Indonesia finds itself in the crux of an emerging Indo-Pacific order, the region straddling the Indian and Pacific oceans, which has become a major global engine of growth and the site of major maritime trade routes.

In an era of competing maritime interests, the country has been setting aside resources to consolidate its territorial integrity, in accordance with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s vision of the Global Maritime Fulcrum.

Efforts to transform the world’s largest archipelagic nation into a credible maritime power include affirming sovereign rights and maritime borders in accordance with international law.

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Indonesian Ambassador to the UN in New York, the United States, Dian Triansyah Djani, submitted the documents on Monday to the UN’s Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), outlining Indonesia’s claim to an area located beyond 200 nautical miles from Sumatra’s coastline.

The area in question covers 211,397 square kilometers in the southwest of Sumatra near the Investigator Fracture Zone and Wharton Fossil Region, some of the distinct topographic features of that underwater region.

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 underwater where a country may exercise its sovereign right to explore and exploit the natural and biological resources within.

The convention stipulates that 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 on other countries.

However, countries that make the submissions, including Indonesia, would have to prove to the CLCS that it has legal and exclusive rights in the claimed area.

The government had set up a national team to oversee the process of such border delineation practices up until the UN hands down its final recommendation.

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The team brings together representatives from the Foreign Ministry, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, the Transportation Ministry and the Maritime and Fisheries Affairs Ministry, as well as various state agencies under the Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Ministry.

Facing the vast Indian Ocean, most of the western coast of Sumatra does not border with any other country and as such, is not likely to face any objections.

If Monday’s submission is accepted, Indonesia would gain an area of the continental shelf that is twice the size of the island of Java, according to a statement from the Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Ministry.

“This submission proves that despite the pandemic in 2020, the national team continues to work to successfully complete its desktop studies, bathymetry surveys and compiling all documents for the Indonesian government's submission for this southwestern segment of Sumatra,” the ministry stated.

The submission is Indonesia’s second on the Sumatran side; the first outlined its claim to an extension of the continental shelf near Aceh province on the northwestern side of Sumatra, jutting into the Indian Ocean. It was submitted in 2008 and recognized by the UN in 2011.

The 2008 claims were submitted just before the end of a 10-year deadline since the UNCLCS finished drafting its guidelines for submission in 1999.

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Last year, Indonesia also submitted claims to waters beyond 200 nautical miles north of Papua province, which borders on several countries in the South Pacific – Palau, Micronesia and Papua New Guinea – that have submitted their own claims in the same general area.