Our armed forces fulfill their duties and obey the rules of engagement that are adopted from the valid regulations agreed upon internationally
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Military (TNI) will not be incited by the acts of China's fishing boats and coast guard vessels trespassing into Indonesia’s economic exclusive zone (EEZ) in the Natuna waters of Riau Islands Province.

"Some of their acts target to provoke us into violating the international maritime law, so that Indonesia will be the one held guilty over this matter. However, we are not provoked," Major General Sisriadi, head of the TNI Information Center, told the press at TNI headquarters in Jakarta, Monday.

"Our armed forces fulfill their duties and obey the rules of engagement that are adopted from the valid regulations agreed upon internationally," he remarked.

The Chinese government unilaterally claims the Natuna waters as its own by declaring a Nine-Dash Line. Indonesia has never acknowledged this claim.

The Nine-Dash Line is the geographic expression of China’s sweeping claim over the South China Sea region – extending some two million kilometers from the land of China to hundreds of kilometers from the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam -- based on its historical maritime rights.

Indonesia officially continues to uphold the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982, according to which the Natuna waters belong to Indonesia’s EEZ that China has no rights over.

As a political measure, Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has lodged a strong protest over China's recent violation, while the Ministry of Coordinating Politics, Law, and Security has fortified protection over the Natuna waters.

“We are not setting (the ground for) a war, but we are driving them out to protect our own areas,” Mahfud MD, the coordinating politics, law, and security minister, had stated on Sunday, December 5.

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Translator: Syaiful Hakim, Suwanti
Editor: Sri Haryati
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