No quick resolution to sea dispute, says Indonesian president

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. AP

JAKARTA—Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Tuesday said there would be no quick resolution to competing territorial claims in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), warning tensions must not be allowed to escalate.

China essentially claims the whole of the strategic waterway, which is believed to be rich in hydrocarbons and straddles strategic shipping lanes vital to global trade.

The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims in the waters, causing regular diplomatic flare-ups.

“It is safe to assume, given the extreme complexity of the overlapping claims, that we will not see a diplomatic resolution of the South China Sea disputes in the short term, perhaps even in the medium term,” Yudhoyono said.

“Short of a comprehensive resolution, the claimants must do their best to manage and contain the disputes to make sure that it does not escalate or worse lead to the outbreak of military clashes,” he told the First Strategic Review Forum in Jakarta.

Divisions over the countries’ disputes with China prevented the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) from issuing its customary joint statement at the conclusion of its meeting in Cambodia on Friday.

Yudhoyono had earlier expressed exasperation over the issue.

“Things do not necessarily have to be this slow,” he told the Asean foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali in July last year. “We need to send a strong signal to the world that the future of the South China Sea is a predictable, manageable and optimistic one.”