Indonesia is looking to Guam and Hawaii for inspiration as it seeks to develop Natuna Islands into an international geotourist location while fortifying its northernmost borders in the contentious South China Sea at the same time. The Foreign Ministry is currently working to nominate Natuna in Riau Islands province as a UNESCO Global Geopark, said the Foreign Ministry’s Policy Analysis and Development Agency head, Siswo Pramono, on Monday. The effort is being coordinated under the Sustainable Island Development Initiative (SIDI) – a multistakeholder engagement and partnership established by the Foreign Ministry in 2016 – as part of Indonesia’s soft diplomacy over the South China Sea, a resource-rich region that is also one of the world’s busiest maritime trade routes. “Now that Natuna has been named a national geopark [in late 2018], our next ...