MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Indonesia sends warships to support its fishing vessels in a standoff with China

In an unusually strong statement, President Joko Widodo told reporters: “There is no negotiation when it comes to our sovereignty.”

Indonesia will mobilize fishermen to join warships in the South China Sea to help defend against Chinese vessels, the government said on Monday, as the biggest stand-off with China for years escalated off South-east Asia's largest country.

In an unusually strong statement, President Joko Widodo told reporters: “There is no negotiation when it comes to our sovereignty.”

The stand-off since last month in the northern Natuna islands, where a Chinese coastguard vessel has accompanied Chinese fishing vessels, has soured the generally friendly relationship between Jakarta and Beijing.

Indonesia's chief security minister, Mr Mahfud M.D., told reporters that around 120 fishermen from the island of Java would be sent to the Natuna islands, some 1,000km to the north.

“We want to mobilize our fishermen from the north coast and maybe in turn from other areas to operate by fishing there and other things,” Mr Mahfud said.

Indonesia, the world's fourth-most populous country, said last week it was sending more warships to the area. Six Indonesian ships were there now and four more were on the way, Mr Imam Hidayat, the head of the Maritime Security Agency's sea operations sub-directorate, told Reuters.

China claims much of the South China Sea, a global trade route with rich fishing grounds and energy reserves, as its own based on what it says its historic activity. But South-east Asian countries - and the United States and much of the world - say such claims have no legal basis.

Indonesian vessels often confront Chinese fishermen off the Natuna islands, but the presence of the Chinese coastguard vessel has marked an escalation this year over which Indonesia summoned the Chinese ambassador.

Speaking in Beijing last week, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China had sovereignty over the Spratly islands and their waters and that both China and Indonesia have “normal” fishing activities there.

He did not specifically mention the Natuna islands, which are southwest of the Spratlys.