Jusuf Kalla told Reuters that Indonesia would send a message to
Beijing demanding that it respects the Southeast Asian nation's
sovereignty over waters around the Natuna Islands.
Indonesia vows to stand firm after skirmishes with Chinese ships
Indonesia is determined to assert its exclusive right to a corner of the South China Sea where there has been a run of skirmishes between Indonesian navy ships and Chinese vessels, the vice-president said on Monday.
Jusuf Kalla told
Reuters that Indonesia would send a message to Beijing demanding that
it respects the Southeast Asian nation's sovereignty over waters around
the Natuna Islands.
China's Foreign Ministry said
over the weekend that an Indonesian naval vessel fired on a Chinese
fishing boat near the chain of islands on Friday, injuring one person.
Indonesia's
navy responded that it had fired warning shots at several boats with
Chinese flags it accused of fishing illegally but there were no
injuries.
It was the third reported confrontation
near the Natuna Islands this year and comes amid rising regional
tensions over China's assertiveness in the South China Sea.
"This is not a clash, but we are protecting the area," Kalla said in an interview with Reuters at the presidential palace.
Asked if the Indonesian government had made a decision to be more assertive, he said: "Yes, we will continue."
Asked about Kalla's remarks on Monday, Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China's Foreign Ministry, said China had expressed condemnation of the "indiscriminate use of force".
"We
urge the Indonesian side to refrain from any action that complicates or
magnifies the dispute, or impacts the peace and stability of the region," Hua said.
Indonesia is not part of a broader regional dispute over China's reclamation activities in the South China Sea and Beijing's claims on swathes of key waterways.
But Jakarta has objected to China's inclusion of parts of the Indonesian-ruled Natuna Islands within a "nine-dash line" Beijing marks on maps to show its claim on the body of water.
China
has said it does not dispute Indonesia's sovereignty over the Natuna
Islands, but Kalla said its ships sometimes claim that they have the
right to operate in waters around the islands because they are
"traditional Chinese fishing grounds".
"But we are focused on the legal basis," Kalla said, referring to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. "We will send a message to the other side to honour the area in accordance with the law."
China
claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in
ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia,
Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.
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