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View all search resultsAnalysis: Joint development only win-win option for Ambalat
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Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (right) greets President Prabowo Subianto (left) upon the latter's arrival at Rumah Tangsi tourism and cultural center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Jan. 9, 2025. Prabowo visited Anwar in Kuala Lumpur to discuss various bilateral and regional issues. (Handout/Prime Minister's Office of Malaysia/Afiq Hambali)
J
akarta is right in pushing Kuala Lumpur to join hands in developing the disputed, mineral-rich maritime area located east of Borneo in the Sulawesi Sea. Though the latter does not appear to be all that keen about the idea, it has not completely rejected it.
Officially, the two countries still place their faith in diplomacy to resolve the dispute over the maritime boundaries in the area, which Indonesia calls the Ambalat Sea, a subset of the Sulawesi Sea, and Malaysia insists on calling it part of the Sulawesi Sea.
Although negotiations over the maritime demarcation have been going on for decades now, the idea of joint development is slowly gaining traction as an intermediate solution. For historical reasons, neither is interested in international arbitration, and no one is contemplating the only other option to settle the territorial dispute: war.
President Prabowo Subianto and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim discussed the long-standing border issue on July 29 during the Indonesia-Malaysia annual consultation in Jakarta. Although their joint statement following the meeting made no mention of developing the maritime area together, both leaders addressed the issue at the subsequent media briefing.
An Indonesian official said the matter was deliberately omitted from the statement because the idea was still in an early stage, and the two governments had yet to agree on certain technical aspects. But government sources also said domestic politics on both sides had affected their decision to not commit anything to writing for now.
Although the dispute goes back to the 1970s, it came to a head in the 2000s when Indonesia gave concessions to Italian energy company ENI and the United States’ Unocal for oil and gas exploration in the Ambalat Sea. Meanwhile, Malaysia gave an overlapping concession to the Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell. It is not clear how far along the three companies are in their explorations, but the issue’s resurfacing has certainly put the brakes on their activities and with it, tensions between the two neighbors.
In their joint statement, Prabowo and Anwar said they discussed the mutual need for diplomacy to finalize the delineation of their shared terrestrial border on Borneo, between North Kalimantan and Sabah state, and their wider maritime borders.
