JAKARTA: China has demanded that Indonesia rescind a decision to rename its maritime area in the southwest part of South China Sea to North Natuna Sea.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry sent an official note to the Indonesian embassy in Beijing expressing its opposition to Jakarta’s Jul 14 move, when it unveiled a new official map of the national archipelago that revealed its renaming of the area.
In the letter dated Aug 25, seen by Channel NewsAsia, China said Indonesia’s move to change an “internationally accepted name” results in the “complication and expansion of the dispute, and affects peace and stability”.
“The China-Indonesian relationship is developing in a healthy and stable way, and the South China Sea dispute is progressing well,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. “Indonesia’s unilateral name-changing actions are not conducive to maintaining this excellent situation.”
Beijing also said China and Indonesia have overlapping maritime claims in the southwest of the South China Sea, and said that renaming the area will not change this fact.