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ndonesia will push for stronger cooperation in maritime security during the upcoming gathering of ASEAN heads of state in Laos, Foreign Ministry officials have said. The push comes amid cases of Indonesians being kidnapped in the region’s waters alongside other ongoing tensions.

“We will emphasize the importance of maritime cooperation at the summit, especially the implementation of the EAS [East Asia Summit] statement initiated by Indonesia,” said Derry Aman, the Foreign Ministry’s ASEAN dialogue partner and inter-regional cooperation director, on Thursday.

Derry was referring to last November’s joint statement released by the 18 heads of state in Kuala Lumpur, which among other things, encouraged “more countries to accede to the 1982 UNCLOS”, the UN Convention on the Laws of the Sea.

Apart from Indonesia, the statement’s co-sponsors included China and the US, both of whom have not ratified the UNCLOS.

China does not recognize the July 12 ruling issued by the international court of arbitration at The Hague, which dismissed China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea (SCS). It has been reported that China and Russia — also a signatory to the 2015 EAS statement — are planning joint military drills in the SCS.

Indonesia continues to cooperate with Philippine authorities to free nine hostages recently kidnapped in two different kidnapping cases in the waters off the southern Philippines and Malaysia.

Chandra Yuda, the Ministry’s ASEAN political security director, said the gathering from Sept. 6-8 in Vientiane would take place while developments in the region would continue to “attract a lot of attention.”

The events will include the “back-to-back” 28th and 29th summits, including a “leaders’ retreat”, the 25th ASEAN–China anniversary, the next EAS, separate meetings of ASEAN with the other leaders and the ASEAN Regional Forum on political and security issues.

The Forum will likely focus on the Korean peninsula following North Korea’s latest submarine-launched ballistic missile test on Wednesday.

Chandra said the events would not specifically discuss the planned Code of Conduct (COC) in the SCS to follow up on the 2002 Declaration of the Code of Conduct signed by ASEAN and China.

“However, heads of state will offer their views on what should be done to speed up the completion of the COC,” Chandra said. Indonesian officials have said Indonesia aims to have the COC completed by next year. Late last month ASEAN foreign ministers jointly stated that the UNCLOS should be the reference point for disputes in the region’s waters.

Both officials said the ministry was urging President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to highlight a “resilient and relevant” ASEAN during the summits.

The ministry has acknowledged that ordinary citizens have yet to feel that ASEAN is relevant to their daily lives.

Derry and Chandra said the summits were the first to be held since the official establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) last December. The AEC aims to boost the welfare and growth of member countries. However, guidelines and requirements for cross-border jobseekers within ASEAN are still being developed.

Derry said the first ever ASEAN-Australia summit would review the strategic partnership between ASEAN member states and Australia. (vny)