Zona Panas Laut china selatan...negara asean saling rebutan ~ .

source pic:http://www.japanfocus.org/-ian-storey/2734

Islands occupied by competing nations, plus oil/gas resources (source)

Another chart, showing national occupation forces in part of the South China Sea (source)

TNI Waspadai Sengketa di Laut Cina Selatan
Rabu, 16 November 2011 04:10 WIB

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NUSA DUA - Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI) akan terus memantau dan mewaspadai dampak konflik atau sengketa wilayah di Laut Cina Selatan. Panglima TNI, Laksamana TNI Agus Suhartono, kepada Antara di Nusa Dua, Bali, Selasa mengatakan, "Kita akan selalu antisipasi dampak dari sengketa yang ada di sana."

Seperti diketahui Cina, Taiwan dan empat negara ASEAN yakni Vietnam, Filipina, Malaysia, dan Brunei Darussalam terlibat tumpang tindih sengketa perbatasan maritim di Laut Cina Selatan.

Menghangatnya suasana keamanan di Laut Cina Selatan dengan tampilnya kekuatan Cina serta kerusuhan di negara yang telah maju sekalipun secara tidak langsung akan berdampak pada situasi keamanan di kawasan ASEAN, katanya.

Karena itu, menurut dia, negara anggota ASEAN yang memiliki perbatasan maritim perlu waspada dan senantiasa siaga dengan kemungkinan terkena imbas buruk dari bergejolaknya situasi keamanan di wilayah tersebut.

Dalam rangkaian KTT ke-19 ASEAN, para pejabat senior ASEAN memfokuskan diri pada pembahasan rencana implementasi Deklarasi Berperilaku (Declaration of Conduct/D0C) di Laut China Selatan terkait proyek kerja sama yang diusulkan masing-masing pihak yang bersengketa.

Selain itu untuk kali pertama ASEAN juga membentuk kelompok kerja untuk membahas elemen yang akan masuk dalam kode etik berperilaku di Laut Cina Selatan.
http://www.republika.co.id/berita/na...t-cina-selatan

source

Quote:

South China Sea: The Center of World Conflict
September 1st, 2011

Econintersect: On August 15, 2011 Robert D. Kaplan published an article entitled “The South China Sea is the Future of Conflict.” He explains how the body of water sits in the middle of the world’s largest populations and is a natural battleground when disagreements arise. The land boundaries between the major countries in eastern Asia are much less accessible. On August 31 the first confrontation between an Indian navy vessel and a Chinese ship was reported by the Financial Times to have taken place. Where? In the South China Sea.

Follow up:
The confrontation took place in July in waters just outside of Vietnamese maritime jurisdiction. From the FT report:

The unidentified Chinese warship demanded that India’s INS Airavat, an amphibious assault vessel, identify itself and explain its presence in international waters shortly after it completed a scheduled port call in Vietnam, five people familiar with the incident told the Financial Times.

This latest example of China’s naval assertiveness has irked defence officials in India and Vietnam. China claims the South China Sea in its entirety, rejecting partial claims by Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan over the resource-rich region.

GEI News has previously reported (in June) on other incidents this year. Chinese boats took actions to interfere with Vietnamese navy operations and oil exploration activities in the South China Sea. The actions took place in waters that are actually much closer to Vietnam than to China.

The South China Sea has historically been a battleground for the area, including the domination of the region by European powers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. From Kaplan’s article:

Europe is a landscape; East Asia a seascape. Therein lies a crucial difference between the 20th and 21st centuries. The most contested areas of the globe in the last century lay on dry land in Europe, particularly in the flat expanse that rendered the eastern and western borders of Germany artificial and exposed to the inexorable march of armies. But over the span of the decades, the demographic and economic axis of the Earth has shifted measurably to the opposite end of Eurasia, where the spaces between major population centers are overwhelmingly maritime.

China, which, especially now that its land borders are more secure than at any time since the height of the Qing dynasty at the end of the 18th century, is engaged in an undeniable naval expansion. It is through sea power that China will psychologically erase two centuries of foreign transgressions on its territory -- forcing every country around it to react.

Kaplan says that the conflicts in the Western Pacific will not necessarily involve combat. Rather there may be just a series of incidents where naval vessels engage in confrontations that fall short of an actual “shooting” engagement. Not surprisingly, much of future incidents in the South China Sea will depend on how extensive future oil reserves discoveries there turn out to be.

