The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea grants navigational rights for ships through the EEZ.
The right of navigation was carried out after the EEZ agreement between Indonesia and Vietnam.
The convention also agreed that Indonesia would develop the Tuna gas field in the Natuna Sea, with an estimated total investment of more than US$ 3 billion until production starts.
In 2021, vessels from Indonesia and China shadowed each other for months near a submersible oil platform conducting well assessments in the Tuna block. At that time, China urged Indonesia to stop drilling by saying that the activity was taking place on its territory.
Indonesia insists that under UNCLOS, the southern tip of the South China Sea is its exclusive economic zone, and named the area the North Natuna Sea in 2017.
But China refused. Beijing says the maritime area lies within its vast territorial claims in the South China Sea marked by a U-shaped “nine-dash line”, a boundary that the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague found had no legal basis in 2016. (tim)
