Indonesia is ready to play a consultative role as an "honest broker" in resolving the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, President Joko Widodo said.
"We need peace, we need stability in our region in Asia-Pacific. So that means Indonesia is ready to play a consultative role as an honest broker," he said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
Indonesia wanted to ensure that the Code of Conduct — which the 10-member regional grouping of Asean is hammering out with China — would be "acceptable to all parties", he said, ahead of his visit to Beijing today.
His talks with President Xi Jinping while in the capital are expected to focus not just on deepening bilateral cooperation but also regional issues such as the South China Sea.
"We need to work together to ensure the South China Sea will not undermine Asean and China cooperation," Mr Widodo said. "That is why the Asean-China framework is crucial to facilitating an early conclusion for the COC."
Asean countries Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have overlapping claims with China in the South China Sea, through which about US$5 trillion worth of trade passes annually.
Joko Widodo, Indonesia's president, speaks during an interview in his office at Istana Merdeka, the president's official residence, in Jakarta Feb 2. (Bloomberg photo)
The Philippines has lodged a case with the Permanent Court of Arbitration, while Vietnam has put up a statement of interest in the case, which allows it room for legal action in the future.
Indonesia is not a claimant state. But China's nine-dash line map, which forms the basis of its claims and covers nearly 90% of the sea, overlaps with waters around the resource-rich Natunas islands that Indonesia owns.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is said to be keen to intensify efforts to conclude the Code of Conduct amid growing concerns from some members about land-reclamation activities in the South China Sea, but observers have criticised the slow pace of negotiations.
Mr Widodo admitted that progress could be faster in securing the code, which would provide, among other things, confidence-building measures, mechanisms to deal with incidents at sea and crisis management.
His foreign policy adviser, Rizal Sukma, said Indonesia also believed that part of the confidence-building measures could be achieved through joint development — a key idea that China has pursued with Vietnam.
On the other hand, Indonesia has made clear its position on China's nine-dash line. In a 2009 position paper to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, it said the line had no basis in international law.
Last week, the commander of the US Navy Seventh Fleet, Vice Adm Robert Thomas, suggested that Asean countries could form a joint maritime patrol of the South China Sea, which the Seventh Fleet would support. This was met by an icy response from China.
Ms Rizal said Indonesia would discuss any new ideas for the South China Sea within the ambit of the expanded Asean Maritime Forum — whose members include the US, China and India — not outside it.
Asean only
"While we welcome US presence in the region, we don't need a specific US-Asean joint patrol in the [South China Sea]," he said, adding: "We want to focus first on the intra-Asean arrangements."
On the Indonesian leader's visit, Indonesia watcher Yang Razali Kassim told the SCMP he could not detect any historical baggage between the two sides as Mr Widodo welcomed China as a new source of investment and growth.
"But I sense a certain return of the old ambivalence in Indonesia towards China due to Beijing's assertive and controversial claims over the South China Sea," said Mr Razali, a senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
Indonesia-China relations scholar Aimee Dawis said that even though bilateral ties could deepen, the South China Sea issue could prove to be a political hot potato for Indonesian diplomats in their China dealings.
Mr Razali said bilateral ties were at a unique phase as both are helmed by new leaders trying to make their mark as presidents of big, influential countries. "How they strike a relationship ... will determine their leadership roles in the region," he said.