RI to hold workshop on South China Sea

In an effort to prevent the dispute from further escalating, Indonesia is organizing a workshop on the South China Sea territorial dispute from Thursday to Saturday in Yogyakarta, the Foreign Ministry announced.

The South China Sea ― known in China as the South Sea, in Vietnam as the East Sea and in the Philippines as the West Philippines Sea ― is a region rich in aquatic life and hydrocarbon reserves and provides the shortest route between the Indian and western Pacific oceans.

The 23rd Workshop on Managing Potential Conflict in the South China Sea was organized by the Policy Analysis and Development Agency at the Foreign Ministry and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies.

“The workshop aims to: 1) Manage the potential conflict through cooperation. 2) Promote confidence building measures to increase mutual understanding. 3) Promote an exchange of views through dialogue on certain issues,” the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

Indonesia is not a claimant country but wants to play an active role in solving the dispute. It has organized a raft of workshops, mostly informal discussions, to manage the potential conflict in the region and to promote cooperation among claimants since 1990.

Overlapping claims of sovereignty over certain part of the South China Sea have been made by China, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.

The workshop is scheduled to be opened by Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X. The Policy Analysis and Development Agency chief Pitono Purnomo and Hasjim Djalal, a top expert on the dispute, will address the workshop, which is being attended by representatives from Brunei Darussalam, China, Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Chinese Taipei.

From:http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/10/31/ri-hold-workshop-south-china-sea.html