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Friday, October 23, 2020

Unlike Sing, M'sia & Pinoy-Land, Indon stays warily clear of US military involvement in SE Asia

Malaysiakini:



Indonesia rejected US request to host spy planes - officials

Indonesia rejected this year a proposal by the United States to allow its P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance planes to land and refuel there, according to four senior Indonesian officials familiar with the matter.

US officials made multiple "high-level" approaches in July and August to Indonesia's defence and foreign ministers before Indonesia's president, Joko Widodo, rebuffed the request, the officials said.

Representatives for Indonesia's president and defence minister, the US State Department press office and the US embassy in Jakarta did not respond to requests for comment. Representatives for the US Department of Defence and Indonesia's foreign minister Retno Marsudi declined to comment.

The proposition, which came as the US and China escalated their contest for influence in Southeast Asia, surprised Indonesia's government, the officials said, because Indonesia has a long-standing policy of foreign policy neutrality. The country has never allowed foreign militaries to operate there.

The P-8 plays a central role in keeping an eye on China's military activity in the South China Sea, most of which Beijing claims as sovereign territory. Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei have rival claims to the resource-rich waters, through which US$3 trillion worth of trade passes each year.

Indonesia is not a formal claimant in the strategically important waterway but considers a portion of the South China Sea as its own. It has regularly repelled Chinese coast guard vessels and fishing boats from an area to which Beijing says it has a historic claim.

But the country also has growing economic and investment links with China. It does not want to take sides in the conflict and is alarmed by growing tensions between the two superpowers, and by the militarisation of the South China Sea, Retno told Reuters.

"We don't want to get trapped by this rivalry," Retno said in an interview in early September. "Indonesia wants to show all that we are ready to be your partner."


‘Over-reach’

Despite the strategic affinity between the US and Southeast Asian states in curbing China's territorial ambitions, Dino Patti Djalal, a former Indonesian ambassador to the United States, said the "very aggressive anti-China policy" of the US had unnerved Indonesia and the region.

"It's seen as out-of-place," he told Reuters. "We don't want to be duped into an anti-China campaign. Of course, we maintain our independence, but there is deeper economic engagement and China is now the most impactful country in the world for Indonesia."

Greg Poling, a Southeast Asia analyst from the Washington DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said trying to get landing rights for spy planes was an example of clumsy over-reach.

"It's an indication of how little folks in the US government understand Indonesia,” he told Reuters. "There's a clear ceiling to what you can do, and when it comes to Indonesia that ceiling is putting boots on the ground."

The US recently has used military bases in Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia to operate P-8 flights over the South China Sea, military analysts said.

China has ramped up military exercises this year, while the US has increased the tempo of naval freedom of navigation operations, submarine deployments and surveillance flights.

The P-8, with its advanced radar, high definition cameras and acoustic sensors, has been mapping the islands, surface and underwater realms of the South China Sea for at least six years.

When carrying sonobuoys and missiles, the planes can detect and attack ships and submarines from long range. It also has communications systems that allow it to control unmanned aircraft.

10 comments:

  1. Indonesia should play one Bully against the other, but they are more scared of Asian Bully. Now Asian Bully will be emboldened to take over Natuna islands and Indons will regret....

    QUOTE
    Indonesia rejects China's claims over South China Sea

    JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia said on Wednesday it rejected China’s claims over a disputed part of the South China Sea as “having no legal basis”, after two days earlier protesting to Beijing over the presence of a Chinese coastguard vessel in its territorial waters.

    The boat trespassed into Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone off the coast of the northern islands of Natuna, leading Indonesians officials to issue a “strong protest” and summon the Chinese ambassador in Jakarta.

    Speaking in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang had said China had sovereignty over the Spratly Islands and their waters and that both China and Indonesia have “normal” fishing activities there.

    In a sharp rebuke, Indonesia’s foreign ministry called in a statement on Wednesday for China to explain the “legal basis and clear borders” regarding its claims on the exclusive economic zone, as based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

    “China’s claims to the exclusive economic zone on the grounds that its fishermen have long been active there... have no legal basis and have never been recognized by the UNCLOS 1982,” the foreign ministry said.
    UNQUOTE

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  2. i support indonesia, they always show great liking n respect toward chinese.

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  3. Not smart move.
    As the CCP presses its territorial claims further and further into the South China Sea, Indo are going to find they are all alone.
    And when the shit really hits the fan, it will be too late to call the Yanks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wakakakakaka…

    One day in diplomatic play costs a thousand twists!

    "Speaking in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang…"

    Gent Shuang has moved to become the assistant permanent UN secretary months ago!

    That quote is an old old news that u resuscitated to supplement it fart!

    Bravo! Keep doing more c&p trivia - just to massage yr f*cked ego.

    "to call the Yanks"!!

    For what shit?

    Reinvigorate a twisted interpretation of the EEZ?

    Truly one hell of a yellowed toad, cloaking for attention to feed!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You mean China more recently gave up its claim over Natuna? Show a more recent tweet please.....?

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    2. No! China has been consistent in her SouthSea territory claim. Nothing changed.

      U should update yrself about HOW Indonesia had changed his attitude in solving the Natuna claim with China.

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    3. consistent in a dieletical way, mean consistently inconsistent.

      Delete
    4. Wow!!

      Bombastic 南魔萬England!

      But do u actually understand what u have just farted?

      Wakakakakakaka…

      1) where's the logical part?

      2) can consistently inconsistent be TWO opposing forces?

      Perhaps can find in katak dictionary!

      Delete
  5. The US is itching for a war on China if the current containment strategy fails

    For how long will other countries let the US to tell them what to do ? Trump and Pompeo changed the narrative of the US losing the struggle for tech dominance with China to one of the struggle between the white race of the West and China !

    Ever since Obama's Pivot to the East and surrounding China with 400 military bases and attempting the TPP with other countries in this region to contain China, China had to keep the ravenous wolves sniffing and snarling at its front door at bay and to keep all its back and windows secure.

    As a vital artery of trade for many of the of the world's largest economies, the South China Sea has garnered significant attention. 
    The high concentration of commercial goods flowing this area raised concern about its vulnerability as a strategic chokepoint. Over 64% of China's maritime trade transited the waterway in 2016. The US is less reliant on SCS, with just over 14% of its maritime trade passing through the region.

    China's reliance on the SCS leaves it vulnerable to maritime trade disruptions.  In 2003, then-President Hu Jintao drew attention to the potential threat posed by "certain major powers" aiming to control the Straits of Malacca, and highlighted the need for China to adopt new strategies to address this concern.

    In 2016, almost 80% of China's oil imports passed through the South China Sea via the Straits of Malacca. For an oil-hungry country like China, a long-term closure would present a worrisome economic and political scenario.

    Preparing for war..."Don't blame Russia and China", former MI6 shocks the West ...watch this video..

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RG4OU7IdS8&t=660s



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. * former MI6 Chief shocks the West....

      Delete