New Delhi: India and Indonesia Sunday called for the resolution of maritime disputes and the conclusion of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea in accordance with international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), in what appeared to be a message directed towards China.
This comes a day after a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.
The Indonesian president, who was on a state visit to India between 23 January and 26 January, was the chief guest for the 76th Republic Day parade Sunday.
“Both leaders reaffirmed the importance of maintaining and promoting peace, stability, maritime safety and security, freedom of navigation and overflight in the region, and other lawful uses of the seas,” a joint statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs said.
The joint statement added: “In this regard, they supported the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of the Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) in its entirety and look forward to the early conclusion of an effective and substantive Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) that is in accordance with international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS.”
Tensions have prevailed over what countries, including India and the US, view as increasingly aggressive Chinese assertions in the disputed South China Sea.
Beijing has made claims in the waters marked on its maps within the “nine-dash line”, which overlap with the exclusive economic zones of Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam. In 2016, the Philippines won an arbitral award, which invalidated most of the Chinese assertions in the area, a decision that Beijing rejected.
In December 2024, Jakarta had to publicly reject Chinese assertions over the South China Sea, following a set of maritime cooperation agreements signed a month earlier during Prabowo’s trip to Beijing. The Indonesian president, who assumed office in October 2024, made his first overseas visit to China.
India has consistently called for the conclusion of negotiations over the Code of Conduct in the region, negotiations for which began over two decades ago in 2002, between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China.
Last year, India backed Philippine efforts to maintain sovereignty in the disputed waters, in a direct rejection of Beijing’s assertions. Over the past few years, China has increased its efforts to block Manila from the waters in the region, including by using water cannons, physically blocking ships and causing near collisions. New Delhi has maintained, without directly naming China, that the parties must follow the UNCLOS as the “constitution of the sea”, both in letter and spirit.
Push for local currency payments & other agreements
The joint statement further said that the leaders “expressed confidence that the usage of local currency for bilateral transactions would further promote trade between India and Indonesia and deepen financial integration between the two economies”.
Last year, the central banks of India and Indonesia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on settlements using local currencies. The two leaders emphasised the “expeditious implementation” of the agreement, which would allow the settlement of cross-border payments in the two local currencies—the Indian Rupee and the Indonesian Rupiah.
Prabowo’s visit to India is a part of Jakarta’s efforts to diversify ties, especially in the economic sector. India and Indonesia’s total trade in goods was roughly $30 billion in 2023-2024, with New Delhi’s imports worth roughly four times its exports ($24 billion in imports to $6 billion in exports).
Both the leaders also “appreciated” efforts to link the QR-based digital payments systems for cross-border transactions by the NPCL International Payments Limited (NIPL) and the Association of Payment Systems of Indonesia (ASPI).
The two leaders also indicated their support for the conclusion of the review of the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) by 2025. The AITIGA came into force in 2010 and, nine years later, in 2019, a review of the trade deal was agreed to based on India’s request.
So far, six review meetings have been held, with the latest round taking place in New Delhi in November 2024. The next meeting is scheduled to be held in Jakarta in February 2025.
Both countries are also looking to complete an agreement on the transfer of sentenced persons, which was mentioned in the joint statement. Such an agreement would allow Indian prisoners lodged in foreign countries to serve out their sentences in India. Currently, India has bilateral agreements with 31 countries. However, of those, the agreements with Qatar and Somalia have yet to be notified in the gazette.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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Does Modi really want to play this game again with China? Why get involved in disputes thousands of miles away especially when you lack any leverage over the disputing parties? Wants to show off his 56 in chest to his Bhakts?
Modi is worried about SCS. Meanwhile Pakistan and Bangladesh are forming a new alliance with their sights set on India, the India Myanmar border continues to heat up and China is building a giant dam right at the border.