Indonesia Protests Beijing’s Alleged Encroachments Around Natuna Islands

Indonesia lodged a strong protest with Beijing on Monday and accused it of trespassing, after confirming that dozens of Chinese fishing boats and two coast guard ships had entered its territorial waters at the edge of the South China Sea.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs filed the diplomatic protest while the nation’s Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla) told BenarNews it would intensify sea patrols after at least 65 Chinese ships had sailed since Dec. 19 into Jakarta’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off its Natuna islands, which lie near the southern border of the contested sea. Most of the Chinese vessels were fishing boats but a pair were from China’s coast guard, Bakamla said.

A recent meeting of several government ministries confirmed there had been “violations of Indonesia’s EEZ, including illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and violations of sovereignty by China’s coast guard [ships] in the Natuna waters,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

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