The following map shows how China's claims are in conflict with UN designations.

Editor’s note: Robert D. Kaplan is senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, national correspondent for the Atlantic, and a member of the U.S. Defense Department's Defense Policy Board. He is the author of Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power. (From Foreign Policy.)
http://econintersect.com/b2evolution...world-conflict

-----------------

Posisi terdekat pasukan TNI tentunya ada di pos paling utara NKRI, yaitu di kepulauan Natuna. Di kepualaun ini, juga banyak memiliki kandungan gas dan minyak, yang untuk sementara di operatori oleh perusahaan Amerika, Exxon. Kalau dilihat dari peta, kayaknya sih kita masih aman-aman saja, tetapi yang namnay kekayaan alam (SDA) terutama migas di wilayah itu sangat kaya, klaim negara tetangga bisa saja terjadi. Apalagi China tak mau mengakui difinisi batas laut yang dibuat UCLOS untuk batas 200 mil laut itu. Saatnya TNI membeli lusinan kapal selam dan kapal-kapal fregat cepat untuk menjaga wilayah NKRI. Kalau perlu, satu batalyon Marinir dibuatkan markasnya di kepualuan Natuna itu

Vietnamese troops occupying Spratly Island

PLA's Navy

China's submarine on south china sea

China's marines

South China Sea Oil Rush Heightens Conflict Risk as U.S. Emboldens Vietnam

Vietnam and the Philippines are pushing forward oil and gas exploration projects in areas of the South China Sea claimed by China, risking clashes in one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors.

State-owned PetroVietnam’s partner Talisman Energy Inc. (TLM) aims to begin drilling next year in a block that China awarded to a U.S. rival and has protected with gunboats. Ricky Carandang, a spokesman for President Benigno Aquino, said the Philippines plans to exploit a field in an area of the sea where Chinese patrol boats harassed a survey vessel in March.

The neighbors of China, which has Asia’s largest military, were emboldened after the U.S. asserted interest in the waters last year, said James A. Lyons Jr., a former U.S. Pacific Fleet commander. A surge in crude prices to near $100 a barrel also spurred Vietnam and the Philippines to pursue the oil needed to meet economic growth targets of at least 7 percent this year.

“With the economic situation in the Philippines and Vietnam, the exploration for oil and gas makes good economic sense,” said Lyons, who led the Pacific Fleet from 1985 to 1987 and is now president of Lion Associates LLC, a Warrenton, Virgina-based business advisory company. “They depend on the United States to provide the overarching security umbrella.”

China asserts “indisputable sovereignty” over most of the South China Sea, including oil and gas fields more than three times further from its coast than they are from Vietnam. Exploration in waters under China’s jurisdiction infringes its “sovereignty and interests and is illegal,” the Foreign Ministry in Beijing said May 12.

Maritime disputes may be discussed at an annual security forum in Singapore starting June 3 that will include a speech from Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie. At last year’s event, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. opposed efforts to “intimidate” companies operating in the sea.

The Philippines protested April 5 to the United Nations that a Chinese map laying out its claims had “no basis under international law.” Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei also have overlapping claims with China.

Talisman, Canada’s third-largest oil company by market value, will start exploratory drilling about 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) from China’s Hainan island, located off its southern coast, after a seismic program this year, according to a corporate presentation on its website this month. The Calgary- based company is partnered with Hanoi-based Vietnam Oil & Gas Group, or PetroVietnam.

“We have what we believe are legitimate licenses,” John Manzoni, Talisman’s chief executive officer, said in a May 4 interview. The company plans to push ahead “at a normal pace.”

Talisman’s blocks 133 and 134, about 300 kilometers from Vietnam, are known as WAB-21 in China -- which in 1992 awarded Crestone Energy Corp. the site, now owned by Houston-based Harvest Natural Resources Inc. (HNR)

China “did indicate it was very concerning to them and that they would intervene in some way,” Harvest CEO James Edmiston said in response to questions about Talisman’s license in an August interview.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) plans an exploratory well off Vietnam this year, Mark W. Albers, a senior vice president, said in a March 9 meeting with analysts. The Irving, Texas-based company is developing Block 119, state-run Vietnam News reported March 31, without saying where it got the information. Part of the site sits in waters claimed by China.

Details of exploration programs are confidential, Exxon Mobil spokesman Patrick McGinn said by e-mail.

