RI will be tough on Ambalat: President
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 06/02/2009 9:33 AM
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Tuesday that Indonesia would not bargain with Malaysia over the disputed oil-rich Ambalat territory but would solve the problem through diplomatic channels.
“The solution to the Indonesia-Malaysia dispute should be made through precise and unyielding diplomatic strategy.
“We will not accept any claim by Malaysia over Ambalat,” he said to journalists after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-South Korean Commemorative Summit in Jeju Island, as quoted by kompas.com.
The President said he would meet with Malaysian leaders and had proposed intensive talks on the disputed border area issue.
Ambalat is a maritime area located off the east Kalimantan coast, which both Indonesia and Malaysia claim as their own.
Indonesia recently accused Malaysian battleships of entering Indonesian territorial waters surrounding Ambalat. Malaysian naval ships have trespassed into the disputed zone several times. According to the TNI, this was the ninth time Malaysia had breached the border in 2009.
Yudhoyono said that he had ordered the Indonesian Military chief Gen. Djoko Santoso and Air Force chief of staff Marshall Subandrio to boost security measures in Ambalat.
The dispute over the maritime block, believed to be rich in oil and gas, has been raising tensions between Indonesia and Malaysia since the 1980s. (dre)
| 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|