Randy Fabi News

Indonesia wants to send hundreds of fishermen to the Natuna Islands to assert its sovereignty over nearby areas of the South China Sea to which China says it also has claims. President Joko Widodo has launched an unprecedented campaign to bolster fishing, oil exploration and defence facilities around the island chain after a series of face-offs between the Indonesian navy and Chinese fishing boats. "We are aware that if we don't do this there could be many claims that disrupt the integrity of Indonesian territory," Chief Maritime Minister Rizal Ramli told reporters on Wednesday. The announcement of the plan came a day after the Permanent…

The Indonesian president will travel to the Natuna Islands for the first time on Thursday to assert Indonesia's sovereignty, a senior official said, after China said earlier this week it had an "overlapping claim" over nearby waters. Beijing said on Monday that waters near the Natuna Islands were subject to overlapping claims on "maritime rights and interests" between China and Indonesia. Indonesia's foreign minister on Wednesday rejected China's stance, saying the waters were in Indonesian territory. "Our position is clear that claims can only be made on the basis of international law. For Indonesia, we don't have overlapping claims in any form in Indonesian waters with China," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told reporters.

Authorities from at least two Indonesian coal ports have stopped allowing vessels to leave for the Philippines due to security concerns following a spate of ship hijackings in the southern Philippines, a government official said on Wednesday. Departure permits for the Philippines were no longer available for shipping vessels at the Port of Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan and Tarakan in North Kalimantan, said Indonesia's acting director general of sea transportation Umar Aris. "The situation in the Philippines is considered not safe and some of our ships were hijacked," Aris told Reuters. "Tomorrow, I'll have a meeting with the Navy and State Intelligence Agency to further discuss the matter.

Indonesia has asked China to clarify its claims over the South China Sea but has yet to receive a response, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, a day after Indonesia's security chief said Jakarta could take Beijing to court over an island dispute. Beijing's claim to almost the entire resource-rich sea is shown on Chinese maps with a nine-dash line that stretches deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia. Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei also claim parts of the waterway. Last year, the Indonesian armed forces chief accused China of including parts of the Indonesian-ruled Natuna islands within the nine-dash line.

Myanmar lands 727 migrants after boat kept offshore for days. Myanmar brought ashore more than 700 "boat people" it had kept at sea for days aboard a seized vessel, as the United States on Wednesday called on the country to help solve a migrant crisis by recognising the rights of its Muslim Rohingya minority. U.S. President Barack Obama has sought to make Myanmar's transition to democracy a legacy of his presidency, and Washington is stepping up pressure on the Southeast Asian nation to tackle what it sees as the root causes of an exodus of migrants across the Bay of Bengal that the region has struggled to cope with. The 727 migrants were found drifting in the Andaman Sea on Friday in an overloaded fishing boat that was taking on water.

Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay, considered a front-runner for the presidency in 2016, said on Thursday he would welcome a joint venture with China to explore for oil and gas in disputed areas of the South China Sea. Binay's stance is in contrast to President Benigno Aquino, who has opposed business partnerships with China in territory claimed by both countries. China claims most of the potentially energy-rich South China Sea, and its recent rapid land reclamation around seven reefs in the Spratly archipelago has alarmed the Philippines, Vietnam and other claimants.

Denmark's Maersk Drilling will invest up to $8 billion to buy seven new oil rigs by 2017, undeterred by waning global energy demand The drilling unit of A.P. Moller-Maersk plans to place the first order within the second half of 2013 as part of its campaign to double its fleet to 30 over the next five years, says a Reuters report by Randy Fabi. "We are pursuing this plan despite the world economic situation. So far, we haven't found a reason to change," Claus Hemmingsen said during a visit to the company's office in Singapore. Oil production is moving deeper offshore with untapped reserves found further and further from the coasts of the United States, West Africa, Brazil and Asia, keeping demand strong for rigs owned by Maersk Drilling, Transocean  and others.