The workshop was conducted just several weeks after several incidents related to maritime safety and security took place in Indonesian waters.

Held virtually at Bakamla’s office in Rawamangun, East Jakarta, on Tuesday, the workshop took the theme Maritime Operational Threat Response (MOTR) 2021, Bakamla said in a media statement on Wednesday.

“The training’s aim is to prepare all Bakamla personnel on how to act swiftly and properly,” said Bakamla chief spokesman Col. Wisnu Pramandita.

“It is not only seen from the perspective of security and safety of a ship and its crew but also oftentimes, overlaps with state sovereignty.”

Bakamla and the USCG conducted the MOTR training because challenges in the maritime sector have been increasing, such as illegal, unreported and undocumented fishing, people smuggling and the trafficking of drugs and other types of contraband, Wisnu added.

The training was led by USCG senior maritime adviser Jim Duval and Global Maritime Operational Threat Response Coordination Center deputy director Brian Wilson, who presented guidance and the best practices on how to treat maritime incidents.

The training was supported by the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) Bureau of the US State Department through the US Embassy in Jakarta.

Earlier on Jan. 13, US Ambassador to Jakarta Sung Kim paid a courtesy call to Bakamla chief Vice Adm. Aan Kurnia at Bakamla headquarters on Jl. Proklamasi, Central Jakarta.

Kim, who was accompanied by the embassy’s political officer, Lorenzo New, and his assistant Evan Fowler, introduced himself as the new US ambassador to Indonesia.

Kim presented his credential letters to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Oct. 21, 2020.

Aan appreciated the good cooperation between the USCG and Bakamla in the past five years to improve the agency’s personnel, such as various training and courses for ship crews and maritime safety and security monitoring station officers, as well as port visits of USCG Cutter Stratton in July and August 2019.

The Bakamla chief also expected more concrete cooperation on information exchange on maritime incidents between the Indonesian Maritime Information Center (IMIC) with the USCG information center (INL).

There have been a number of maritime incidents in Indonesian waters lately involving foreign vessels and unidentified unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV).

In late December 2020, a fisherman in Selayar Islands regency, South Sulawesi, found a UUV the Indonesian Navy believes to be a sea glider that collects various oceanic data that can be both for commercial and defense purposes.

The sea glider’s origin could not be determined and a further inspection was needed, Navy chief of staff Adm. Yudo Margono said during a press conference on Jan. 4.

On Jan. 15, Bakamla chased off Vietnamese fisheries surveillance ship Kiem Ngu 215 south of the continental shelf on the North Natuna Sea.

 

Bakamla patrol boat KN Tanjung Datu 301 approached and contacted the Kiem Ngu 215 through radio. The Vietnamese vessel admitted being inside Indonesia’s jurisdiction, claiming an engine breakdown since Jan. 14. After the engine was fixed, the crew sailed northward.

On Jan. 16, it was reported that Chinese research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 03 had turned off its Automatic Identification System (AIS) while passing through the Indonesian Archipelagic Sea Lane (ALKI) I in the North Natuna Sea, South Natuna Sea and Karimata Straits.

Bakamla patrol vessel KN Pulau Nipah 321 intercepted the Chinese research vessel on Jan. 13 and opened a line of communication with it. The Chinese vessel claimed its AIS had malfunctioned when the automatic tracker was turned off.

On Tuesday, fishermen in Anambas regency, Riau Islands, found another device believed to be a UUV, which was blue and 2.5 meters in length and weighed about 25 kilograms, batam.tribunnews.com reported on Wednesday.

Unlike the UUV found in Selayar Islands, which had fins and wings, the one found in Anambas does not have fins and wings but has a small red propeller on one end.

While there is no information on the origins of the blue UUV, which might be some kind of float, it had a metal plate with simplified Chinese characters engraved on it.

Simplified Chinese characters are officially used in China and Singapore while traditional characters are mainly used in Taiwan as well as Hong Kong and Macau.