In a joint statement issued by President Prabowo Subianto and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Nov. 9, the two agreed on joint projects “in areas of overlapping claims”. They were alluding to the waters of Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the North Natuna Sea, into which Chinese fishing vessels with Chinese Coast Guard escorts often trespass and are chased out by patrolling Indonesian Navy vessels.

Two days after the statement was released, the Foreign Ministry in Jakarta said it did not mean Indonesia accepted China’s maritime claims in the area.

For years, our diplomats have painstakingly insisted that, unlike other Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia does not have any territorial dispute in the South China Sea. The North Natuna Sea falls under Indonesia’s jurisdiction, and they say that international law does not recognize the “traditional fishing grounds” that China has invoked as the basis for its claims to the waters. This is a diplomatic strategy to avoid being forced to sit down and negotiate a resolution with Beijing.

The reality on the ground, or should we say on the water, is very different. There have been skirmishes between the Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla) and the Chinese Coast Guard, and they have been happening with greater frequency. In the week of Prabowo’s Oct. 20 inauguration, Chinese fishing boats trespassed into Indonesian waters on at least three occasions, with Bakamla chasing them out each time.

You can’t blame the military, whose job it is to defend the country’s territorial integrity, for seeing real danger in these skirmishes, even as diplomats keep denying any dispute with China.

Prabowo, himself a former Army general and defense minister prior to becoming President, was using a security rather than diplomatic lens when he agreed to discuss joint development in the area.