Maritime Border Diplomacy

Abstract

Borders define a space of state territorially and provide a condition for states to exercise their sovereignty. Today, territorial feature remain a continual theme in modern global politics. But territorial and border disputes still linger in interstate relations. They may pose a problem to bilateral relations, if not managed properly. Border diplomacy is given top priority in Indonesia's foreign policy. The country continues to implement border diplomacy through different methods and platforms of internal and external nature. First, Indonesia negotiates the remaining land and maritime borders with neighbors. Secondly, it establishes joint border committees and general border committees as a framework to overcome border crossing problems and to facilitate socio-economic activities of community in the border area. Thirdly, the country is determined to accelerate social and economic development of border areas by strengthening inter-agency coordination. A few other methods are also discussed in this chapter. Keywords:border disputes; Indonesia's foreign policy; maritime border diplomacy