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Indonesian President Joko Widodo called a strategically important meeting with his security and political affairs minister this week over how the normally neutral Asian archipelago should handle increasing foreign pressure on its maritime claims. The minister, Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, learned from the Monday meeting that government leaders will “formulate an Indonesia stance on the conflict” in the widely disputed South China Sea while avoiding any statements that show disunity, Indonesia’s Antara News reported.

Those goals most likely mean Widodo’s administration will stiffen its stance on the South China Sea, a 3.5 million-square-kilometer ocean north of the vast group of islands. That’s because Chinese fishing and coast guard vessels increasingly turn up in Indonesian-claimed waters. Indonesia, like Malaysia, has tried to stay neutral toward China’s aggressive maritime claims because it depends on Chinese investment in infrastructure and orders for palm oil, a key agricultural product. Beijing rewards Beijing’s restraint by not getting publicly angry about upsets at sea.

But Indonesia has seen too many Chinese vessels as well as piracy and illegal fishing around the archipelago of some 13,000 islands. Maybe it’s emboldened too by Vietnam and the Philippines, who spar more openly with China over competing claims elsewhere in the same ocean. Everyone likes that sea because it’s full of fish plus possible reserves of gas and oil. China cites historic usage records to back its claim to 95% of the ocean. It has added landfill to enlarge some of the ocean’s 500 tiny reefs and atolls. Beijing is also militarizing parts of the sea to lock in those claims, angering other countries. A U.N. tribunal is due to rule this month, at the request of the Philippines, on the legality of China’s basis for claims.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphjennings/2016/06/15/indonesia-moving-toward-harder-stance-on-contested-south-china-sea/#3a16e8305b35