TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Ministry to highlight Asia’s contribution to international law
Amid heightened rivalry between the world's superpowers, Indonesia aims to highlight the role of a rules-based system across Asia, whose contributions to international law and norm-setting might have otherwise gone unnoticed, a senior Foreign Ministry official has said
Change Size
A
span>Amid heightened rivalry between the world's superpowers, Indonesia aims to highlight the role of a rules-based system across Asia, whose contributions to international law and norm-setting might have otherwise gone unnoticed, a senior Foreign Ministry official has said.
"Conventionally, international law is always seen as something Western and other countries often feel like they are marginalized. But developments in the 20th century show that Asian countries have made major contributions to international law,” said Damos Agusman, the ministry’s director general for legal affairs and international treaties in Jakarta on Thursday.
Damos said that over the course of history, Asian countries like Indonesia had made significant contributions to the development of international law, from the Asia-Africa Conference that gave birth to anti-colonial norms and led to the independence of African nations in the 1940s, to efforts leading to the passing of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which provided a legal basis for archipelagic and island nations’ territorial rights.
This and Asia’s other significant contributions to international law are set to be further discussed at the International Conference on the Development of International Law in Asia (DILA), which the Indonesian government will host in Jakarta on Oct. 15 and 16.
The event will gather a number of international legal experts from Indonesia and abroad to discuss various developments in international law in Asia, as well as the region’s contributions to international norms and the application of international law at the national level.
High on that list will be the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, which Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi is expected to raise when she delivers a keynote speech to inaugurate the event.
“[Indonesia’s] most recent contribution is the idea of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, which specifically mentions the respect for international law as one of its principles,” Damos told reporters at a pre-event press gathering.
Adopted by ASEAN leaders in late June, the outlook lays out the bloc’s geostrategic concept for the Indo-Pacific and emphasizes its own centrality amid competition among major powers.
In addition to respect for international law, such as the UN Charter, UNCLOS and other relevant UN and ASEAN treaties, the five-page document also highlights the principles of ASEAN centrality, openness, transparency, inclusivity and a rules-based framework.
The ASEAN outlook is one of many strategic concepts for a framework that underpins the area straddling the Indian and Pacific oceans, which vary depending on geopolitical interests. The term “Indo-Pacific” gained steam again after United States President Donald Trump used it in 2017, and more countries have set their sights on the region by pushing their own definition.
Observers believe the concept — especially among the US and its allies — is primarily aimed at containing China, although ASEAN insists on including everyone in the wider region.
Damos said the superpower rivalry between the US and China was unavoidable, warning that competition may escalate if other countries did not call for the respect of a rules-based order.
The US-China rivalry is framed not only by the ongoing trade war that has curbed global growth and seeded uncertainty across Asia’s economies, but is also simmering on other critical fronts.
In recent months, Washington has doubled down on putting political pressure on Beijing, whether through its criticism on the plight of Uighur Muslims, continued support for Hong Kong and Taiwan or its insistence on free passage through the disputed South China Sea.
Meanwhile, China is slowly succeeding in its landmark Belt and Road Initiative in the absence of an American alternative, having fashioned itself as the unlikely defender of globalization while gleefully standing by as a scandal-ridden White House comes under siege.
“Indonesia always emphasizes that [superpowers] may compete in trade or other fields, but they must also follow the rules so we don't ignore existing norms. This is what Indonesia and the rest of ASEAN have to offer, especially regarding, of course, the South China Sea,” Damos said.
The resource-rich waters, which is one of the world’s busiest maritime trade routes, lies at the heart of a decades-long dispute between China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and the Philippines.
As the ministry’s legal expert, he said that UNCLOS was an unavoidable solution to the territorial disputes and that Indonesia would continue to push for its implementation to prevent tensions from further flaring.
“It’s the only effective measure of international law, and the ASEAN Outlook has it as one of its principles,” he said. “Whatever the case that is symptomatic in Asia, the respect for international law, including UNCLOS, is essential in the case of the South China Sea.” (tjs)
