Indonesia Pulls Officials From South China Sea Conference
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- Indonesian government officials — including a director general from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Indonesian National Armed Forces officers — all withdrew from the July 13 Jakarta conference marking the 10th anniversary of the 2016 South China Sea Arbitration Award, leaving the event with no Indonesian official representation.
- The 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling found China's nine-dash line claim had no legal basis under UNCLOS and determined Beijing had violated the Philippines' sovereign rights within its Exclusive Economic Zone.
- Fourteen countries issued a joint statement reaffirming the award as legally binding between China and the Philippines, while the European Union separately called the decision a landmark contribution to peaceful dispute settlement — China dismissed both as null and void.
- Indonesia has privately relied on the tribunal's reasoning, submitting a 2020 diplomatic note to the UN explicitly invoking the arbitral award to reject China's historical rights claims overlapping with Indonesia's EEZ around the Natuna Islands.
- Between 2017 and 2021, Chinese coast guard vessels and survey ship Haiyang Dizhi Shihao repeatedly entered Indonesia's EEZ near the North Natuna Sea, disrupting Indonesian offshore energy exploration at the Tuna Block.
- State news agency Antara published an opinion article weeks earlier arguing Indonesia should not host the conference, citing risks to its free and active foreign policy and concerns Indonesia would appear to side with the Philippines.
Why it matters: Indonesia withdrew every official from a conference on a legal ruling it has privately invoked to defend its own EEZ around the Natuna Islands, an absence that undercuts Jakarta's standing as ASEAN's diplomatic leader at a moment when Code of Conduct negotiations demand a firm defender of the rules-based maritime order.
