Indonesia deploys fighter jets in stand-off with China

By Stanley Widianto and Agustinus Beo Da Costa
JAKARTA, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Indonesia's air force deployed
four fighter jets to the South China Sea on Tuesday in a
stand-off with Beijing after Jakarta protested over a Chinese
violation of its exclusive economic zone.
The stand-off began in mid-December when a Chinese coast
guard vessel, accompanying Chinese fishing boats, entered waters
off the coast of Indonesia's northern Natuna islands, prompting
Jakarta to summon Beijing's ambassador. The issue has soured Indonesia's generally friendly
relationship with China, its biggest trading partner and a major
investor in Southeast Asia's largest country.
Fajar Adriyanto, the air force spokesman, said four F-16
jets had been conducting flights over the islands, though he
also played down fears of any confrontation with Beijing.
"They're doing standard patrols to protect our sovereign
area. It just so happened that they're patrolling Natuna,"
Adriyanto said. "We don't have the order to start a war with
China."
The South China Sea is a global trade route with rich
fishing grounds and energy reserves and China claims most of it
based on what it says is its historic activity. But Southeast
Asian countries, supported by the United States and much of the
rest of the world, say such claims have no legal basis.
On Monday, Indonesia said it was mobilising fishermen to the
northern Natuna region and had deployed several naval ships.
RESPONSIBILITY
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on
Tuesday Beijing had "opened diplomatic channels" with Indonesia
since the latest incident, and said "both countries shoulder
responsibility for maintaining regional peace and stability".
There has been no negotiation with the Chinese vessels as of
Tuesday, Nursyawal Embun, director of sea operations of
Indonesia's Maritime Security Agency, told Reuters.
According to data from Maritime Traffic, a ship tracking
website, at least two Chinese ships -- Zhongguohaijing and
Haijing 35111 -- were in waters on the edge of Indonesia's
exclusive economic zone on Tuesday, approximately 200km (124
miles) off Indonesia's Riau Islands.
The ships were within China's unilaterally-declared
"nine-dash line", which marks a vast expanse of the South China
Sea that it claims, including large swathes of Vietnam's
continental shelf where it has awarded oil concessions.
The China Coast Guard ship Haijing 35111 is one of a handful
of Chinese ships that was involved in a months-long standoff
with Vietnamese ships last year near the offshore oil block in
the disputed waters, which fall within Hanoi's exclusive
economic zone.
Luhut Pandjaitan, the coordinating minister in Indonesia's
cabinet overseeing resources and investment, told reporters on
Tuesday that Indonesia's sovereignty was not negotiable, despite
China's economic importance for his country.
"I would not sell our sovereignty for investment, never," he
said. "I'm not stupid."

(Additional reporting Wilda Asmarini; Editing by Matthew
Tostevin and Gareth Jones)