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Indonesia seeks border extension in bid to bolster mineral reserves
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The Indonesian delegation to the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, Geneva, 1958. Ahmad Subardjo Djoyoadisuryo is third from left and Mochtar Kusumaatmadja third from right. (Indonesian Spectator, 1 April 1958/File)
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ndonesia will seek to prove it has legal and exclusive rights to waters beyond 200 nautical miles north of Papua province when it makes its case at the United Nations this week in a bid to expand its territory in search of potential mineral reserves.
Having submitted its claim over an extended continental shelf area to the UN Commission on the Limit of the Continental Shelf (UNCLCS) in April last year, the government will make its case at a hearing with the UN body in New York, the United States, this Wednesday.
According to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the continental shelf is an area of the seabed and any layer of subsoil underneath the water column where a country could exercise its sovereign right to explore and exploit natural and biological resources.
Countries have the right to extend their continental shelf border beyond the prescribed 200 nautical miles of an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) if the area does not border other countries, according to UNCLOS, but the claim must be scientifically proven and approved by the UN body in charge.
Based on figures and a statement from the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister, which will be leading the charge, Indonesia could claim in the northern segment of Papua province an additional continental shelf area of approximately 196,568 square kilometers – bigger than the island of Sulawesi.
"What are our interests? If we can get this, we may still find minerals or other resources that future generations can then exploit in the next 10 to 15 years,” Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said on Friday evening as quoted by Antara news agency.
Luhut said that even though he did not have any precise data on hand, the untapped mineral potential in the area could be enormous.
