China’s coastguard has entered a stand-off with its Indonesian counterpart in the southernmost reaches of the South China Sea as it attempts to enforce Beijing’s expansive territorial claims.
Indonesia’s Maritime Safety Agency, or Bakamla, said on Thursday that it had for the second time this week driven Chinese coastguard ships out of waters under Indonesian jurisdiction, where the vessels had been disrupting resource survey work.
The agency had said on Wednesday that it “expelled” a Chinese coastguard vessel from waters north of Indonesia’s Natuna islands near the Norwegian-flagged vessel Geo Coral, which is prospecting for Jakarta’s state-owned energy company Pertamina in the gas-rich waters. According to ship tracking data, the vessel, China Coast Guard 5402, returned on Tuesday to the area.