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Toward Indo-Pacific maritime cooperation
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Members of the Indonesian Navy monitor the situation on board the KAL Maribaya during a maritime patrol in Tegal, Central Java, on May. 30. (Antara/Oky Lukmansyah)
T
he Indo-Pacific notion refers to the Asian countries bordering on the Indian Ocean and on the Pacific Ocean. The 10 ASEAN countries, located either on the mainland or the maritime areas of Asia, are in the center between the Indian and the Pacific Ocean.
It is therefore not surprising that the ASEAN countries are the center and the backbone as well as the driving force of political, scientific, economic and security-related developments of the region.
Since its inception in 2005, the East Asia Summit (EAS) has emerged as an annual forum for leaders of 18 countries, namely the 10 ASEAN countries together with China, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India, the US and Russia. The 10th EAS in Kuala Lumpur in November 2015 stressed the importance of enhancing regional maritime cooperation and tasked their officials with making this a priority area of EAS cooperation.
Indonesia has emphasized on a number of occasions the need to promote maritime cooperation, particularly among the countries bordering on the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has proclaimed a new “maritime axis” doctrine in his policies, which rests on five pillars, namely: 1. developing a maritime culture in Indonesia, 2. protecting and managing national maritime resources, 3. building and developing maritime infrastructure and connectivity, 4. developing maritime cooperation through diplomacy and 5. beefing up maritime defense and security.
I personally noted that the Indonesian vision of maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific area should foster cooperative relations in the region, including with China, which also pursues its “maritime silk road vision”. At the same time, India has also been looking more intensively toward the East and has upgraded its “look East” policy to a more active “act East” policy.
Thus, to my mind, it should be possible to work out cooperative relations between the Indonesian “maritime axis” policy, the Chinese “maritime silk road” vision and the Indian “act East” policy outlook. It should be noted and remembered that Indonesia has a very long history of relationship and connectivity with both India and China.
We should all strive to make the maritime fields areas of cooperation rather than confrontation between states in the Indo-Pacific region.
In that context, the EAS could do a lot to promote a spirit of cooperation, and the more advanced or developed countries in the region should be able and willing to help the less developed countries develop their maritime vision and take advantage of their maritime resources in a sustainable and cooperative manner.
It is true that there have been numerous cooperative mechanisms in the area, either governmental Track 1 activities, such as through APEC and Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), and various special organizations that operate in the area with regard to fisheries, and various special academic and second-track initiatives in many countries around the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
These various fora, including 1.5-track initiatives like the Informal Workshop Process on Managing Potential Conflicts in the South China Sea, need to continue their efforts and activities on cooperation that could contribute to EAS policies to develop maritime activities and policies in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Certain EAS countries have achieved very significant progress in science and technology with regard to the exploration and exploitation of maritime resources, such as minerals in the deep Indian and Pacific Oceans as well as on ocean energy.
These achievements should be able to help the less developed EAS countries increase their understanding on science and technology as well as their capacity to explore and exploit the maritime resources within their jurisdictions and beyond, for the benefit of their own people in a peaceful, constructive and cooperative manner.
There are many problems in the Indo-Pacific region, including territorial and jurisdictional disputes, or potential disputes, that may hamper cooperative endeavors due to the “deficit of trust” that may have developed in the region.
I hope, however, that the parties concerned in the disputes or potential disputes will work hard to seek solutions to their problems and, wherever and whenever considered necessary, the EAS could help in this endeavor, either formally or informally.
I personally feel that the Atlantic Ocean was the ocean of the past, the Pacific Ocean is the ocean of the present and the Indian Ocean is the ocean of the future. I believe the Pacific and the Indian Ocean are now already becoming the oceans of the present as well as the oceans of the future for mankind.
I also think cooperation on efforts to implement Indonesia’s “maritime axis”, China’s “maritime silk road” and India’s “act East” policy could work for the benefit of peace, stability and development in the Indo-Pacific countries and region.
In this context, it is interesting to note that ASEAN countries, either separately or collectively, have done a lot to promote cooperative relations in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean regions, particularly Indonesia.
India is the biggest and one of the most influential Indian Ocean countries and the only country from south Asia participating in the EAS. In addition, India has been pursuing a policy to engage more actively with Southeast Asia and the East Asian countries through its “look East” policy, which now has been elevated to the “act East” policy.
India and Indonesia have also worked together on developing cooperation among the non-aligned countries and developing countries, and on the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea to formulate and implement UNCLOS 1982.
Finally, it should be emphasized that the trilateral initiatives among India, Indonesia and China should be regarded as promoting cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region within the EAS context, without implying any confrontational attitude toward other countries and EAS participants.
In fact, it should be regarded as efforts by the three countries to promote some specific ideas enunciated by the EAS, particularly on developing ASEAN connectivity and enhancing food security through sustainable fisheries and marine environmental protection. This includes fighting against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing) in the Seas around them.
If in the 1950s the three countries were instrumental in forging the Asian-African Conference from Bandung and supporting in independence and the liberation of the Asian-African region, I believe they can and should forge similar cooperation in maritime affairs in the Indo-Pacific region.
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The writer is a professor of law of the sea. The essence of this article was presented at a workshop at the China Institute for International Studies (CIIS) in Beijing in April and at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in Shimla in July.