Two Chinese patrol boats in March ordered a ship doing seismic work for Forum Energy Plc (FEP) to leave an area near disputed waters about 250 kilometers west of the Philippines’ island of Palawan, Philippines Army Lieutenant General Juancho Sabban said at the time. The Chinese left the area after two military aircraft were deployed, he said.

The contract area for Chertsey, U.K.-based Forum Energy lies in waters China, Vietnam and the Philippines agreed to explore jointly in an arrangement that lapsed in 2008. Majority owned by Manila-based Philex Mining Corp. (PX), Forum plans to drill wells there, it said in a March 15 statement.

The field the Philippines plans to exploit is a “very important” part of Aquino’s plan to cut oil imports, spokesman Carandang said by phone May 16.

American policy makers have put forward the U.S., which has defense treaties with the Philippines and Thailand and guarantees Taiwan’s security, as a counterbalance to China. More than half of the world’s merchant fleet by tonnage passes through the South China Sea each year, according to GlobalSecurity.org, a research group in Alexandria, Virginia.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared a “national interest in the freedom of navigation and unimpeded lawful commerce” in the waters at a regional meeting in Hanoi in October.

That statement gave Southeast Asian nations “a little more confidence,” said Michael Green, a former Asia specialist at the U.S. National Security Council who is now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “It took somebody to say ‘we’re not going to be bullied.’”

The U.S. navy has patrolled Asia-Pacific waters since World War II. China has bolstered its forces over the past decade, procuring nuclear-powered submarines and developing an aircraft carrier, according to a Defense Department report in August.

In a 1988 skirmish over the Spratly islands, China killed more than 70 Vietnamese troops and sank several ships, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In 1994, Chinese warships were sent to stop Vietnamese drilling.

Chinese studies cited by the EIA suggest the waters sit atop more than 14 times BP Plc estimates of the country’s oil reserves and 10 times those for gas. China’s oil reserves have shrunk almost 40 percent since 2001 as the economy expanded 10.5 percent a year on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Vietnam’s domestic gas demand is set to triple by 2025, according to World Bank estimates. The Philippines plans to boost hydrocarbon reserves by 40 percent in the next two decades to reduce its almost total reliance on imports, according to a department of energy plan.

Going it alone may be a negotiating tactic, said Marshall Mays, director of Emerging Alpha in Hong Kong. China and its neighbors are likely “working on the assumption that a negotiated split of revenues” will be agreed, he said.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations has made little progress in negotiating a binding code of conduct for the sea with China since 2002.

“By agreeing to a joint exploration you ipso facto recognize the legitimacy of the claims of the other countries,” said Ralf Emmers, a professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “That’s a very tough political decision.”
http://fxtalks.com/index.php/compone...8197-myart6626

pusat konflik di Laut China Selatan adalah rebutan kepulauan Spratly dan Paracel antara China vs beberapa negara ASEAN vs Taiwan juga, Indonesia gk ikut2an disana karena memang JAUH bahkan dari sisi ZEE sekalipun (wong adanya diatas Sabah Serawak, kecuali mo aneksasi Sabah-Serawak kitanya

)

yg bermasalah pada Indonesia adalah klaim China atas Laut China Selatan bahwa seluruh lautan tersebut adalah WILAYAH dia

akibatnya, ZEE menurut peta China "mengambil sedikit" alur laut Kep Natuna yg milik Indonesia

dari Zaman dahulu juga China-Vietnam sedikit memotong alur laut Natuna sebagai wilayahnya, tapi saat itu Soeharto langsung menggelar Latgab ABRI tahun 1996 di Natuna yg effectnya Vietnam mengakui kalau Natuna milik Indonesia dan China diam saja gk utak-atik Natuna lagi

tapi seiring menurunnya kesiapan dan kekuatan TNI pasca Krismon dan diperparah dengan EMBARGO maka China kembali menguatkan klaim atas sedikit area di Natuna

Spoiler for Kepulauan NATUNA yang kaya SDA di laut China Selatan:

Natuna: Indonesia's Oil&Gas Paradise

Marinir TNI-AL dalam suatu operasi

Spoiler for Latgab Tahun 2008, Pendaratan Pasukan Marinir di Natuna:

Menengok Kekuatan TNI di Kepulauan NATUNA
Biaya Mobil Mewah Lebih Baik untuk TNI di Natuna
Kamis, 4 Februari 2010 | 20:37 WIB

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com — Pengamat politik UI Hermawan Sulistyo prihatin dengan beberapa pulau kecil di daerah terluar yang rentan direbut oleh negara tetangga, termasuk Blok Natuna. Seharusnya pemerintah memberikan perhatian kepada permasalahan yang lebih substansial dibanding mengurusi isu-isu yang ada.

