17.06.10 Menas Borders Indonesian and Malaysian foreign ministers meet to discuss border dispute

Naval vessels patrol the Sulawesi Sea

There are signs today that Indonesia and Malaysia are creeping towards the resolution of their long-standing maritime border dispute. Relations between the neighbours have frequently been strained over long-term issues about migrant workers and the maritime border dispute, but Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa will receive his Malaysian counterpart Anifah Aman in Jakarta on Thursday 17th June for a meeting that is has been described as an 'annual consultation' on 'priority issues'.

While there are a number of maritime border disputes, the most intense is centred on the Ambalat block offshore East Borneo that is highly prospective in oil reserves. This dispute in the Sulawesi Sea first heated up in 2005 when both Indonesia and Malaysia awarded contracts for the same block to foreign oil companies: Indonesia to Unocal and Eni, Mayalsia to Royal Dutch Shell. Since then, both countries have maintained a naval presence in the area, and have narrowly avoided conflict on several occasions.

The countries have settled previous disputes through international arbitration, with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague awarding two islands in the area - Sipadan and Ligitan – to Malaysia in 2002. That settlement, however, did not determine the vexed questions of territorial waters or the continental shelf which both remain unresolved. The issue over the Ambalat block is, therefore, part of the wider dispute.

Progress, however, on the migrant issue is encouraging. Malaysia is heavily dependent on Indonesian workers (many of whom are there illegally), and following cases of abuse and mistreatment, Jakarta imposed a moratorium in 2009 on sending migrant workers to Malaysia. Negotiations appear to have paid off, and the increased contact between both the leaders – Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak - who met last month, and now the Foreign Ministers' is positive, although final resolution is still likely to be many years off.

Sources: The Jakarta Post, The Jakarta Globe