Jakarta is currently developing the Natuna Islands into a fisheries hub that would be equipped with cold storage facilities and use advanced technology like satellites, drones and radar to assist Indonesian fishermen to earn their livelihoods in the surrounding waters.

The hub is expected to become operational by the end of this year, Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said in a lecture hosted by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

“We would also be providing refueling tankers for our fishing boats […] so no one can claim that [the area is their] traditional fishing zone,” he said during the discussion in Jakarta, in what many interpret as a subtle swipe at foreign state-sponsored poaching in the area.

To populate the hub and support the activities there, Luhut said the government would set up housing for fishermen from the country’s other regions such as Indramayu, Rembang and Tegal on Java island, while the Indonesian Navy would operate the tankers.

He said that while the North Natuna Sea was already a part of Indonesia’s EEZ, local fishermen still did not make up the biggest group in an area that was geographically closer to Malaysia and Vietnam. “Our fishermen are asking for it and we have to facilitate,” he told reporters afterwards.

Two years ago, Indonesia changed the name of the waters around Natuna into the North Natuna Sea, sparking a protest from China. Beijing has made sweeping claims over the South China Sea, which were invalidated by an international tribunal ruling in 2016.

Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims in the disputed waters. Indonesia insists it has no dispute with China, even though Beijing’s quashed claims could overlap with its EEZ.

Indonesia’s claim to the northern waters near the South China Sea is based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which stipulates that as an archipelagic country, Indonesia can claim sovereign rights to a distance of 200 nautical miles from its outermost islands.

The decision to develop the Natunas was one of many points made in Indonesia’s long-awaited Maritime Diplomacy White Paper that was also released on Friday. It was designed to be Indonesia’s long-term guidelines for maritime policy, as mandated in the 2017 presidential regulation on the national sea policy.

The white paper also stated that any effort to delegitimize UNCLOS-based norms would be regarded as an effort to weaken Indonesia’s sovereignty and deprive it of its exclusive rights

“Indonesia will ignore and reject all new narratives, theories or unilateral interpretation of the 1982 UNCLOS such as ‘traditional or historic fishing zone’ theories,” it reads.

Under President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Indonesia has taken a tough stance against illegal fishing, led by a push by Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti, who shot to fame for sinking more than 350 foreign vessels caught poaching in Indonesian waters since 2015.

While most of the perpetrators of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing come from Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, Chinese fishermen were also known for encroaching on the Natunas. In 2016, Indonesia sent an official protest to China for sending coast guard ships to foil an Indonesian attempt to arrest a Chinese fishing vessel found illegally fishing near the islands.

Besides touching on illegal fishing, the 30-page white paper also detailed Indonesia’s Global Maritime Fulcrum (GMF) vision, which was first introduced by President Jokowi at the East Asia Summit in 2014, shortly after he took office.

The policy paper defined Indonesia’s maritime diplomacy efforts as going beyond geostrategic activities such as the deployment of warships and the hosting of military exercises, also including other issues such as climate change and marine resources management.

With his GMF vision, Jokowi pledged to capitalize on Indonesia’s geographic position to make Indonesia a “fulcrum” of Indo-Pacific maritime activity. Indonesia controls four vital sea lanes for international trade and shipping — the Malacca, Sunda, Lombok and Makassar Straits — three of which link together the Indian and Pacific oceans. (tjs)

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