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ov. 16, Online

The Indonesian Navy said that the situation in the South China Sea, especially in Natuna regency, Riau Islands, is still secure especially considering that Indonesia is not a claimant in the sea dispute.

The Tanjung Pinang Naval Main Base (Lantamal) commander, Cmdr. Agus Heryana, said recently that
the factual condition in the South China Sea was always safe although there were efforts blowing it out of proportion.

Your comments:

While the assessment that Indonesian security is under no current threat of Chinese claim and aggression is generally true, statements by Commodore Agus Heryana that, '€œIt is OK for China to include it in its claim but as long as there is no endorsement by the United Nations, they cannot do anything,'€ and, '€œThey can claim it but it is not as straight forward as that,'€ are off.

Without UN endorsement, China is still engaging in relentless harassment of the Philippines and Vietnam while advancing their de facto control over the region.

The only reason China has yet to challenge Indonesia is because it already has its hands full with other claimants.

If Indonesia desires to be as opportunistic as Malaysia is, then it would join them in diminishing the actual heightened hostilities throughout the South China Sea and allow China to divide up ASEAN.

China will reward Malaysia, Indonesia and others with short-term gains, diverting investments and business volumes from fellow ASEAN opponents.

The code of conduct negotiations will fail, with China continuing to back-pedaling and ASEAN becoming irrelevant as the Philippines and Vietnam will continue to confront Chinese expansion with external assistance from Australia, Japan, India, South Korea [...] and perhaps, the US.

Mary Hong