Hermawan menilai pembelian mobil Toyota Crown Royal Saloon adalah pemborosan. Seharusnya pemerintah membangun infrastruktur dan menyejahterakan para tentara yang berjaga di daerah perbatasan tersebut. "Untuk mobil saja Rp 200 miliar, bayangkan itu bisa untuk menggaji 5-10 tahun seluruh tentara di Natuna," kata Hermawan Sulistyo dalam acara peluncuran buku Natuna Kapal Induk Amerika di Galeri Cafe, Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM), Jl Cikini Raya, Jakarta Pusat, Kamis (4/2/2010).

Ia menilai, sesuatu yang miris terjadi jika Indonesia yang kaya dengan alamnya, tetapi prajurit di perbatasan justru tidak sejahtera. Kenaikan tunjangan bagi para prajurit di wilayah perbatasan dinilai belum cukup memenuhi kebutuhan para prajurit di wilayah terpencil. "Paling mereka dapat Rp 1,5 sampai Rp 2 juta. Minimal harus Rp 5 juta, bagi prajurit dengan pangkat terendah tidak boleh kurang dari Rp 3 juta," terangnya.

Dia menilai, hingga saat ini pemerintah belum menunjukkan political will untuk membenahi wilayah perbatasan. Baru sebatas retorika belaka di media massa. "Jika berkeliling di perbatasan bisa dilihat tidak ada realisasinya sama sekali," cetusnya.

Apalagi, di tengah dana APBN yang selalu defisit, justru pemerintah menaikkan gaji para pejabat tinggi. Pemerintah cenderung menaikkan gaji pejabat dibanding menaikkan gaji tentara di perbatasan," ujarnya.

Penulis buku Peter A Rohi menyatakan, posisi Natuna yang sangat dekat wilayah Spratly dan dikelilingi enam negara adalah sangat strategis. Karena itu, tak heran kapal-kapal armada ke-7 Amerika Serikat (AS) yang berpangkalan di Yokosuka, Jepang, rajin bermanuver mendekati Natuna. Terakhir 8 Juni 2009 lalu, kapal induk AS kembali merapat dan berhasil digiring oleh TNI.

Selain posisinya yang strategis, Natuna juga memiliki kekayaan gas yang melimpah dengan potensi devisa 25 miliar dollar AS per tahun atau sekitar Rp 225 triliun per tahun. Karena itu, banyak negara yang melirik Natuna. "Hasil riset menyebutkan, hingga tahun 2003 pemintaan gas akan meningkat tajam di kawasan Asia, khususnya China," kata Peter.

Peter yang pernah bergabung di KKO (sekarang Marinir) dan bertugas di Natuna mengungkapkan, Natuna pernah dilirik jadi area latihan perang oleh Singapura dan AS. Untungnya Bupati Natuna Daeng Rusnadi (sekarang tahanan KPK) dan masyarakatnya menolak. "Meski pemerintah pusat waktu itu sudah mengizinkan. Dan bahkan PM Singapura sudah ada di Jakarta," ujarnya.

Ia melihat sistem pertahanan Indonesia untuk daerah perbatasan termasuk Natuna masih tumpang tindih. Ia mengimbau seluruh kemananan dan pertahanan di wilayah Natuna diserahkan sepenuhnya kepada Angkatan Laut.

Pemerintah juga harus punya suatu konsep pertahanan wilayah Natuna dengan mengedepankan masyarakat sekitar Natuna sebagai tameng pertahanan pertama. Tentu saja peran tersebut dibangun dengan menyejahterakan masyarakat di sana sebelumnya. Dengan begitu, ada kesadaran masyarakat untuk memerhatikan setiap pergerakan kapal-kapal asing. "Mereka harus dijadikan tameng pertama. Makanya kesejahteraan rakyat di sana juga harus diperhatikan," tegas Peter.

