Southeast Asia’s biggest nation says the southern end of the South China Sea is its exclusive economic zone under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and named the area as the North Natuna Sea in 2017.Ĭhina objected to the name change and insists the waterway is within its expansive territorial claim in the South China Sea that it marks with a U-shaped “nine-dash line,” a boundary found to have no legal basis by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague in 2016. Two of those people said China made repeated demands that Indonesia stop drilling.
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Three other people, who said they were briefed on the matter, confirmed the existence of the letter. “Our reply was very firm, that we are not going to stop the drilling because it is our sovereign right,” Farhan said.Ī spokesman for Indonesia’s foreign ministry said: “Any diplomatic communication between states is private in nature and its content cannot be shared.” He declined further comment.Ĭhina’s foreign ministry, defense ministry and embassy in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta did not immediately respond to requests for comment. One letter from Chinese diplomats to Indonesia’s foreign ministry clearly told Indonesia to halt drilling at a temporary offshore rig because it was taking place in Chinese territory, according to Muhammad Farhan, an Indonesian lawmaker on parliament’s national security committee, which was briefed on the letter.