VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - The 2023 Archipelagic and Island States (AIS) Forum Summit is a momentum for the Jakarta provincial government to gain knowledge and experience in collecting integrated and concrete data on the region's marine potential.

"The government must have complete data on the sea because we are lacking in it (data), that we do not know what we want to sell to investors," a legislator from the Jakarta Legislative Council (DPRD) Ismail told ANTARA here on Thursday.

The AIS Forum Summit will be held on October 10–11 in Bali, with the theme "Fostering Collaboration, Enabling Innovation for Our Ocean and Our Future."

The forum will focus on three aspects: blue economy development, climate change, and strengthening solidarity between archipelagic and island states.

He said that Indonesia, as the largest archipelagic country, which has more than 17,500 islands, a coastline spanning 108 thousand kilometers, and three-quarters of whose territory is covered by sea or water bodies, can benefit from the AIS Summit.

Jakarta has great marine potential, but it has not been explored further, he noted. Therefore, the regional administration is expected to learn a lot, especially about data collection, from other countries participating in the AIS Summit.

According to him, Jakarta can follow the example of European Union countries, which started to implement a blue growth strategy or a long-term strategy of sustainable economic growth in 2012.

The strategy covers five focus areas for the blue economy, namely, aquaculture, maritime tourism, coastal area development and cruise ships, marine mineral resources, and blue biotechnology.

To attract investors, Ismail said, Jakarta must have a complete, integrated, green, and sustainable concept of marine development to attract investors.

Jakarta also needs to prepare a regulation to ensure a conducive investment, especially in the marine sector, he added. (Antaranews)

China is willing to play a "constructive" role in the success of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco, its top diplomat said on Tuesday, after President Xi Jinping's absence at the annual Group of 20 summit in India.

"As the world's largest developing country and an important member of APEC, China is willing to comply with the expectations of the international community and play a constructive role in the success of APEC this year," said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Xi, with no official explanation, did not go to the G20 summit in New Delhi this month, with the Chinese premier, Li Qiang, attending in his place. That prompted the United States to say China was "giving up" on the G20 and was building an alternative world order.

"Of course, we and all parties hope that the United States will recognise its responsibility as the host, demonstrate openness, fairness, inclusiveness, and responsibility, and create better conditions for the smooth holding of the meeting," Wang said at a news conference, when asked whether Xi would attend APEC.

China is in communication with the relevant parties, and will make an announcement in due time, Wang added.

Dialogue between China and the United States has been gradually resuming despite tensions between the two superpowers, especially over Taiwan. Expectations are building that Xi would meet with Biden on the sidelines of APEC, after missing a chance for a face-to-face meeting at G20 in India.

At the same news conference, Wang said, without naming any country, that China opposed "wanton" expansion of military alliances that squeeze the security space of other countries.

Beijing has been critical of Washington's continued attempts to deepen military alliances in the Asia-Pacific region. It has particularly disapproved of bases that the U.S. military is building in the north of the Philippines facing democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.

China has long advocated partnerships rather than alliances, and is not part of any military bloc. Its sole remaining ally after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 is North Korea, to which China is bound by a 1961 treaty to come to its defence if it is attacked. (Reuters)

Senior diplomats from South Korea, China and Japan agreed on Tuesday that their countries' leaders would meet at the "earliest convenient time", Seoul's foreign ministry said after a rare meeting aimed at kickstarting trilateral exchanges.

The three countries had agreed to hold a summit every year starting in 2008 to foster regional cooperation, but that initiative has been frayed by bilateral feuds and the COVID-19 pandemic. The last summit was in 2019.

Seoul's foreign ministry said in a statement that specific dates remained under discussion and that the countries' foreign ministers would meet "in a couple of months".

South Korea is this year's host for three-way meetings and has proposed a summit in late December, Japanese broadcaster TBS reported.

Japan's foreign minister, Yoko Kamikawa, said the three countries share the need to restart high-level talks, including summits, "as soon as possible".

"I believe it is very valuable to discuss the various challenges the region faces," she told a briefing in Tokyo.

The latest meeting was seen partly intended to assuage Beijing's concerns over the two U.S. allies' tightening cooperation after Seoul and Tokyo agreed this year to end legal, diplomatic and trade disputes over issues dating to Japan's 1910-45 occupation of Korea.

