30 August 2010 | CIL Distinguished Speaker Series / South China Sea Seminar Series
The Indonesian Perspective on the
South China Sea
Introduction
The overlapping claims on the South China Sea have become one of the main issues in the region since 1973. The South China Sea, with an area of 3.5 million square kilometer, is located in the southern part of China, eastern part of Viet Nam, and northern part of Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and the Philippines. The strategic location between those States and its role as one of the main international navigational routes for trade and military activities made the dispute even more difficult to be resolved.
All claimants have produced maps, charts and documentations unilaterally and individually. China is known to have the “nine dotted lines” map which has never been announced publicly or formally. It has been circulating for a while yet it has never been treated as formal document, until 2009. China wrote a letter dated 7 May 2009 to UN Secretary General to protest the joint submission by Viet Nam and Malaysia on the outer limit of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. In that letter, China attached the map as a basis for its protests and claims. This is the first time China brought the map in formal way and at multilateral level. This is a very interesting development as China stated time and again that it has not wish to internationalize the issue.
Indonesia, although not a claimant state has also written a letter to UN Secretary General dated 8 July 2010 which expressed its view on the way small features in the ocean can generate maritime zone, including those small features in the South China. The seminar discussed the reasons behind the Indonesia’s letter, and how this matter might evolve at the UN level.
About the Speaker
H.E. Mr. Arif Havas Oegroseno is the Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, and the European Communities; President of the Meeting of States Parties to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; and Director-General for Law and International Treaties of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia.
He was the chief negotiator for the Indonesian maritime boundaries negotiation with various neighbors. In 2009, he led the Indonesian negotiation team to conclude a treaty between Indonesia and Singapore to the delimitation of the territorial seas in the western part of the Strait of Singapore. He also organized the Trilateral Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Littoral States of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore in Batam in 2005 and the first international conference on the Straits of Malacca and Singapore held jointly by Indonesia, IMO and other littoral States, in Jakarta 2005.
Born March 12, 1963, he earned his law degree (SH) from Diponegoro University, Semarang, Central Java in 1986 and obtained his master degree in law (LLM) from Harvard Law School in 1992. He attended short-term diplomatic courses in Indonesia and Australia. He also attended specialized courses for human rights and humanitarian issues in San Remo, maritime boundaries negotiation in Durham University as well as negotiation training for top executives at Harvard Law School Negotiation Project.
