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Indonesia, Vietnam seek middle ground to prevent more altercations at sea
Indonesia and Vietnam have begun talks on an arrangement to prevent any further maritime skirmishes as they try to settle their overlapping claims to economic borders, which have been a source of tension between the Southeast Asian neighbors.
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Indonesian Navy personnel impound a fishing vessel and take into custody its Vietnamese crew during a security operation in Natuna Islands waters in Riau Islands on Saturday. War vessel KRI Cut Nyak Dien-375, belonging to the first Fleet Command, apprehended the KG 1916 TS fishing boat and its 15-member crew for allegedly fishing illegally in Indonesian territory. (Courtesy of 1st Fleet Command/-)
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ndonesia and Vietnam have begun talks on a “provisional arrangement” to prevent any further maritime skirmishes as they try to settle their overlapping claims to economic borders, which have been a source of tension between the Southeast Asian neighbors.
Technical experts from the two sides met in Jakarta on Tuesday as a prelude to negotiations on a temporary arrangement governing conduct in the waters where Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and Indonesia’s North Natuna Sea overlap, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said after a bilateral meeting with her Vietnamese counterpart, Pham Binh Minh, in Bangkok.
The two sides have been engaged in talks for years without much progress with regard to their overlapping claims at the edge of the widely contested South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest maritime trade routes.
They reached an agreement on the delimitation of their continental shelf boundaries in the same general area in 2003 - 30 years after negotiations started.
But even as they wait for the ongoing delimitation talks to produce results, Indonesia and Vietnam agree on the urgent need for an arrangement on standard operating procedures.
“We need it to avoid incidents that have happened before from happening again. Considering the good relationship we have and the frequency of the incidents, we agreed to speed up the completion of the provisional arrangement,” Retno told reporters on Tuesday evening.
According to a statement carried by the Vietnamese government-run VGP News portal, the ministers agreed during their meeting that “the two countries will foster their strategic partnership across fields, including cooperation in sea-related issues”.
