JAKARTA – Indonesia President Joko Widodo asked Japan on Friday to step their fisheries investment and energy in some of its parts in South China Sea following a stand-off with the Chinese over claimed territories.
Widodo made the request for Japan to consider economic opportunities in the Natuna islands during a visit to Jakarta by Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, the president’s office said in a statement.
“I want to invite Japan to invest in Natuna,” he told Motegi, adding that Japan was one of Indonesia’s major economic partners.
Widodo visited Natuna on Wednesday to assert Indonesia’s sovereignty over the cluster of islands and the waters around them, after reports of Chinese coastguard and fishing vessels had entered Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone several times since last month.
China has not claimed the Natuna islands for themselves but says it has nearby fishing rights within a self-proclaimed Nine-Dash Line – a line on Chinese maps that it says shows its territory and waters.
The line loops far south from China and includes most of the South China Sea, but it is a claim that is not recognized internationally. Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan have rival claims in the South China Sea.(Reuters)