"We unanimously believe that carrying out cooperation is in the common interests of the three parties," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday. "We should work together to strengthen practical cooperation ... and make new contributions to regional peace, stability, and prosperity."

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have taken steps to mend ties and in August held a historic trilateral summit with U.S. President Joe Biden, where the three vowed to boost cooperation, including on defence and economic security.

A senior South Korean official said China has been proactive in seeking trilateral cooperation and arranging meetings since bilateral ties soured over the deployment in 2017 of a U.S. THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea.

"I'm sure there should be some discomfort on their side regarding our increasingly close trilateral security partnerships with the United States and Japan," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. "There seems to be a view there that they need to properly manage bilateral ties with us, as they saw how their THAAD responses backfired and fuelled anti-China sentiment to serious levels."

Beijing will most likely look to leverage trilateral trade ties to counterbalance the U.S. friend-shoring strategy, promote people-to-people exchanges, and enhance communication and dialogue with Seoul and Tokyo on security and defence matters, said Tong Zhao, senior fellow at the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Japan and South Korea have an interest in avoiding conflicts and maintaining a stable security relationship with China, and Beijing's assistance in slowing down, if not halting, North Korea's extensive nuclear development program, he added.

"These shared interests open up new avenues for strategic communication, confidence-building, and measures to prevent crises," Zhao said.

China's premier has traditionally attended the trilateral summits, and South Korea is also pushing for a separate visit by President Xi Jinping.

The latest meeting involved South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Chung Byung-won, Japanese Senior Deputy Foreign Minister Takehiro Funakoshi, and Nong Rong, China's assistant minister of foreign affairs. (Reuters)

The Philippines vowed on Tuesday not to back down in the face of a Chinese effort to block its fishermen from a fiercely contested shoal in the South China Sea, while Beijing warned the Southeast Asian nation not to "provoke and cause trouble".

The comments came a day after Manila cut a floating 300-m (980-ft) barrier installed by Beijing at the shoal, one of Asia's most contested maritime features, making use of coastguard personnel posing as fishermen in a small boat.

The move, which the Philippines called a "special operation", could further strain ties that have deteriorated this year.

"They might still return the floating barrier once again, they might still do shadowing and dangerous maneouvres once again," Philippine coastguard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela told CNN Philippines.

Earlier he said four Chinese vessels were in the area when a Philippine ship approached and were "not that aggressive", adding it was clear media were on board the Philippine ship.

He said China's coastguard had even removed remnants of the severed ball-buoy barrier and had been measured in its response to the presence of its vessel, which reached its closest point to the strategic atoll since China seized it in 2012.

"We have shown the world the Filipino people will not back down and we're still going to consistently carry out whatever is necessary for us to maintain our presence," Tarriela said.

The Scarborough Shoal, a prime fishing spot about 200 km (124 miles) off the Philippines and within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), has been the site of decades of on-off disputes over sovereignty.

China, which calls the rocky outcrop Huangyan Island, has accused the Philippines of "intruding" in what were indisputably Chinese waters. On Tuesday, it warned Manila to steer clear of provocations.

"China firmly upholds the sovereignty and maritime rights of Huangyan Island, and we advise the Philippines side not to provoke and cause trouble," foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular press briefing.

SOURED RELATIONS

The Philippines and China have repeatedly sparred over the shoal but tension had ebbed under the previous pro-China administration in Manila.

Ties have soured this year, however, as new President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who authorised the cutting of the cordon, seeks to strengthen relations with ally the United States.

Such efforts included giving the U.S. military expanded access to Philippine bases, a move criticised by China as provocative and liable to stoke regional tension.

Vessels of the two countries have faced off several times this year elsewhere in Philippine EEZ.

Manila has accused Beijing's coastguard of dangerous and aggressive acts such as using a military-grade laser to deter a resupply missions to troops stationed on a rusty, grounded warship.

China says that occupation is illegal.

On Monday Chinese nationalist tabloid the Global Times quoted an expert as saying Philippine decision-makers were acting under the influence of a United States bent on instigating conflicts to contain Beijing.

Control of the shoal, about 850 km (528 miles) off mainland China, is a sensitive issue for Beijing, which for the past decade has maintained a constant presence of coastguard ships and fishing vessels there.

The shoal figured in a case the Philippines took to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, which ruled in 2016 that China's claim to most of the South China Sea had no basis under international law.

China does not recognise the ruling. (Reuters)