked controversy over the joint statement between the head of state and China’s Xi Jinping. Experts in international law and international relations viewed the joint statement as a setback in Indonesia's diplomacy in the South China Sea.
In one of the nine points in the joint statement, Indonesia-China reached a crucial agreement to have joint development in areas of overlapping claims.
As reported by Tempo newspaper, Hikmahanto Juwana, a professor of international law at the University of Indonesia (UI), questioned whether the overlapping claims cited related to China’s unilateral claim on the Ten Dash Line (previously known as the Nine Dash Line) overlapping with Indonesia's EEZ in North Natuna.
If so, said Hikmahanto, it signaled a fundamental change to Indonesia’s policy on China’s territorial claim, which will impact the geopolitical climate in the region.
China claims approximately 90 percent of the South China Sea, first articulated in 1948 through the depiction of eleven dashes on their map that extended close to Vietnam in the east, the Philippines in the west, and Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam in the south.
Over time, the number of dashes has varied from nine, ten, to eleven. However, the international community recognizes it as the nine-dash line.
This unilateral claim over the waters is based on traditional Chinese fishery grounds. UNCLOS—including Indonesia and China as two of the 168 participants—does not recognize the claim. In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled that the claim had no legal basis under international law.
Reza Maulana contributed to the writing of this article.
Editor’s Choice: Indonesia to Respond Appropriately to South China Sea Incidents, Official Says
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