Indonesian President Joko Widodo said one of China’s main claims to the majority of the South China Sea has no legal basis in international law, but that Jakarta wants to remain an “honest broker” in one of Asia’s most sensitive territorial dispute.
Widodo’s comments in an interview with a major Japanese newspaper come as he embarks on a visit to Japan and China and is the first time he has taken a position on the issue since coming to power in October last year.
China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas. Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam all lay claim to parts of the sea, through which about US$5 trillion of ship-borne trade passes every year.
The territorial dispute is seen as one of Asia’s hot spots that could spiral out of control and result in conflict as nations aggressively stake their claims.
“We need peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. It is important to have political and security stability to build up our economic growth,” Widodo was quoted as saying in an interview with the Yomiuri newspaper published yesterday. “So we support the Code of Conduct [of the South China Sea] and also dialogue between China and Japan, China and ASEAN.”
However, in a Japanese version of the interview published on Sunday, Joko rejected one of Beijing’s main claims to the South China Sea.
“The ‘nine-dash line’ that China asserts has no basis in any international law,” Widodo said.
Maritime lawyers said Beijing routinely outlines the scope of its claims with reference to the so-called nine-dash line that takes in about 90 percent of the 3.5 million square kilometer South China Sea on Chinese maps.
The president was not speaking on China’s overall claim on the South China Sea, but only its nine-dash dotted line that stretches deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia, Widodo’s foreign policy adviser Rizal Sukma said yesterday.
“In 2009, Indonesia sent its official stance on the issue to the UN commission on the delimitation of the continental shelf, stating that the nine-dotted line has no basis in international law,” Sukma said. “So, nothing changes.”
China recently expressed its anger at the Vietnamese head of ASEAN when he rejected Chinese claims based on the nine-dash line.
This vague boundary was first officially published on a map by China’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government in 1947 and has been included in subsequent maps issued under Chinese Communist Party rule.
Indonesia, the largest nation in Southeast Asia, has been a self-appointed broker in the myriad territorial disputes between its neighbors and China over the South China Sea.
“Indonesia’s willingness as an honest broker remains the same,” Sukma said.
In his first trip to Japan as president, Widodo was to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later yesterday and defense ministers were expected to sign a defense pact.
The agreement is the latest move by Tokyo to forge closer security ties with Southeast Asian nations in attempts to build a counter-balance to China.
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