RI has created a ‘sound climate’ for resolving disputes

Kornelius Purba and Mustaqim Adamrah, The Jakarta Post | Fri, 07/22/2011 10:18 AM A | A | A | - Klipping the Jakarta Post

The South China Sea issues have prompted several ASEAN claimants to brandish their might in the face of Asian giant China, with the Philippines and Vietnam collecting support from the United States. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa talked to The Jakarta Post’s Kornelius Purba and Mustaqim Adamrah, as well as other Indonesian journalists after ASEAN and China agreed on guidelines for cooperation in the South China Sea. Below are excerpts from the interview.

Question: What progress has been made in the discussions on the South China Sea issues between ASEAN and China?

Answer: It has been six years of negotiations. I got the actual Declaration of Conduct (DOC) in Lombok, and I read all of it. This is it, the document that for five years has held back progress, the so-called guidelines.

I told my counterparts enough is enough, there comes a time when you must get things done. More delay does not mean everything stands still, but rather gets worse. That’s why I really pushed it to make sure we make real and concrete progress. If it is important to have guidelines, let’s do it, so we can move on to the Code of Conduct.

We have to work on the draft, but we have to make a climate conducive to an agreement to be achieved. That’s why I talked with my ASEAN colleagues, ASEAN claimant states, to China, to other parties, basically to create positive energy, competition in a positive way.

The guidelines have to be self-fulfilling. It’s not the content, but the idea behind this that ASEAN and China can sit together and should discuss this. Indonesia is keen to get this done.

There is competition going on over oil and gas resources in the South China Sea, with China’s assertiveness, and the fact that Indonesia has only several months left as chair of ASEAN, how do you deal with this?

This is a process. We have to remember to always differentiate chairmanship from leadership. Indonesia indeed is the chairman of ASEAN this year. But from the start, we wanted to show that we wanted not only to chair ASEAN, but also to show our leadership.

We told the Chinese that if we did not have an ASEAN-China script on [the South China Sea issues], the issues would always be a wild ball.

We will meet several times this week, ASEAN plus three, plus one, the ASEAN Regional Forum, the EAS [at the ministerial level]. If we do have a way-out, we can tell the world, “thank you for your attention”. But if we don’t have a script, it will become a wild ball. We are not underestimating the challenges.

Are ASEAN’s member states split over the South China Sea issues, with the Philippines and Vietnam leaning toward the United States?

With or without the participation of Russia and the US, they will play a role one way or another. They are too big for us to close the door to.

It also doesn’t have to be described as a black-and-white option because it’s a fact that some of us have special relations with other countries from outside the region. That’s a fact of life. It depends on how we make sure that this fact can be in harmony with what we are aiming for.

Don’t let it … create a new gap in our region and bring in a new Cold War.

Do the guidelines say anything about political and security activities that can make sure that there will be no escalation of tensions in the South China Sea in the future?

The guidelines is a by-product, a sub-element of the declaration, it doesn’t stand on its own. So the guideline is essentially on how to implement the declaration of conduct, most especially not on the code of behavior itself but on the projects.

That’s my main understanding, because if you look at the DOC, it makes references to certain projects in certain areas — marine environment, SARS, transnational crimes, the safety of navigation, biodiversity.

Those are four areas on which we can collaborate, we are supposed to collaborate.

What about joint activities in oil and gas exploration?

No. Oil and gas exploration is not specifically regulated in the DOC.