Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelagic country with some 17,000 islands and a vast maritime territory.

The Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister announced in 2018 that it had updated Indonesia’s total territory to span 8.3 million square kilometers, comprising 1.9 sq km of territorial land and 6.4 million sq km of territorial waters.

The latest data was calculated by the Geospatial Information Agency (BIG) and the Hydrography and Oceanography Center (Pushidrosal) of the Indonesian Navy (TNI AL).

The BIG and Pushidrosal calculated that Indonesian had sovereignty over 3.11 million sq km of archipelagic waters and 290,000 sq km of territorial sea. Indonesia also had sovereign right over 3 million sq km of exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

The two institutions also calculated Indonesian territory also covered 270,000 sq km of contiguous zone, the maritime zone that extends 12 nautical miles beyond the territorial sea, while it had a continental shelf that covered about 2.8 million sq km.

The United Nations Statistics Division, however, acknowledges that a country's area only covers its land territory and the total surface of inland freshwater bodies, such as lakes, reservoirs and rivers. The UN Statistics Division states that Indonesia's area is 1.91 million sq km.

With its strategic location between two continents and two oceans, having a strong navy is a must as part of Indonesia’s alutsista (national defense weaponry and systems) to secure and defend its maritime borders. The government decided in the past that it would take advantage of used warships from other countries that had been decommissioned.

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