27 May 2007
JAKARTA: Indonesia and Malaysia will next month resume discussion on border issues being disputed by the two neighboring countries.
"We will meet again early June to discuss border line between the two countries in Malacca Straits," Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry's Director of Political Agreement and Regional Agreements Havas Oegroseno said over the weekend.
He said Indonesia and Malaysia share marine border lines in Malacca Straits, South Chine Sea, and Sulawesi Sea.
"The three marine border areas have strategic positions, and therefore we need to have intensive discussions to deal with the marine border issues with Malaysia," Oegroseno said.
Indonesia considered that the border problem with Malaysia was arising from the publication and declaration of the Malaysian Map in 1979.
The Map, which is also referred to as the Malaysian New Map, was self-claimed and ignored other countries in the region. The border lines claimed by Malaysia overlapped with maritime border lines of neighboring countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, China, Vietnam and Brunei Darussalam.
The meeting on the Indonesia-Malaysia border issue is scheduled to take place in Jakarta, from June 5 to 7, 2007.
Meanwhile, Commander of the Western Indonesian Naval Fleet Rear Admiral Muryono said that he and his Malaysian counterpart had made an agreement not to hunt down or fire any fishermen from both countries fishing in disputed water areas.
The agreement was reached in a High level Committee (HLC) meeting between Malaysia and Indonesia (Malindo), which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, last week.
"Under the agreement, hopefully there will be no more arrests on or shooting at our fishermen when they are in 'the gray areas' between Indonesia and Malaysian maritime border lines," the naval commander said. (**)
