MINISTER: BORDER NEGOTIATIONS NOT EASY

Jakarta, June 16 (ANTARA) - Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirajuda said here on Tuesday that international negotiations on border issues are not easy and take much time.

"Border issues cannot be settled through negotiations in a short time. It's not something we start one day and the next day we are finished. It's not only we and Malaysia, but many other countries experienced this," Wirajuda said on the sidelines of an event to remember Indonesian diplomat Mohamed Roem at the Islamic University of Syarif Hidayatullah (UIN) here on Tuesday.

He cited as an example that the negotiations with Singapore some time ago took five years to produce an accord.

"It was for a short statement, and regarding an island which had no resources," the minister said.

Minister Wirajuda also recalled that the process to settle the continental shelf problem with Vietnam took 32 years.

"And it should be completed, because the only solution to address border conflicts is through negotiations and mutual agreement," he said.

He said the planned 14th meeting between the Indonesian government and Malaysia on the disputed Ambalat Block was to be held in July in Malaysia.

he said Indonesia and Malaysia were both claiming the Ambalat Block as being part of their territory, and both protested against the presences of the two countries' warships in the area.

"Both Malaysia and Indonesia have filed protests on the same problem," he said.

Indonesia had included the Ambalat Block as part of its territory in its map since 1964 based on the international law of the seas while Malaysia has included the island in a map made in 1974.

Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Fizasyah said recently the Sulawesi Sea was part of Indonesian territory and the Ambalat Block was located in this sea so it was an area subject to Indonesian sovereignty based on the international law of the seas.

He said even though Malaysia had laid a claim to the Ambalat Block, the area belonged to Indonesia based on articles in the UN Conventions on the Law of The Seas (UNCLOS).

He said based on the law the boundary lines and sovereignty of a state are about 200 miles from its beach lines. "We should know that the Ambalat Block is only about 80 miles from an Indonesian beach," he said.