Legal
regime of archipelagic states (2)
Nugroho Wisnumurti ; A former
member of the Indonesian delegation to the UN Third Conference on the Law of
the Sea and former Ambassador/permanent representative of Indonesia to the UN
in New York and in Geneva. He is currently an Of Counsel at Ali Budiardjo,
Nugroho, Reksodiputro (ABNR) Counselors at Law in Jakarta
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JAKARTA
POST, 28 Maret 2014
Efforts
to galvanize support for archipelagic state principles were made in different
forums outside the third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea, such as the
Asia-Africa Legal Consultative Committee (AALCC), the group of developing
countries (Group of 77) and ASEAN, which sent special missions to different
countries.
These
efforts continued to be pursued concurrently with a series of negotiations
and lobbying during the sessions of the conference. A decisive factor that
had also helped Indonesia’s success was a series of bilateral negotiations
with neighboring countries and with major maritime states such as the US, UK,
Soviet Union and Australia.
Negotiations
with Malaysia had been focused on the rights of navigation through the waters
connecting East Malaysia and West Malaysia, which would be cut off by the
Indonesian waters, and on the existing fisheries rights in the Indonesian
waters. Negotiations with Singapore and Thailand were concentrated on the
traditional fisheries rights in and navigational rights through the
Indonesian waters.
Difficult
negotiations with Malaysia finally led to the agreement reached in 1982 under
which Malaysia recognized the legal regime of archipelagic states while
Indonesia recognized Malaysia’s existing rights in the Indonesian waters. The
traditional fishing rights of Singapore and Thailand had been accommodated in
the 1982 Convention.
Equally
difficult were negotiations with major maritime states represented basically
by the US and the Soviet Union. The focus of the negotiations was on the
right of navigation of foreign vessels through the designated sea lanes and
the overflight of foreign aircraft above the sea lanes in archipelagic
waters, and also on the obligations of foreign vessels traversing the sea
lanes and foreign aircraft flying above the sea lanes to respect the
sovereignty and the national interest of the archipelagic state.
The last
of the series of negotiations took place in 1977 in New York between the core
members of the Indonesian delegation chaired by then foreign minister Mochtar
Kusumaatmadja and the core members of the US delegation chaired by Ambassador
Elliot L. Richardson, former US attorney general.
The
negotiations that proceeded in a very tense atmosphere finally succeeded in
reaching an agreement on certain outstanding crucial legal provisions,
thereby completing the whole set of legal regimes on archipelagic state,
later accepted by the conference.
It
should be kept in mind that the negotiations on archipelagic states were
closely related to negotiations and agreements reached on the legal regime of
transit passage through straits used for international navigation, including
the Malacca and Singapore straits.
The
success of Indonesia’s diplomacy and negotiations to gain international recognition
of archipelagic states could have not been achieved without the sustained
systematic and integrated collective efforts of the various players. First
and foremost was the pivotal role of the chairman of the Indonesian
delegation, Prof. Kusumaatmadja, then Indonesian foreign minister and
previously the justice minister.
It is
also necessary to note the important role played by the three vice chairmen
of the delegation, Ambassador Chaidir Anwar Sani, Ambassador Abdullah Kamil
and Air Marshall Soedarmono. The significant contribution of the negotiators
in the field, especially Dr. Djalal who acted as the chief negotiator, also
deserves recognition.
It is
also essential to recognize the important role of Pankorwilnas, a high level
coordinating national committee chaired by Soedarmono, in building national
consensus on issues before the conference.
It is in
Pankorwilnas that the Indonesian position on various aspects of sovereignty
and jurisdiction, maritime delimitation, natural resources, marine
environments and marine scientific research were discussed and formulated and
brought before the sessions of the conference.
It is
worth mentioning also the importance of the doctrine “Wawasan Nusantara”
(archipelagic outlook), developed especially by the National Resilience
Institute (Lemhannas) to serve as a conceptual framework for the Indonesian
position on archipelagic states. “Wawasan Nusantara” represents the national
outlook of the nation on itself and its environment, which is essentially the
national unity and territorial integrity of Indonesia.
The
international recognition of the legal regime on archipelagic states
significantly enlarged the Indonesian waters under its sovereignty and
jurisdiction and has opened the opportunity for Indonesia to utilize these
gains for its national development. Indonesia’s development has so far given
too much emphasis to land-based development.
It is time now for the new government to complement it with
maritime-based development through integrated strategies and policies, inter
alia on inter-insular shipping (including cabotage), utilization of living
and non-living marine resources, marine environments, marine scientific
research and national defense.
For this purpose, it is necessary to establish a high level
coordinating body like Pankorwilnas under the President, with a comprehensive
mandate. This will be a challenge facing the new government. ●
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