Karena posisi Natuna yang luar biasa, pada tahun 2003 mantan Presiden Riau Merdeka Tabrani Rab pernah mengajak Daeng Rusnadi untuk bertemu AS menjajaki tawaran menjadi negara bagian Amerika setelah Hawaii. "Bahkan saya ajak Hasan Tiro (Aceh) dan Theys Hiyo Eluay (Papua) dalam sebuah pertemuan di Singapura untuk perundingan. Sayang Daeng menolak. Padahal, Natuna adalah wilayah strategis yang punya nilai tawar tinggi kepada AS. Kalau perlu daratan Natuna menjadi kapal induk AS, karena berhadapan langsung dengan 7 negara," kata Tabrani.

Perkokoh pertahanan AL
Mantan Kepala Staf Angkatan Laut (KSAL) Laksamana (Purn) Slamet Subiyanto mengatakan bahwa yang diperlukan guna menghindari perebutan Blok Natuna dari AS maupun negara tetangga yakni dengan memperkuat pertahanan AL. Salah satunya dengan menghadirkan kapal induk yang melakukan patroli sesering mungkin di wilayah Natuna dan sekitarnya. Dengan kapal induk, bisa memberikan efek psikologis kepada kapal asing yang berusaha menyelinap ke perairan Indonesia.

"Ke depan, kapal-kapal besar harus sesering mungkin berpatroli di wilayah Natuna," kata Slamet.

Selain itu, pemerintah dengan komando TNI AL harus punya satu konsep pertahanan yang bisa menghitung seberapa besar kekuatan negara luar agar bisa disiapkan kekuatan untuk mengimbanginya. "Memang saat ini anggaran minim, tapi kan harus bisa diselesaikan masalah-masalah seperti itu," ujarnya.

Slamet merasa khawatir jika pemerintah menurunkan kuota logistik untuk para tentara yang menjaga perbatasan wilayah, maka peluang pencurian sumber kekayaan alam di Natuna dan wilayah perairan lainnya akan semakin besar. "Dukungan logistik tentara jangan dibatasi. Seharusnya kan ditambah," pungkas Slamet.
http://nasional.kompas.com/read/2010....TNI.di.Natuna

Mayjen TNI Lodewijk Freidrich: Kodim Natuna Belum Pasti
Selasa, 1 November 2011 22:22 WIB

TANJUNGPINANG, TRIBUN- Rencana pemindahan Kodim Natuna ke Korem Kalimantan Barat, belum ada kepastian. Hal ini ditegaskan Panglima Komando Daerah Militer (Kodam) I Bukit Barisan, Mayor Jenderal (TNI) Lodewijk Freidrich Paulus, saat mengunjungi Korem 033 Wira Pratama (WP) Kepri, Selasa (1/11). "Hingga sekarang belum ada keputusan dari Kepala Staf TNI-AD maupun Panglima TNI,” ujar Lodewijk.

Lodewijk Freidrich mengaku tujuan dirinya ke Kepri ini, untuk mendengarkan aspirasi daerah tentang adanya rencana pemindahan Kodim Natuna tersebut. Aspirasi yang disampaikan pimpinan daerah, DPRD dan tokoh masyarakat lainya akan menjadi bahan masukan bagi Mabes TNI. “Masukan dan informasi yang kami peroleh dari pemerintah maupun anggota DPRD saat ini, akan menjadi bahan analisis dan rujukan kami, yang akan kami sampaikan ke pusat," ungkap Mantan Danjen Koppasus tersebut.

Anggota DPRD kepri Surya Makmur Nasution, yang ikut pertemuan dengan Pangdam di Gedung daerah mengatakan dalam pertemua dengan Pangdam Bukit Barisan juga membicarakan masalah Pulau Berhala, Pulau Pekajang dan situasi keamanan di perbatasan dengan negara tetangga. "Pangdam telah mendengar aspirasi dan masukan dari pemerintah, terkait dengan kebutuhan Kodim-Natuna, serta akses dan administrasi yang sudah dilakukan selama ini," kata anggota Komisi I tersebut.

Dengan pertemuan tersebut Surya Makmur berharap pemerintah pusat dapat mengambil keputusan yang tepat sehingga tidak menimbulkan gejolak keamanan pada masyarakat di tingkat daerah. Sebelumnya Gubenur Kepri telah melayangkan surat protes kepada Panglima TNI terkait adanya rencana pemisahan Kodim Natuna dari Korem 033 Wira Pratama
http://batam.tribunnews.com/2011/11/...na-belum-pasti

LATGAB 2008 di NATUNA