Indonesia Needs Many Ships to “Fence off” the Borders

Jakarta, MINA – Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD explained that currently the government will focus more on increasing ships to be alerted in the border region.

Mahfud said it was discussed during a Limited Meeting at PT PAL Surabaya with President Joko Widodo and Minister of Defense, Prabowo Subianto on Monday, thus quoted from CNNIndonesia on Wednesday.

He said the Main Tool for Armament Systems (Alutsista) indeed needed to be equipped in order to safeguard the region while maintaining the country’s sovereignty from the onslaught of other countries.

The ships, said Mahfud, could be used to “fence off” Indonesian territory so that they would not be entered randomly by other parties.

“We note that we must equip defense equipment to maintain sovereignty and sovereign rights. Even fencing,” Mahfud said at the Kemenko Polhukam Building, Jalan Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta on Tuesday.

When viewed through a map, said Mahfud Indonesia’s territorial waters are divided into three colors of water. These regions must be protected so that no other countries will take them.

First there is brown water which is a sovereign territory and is closest to the coastline. The second is green water which a sovereign region or also known as an exclusive economic zone, then the last is blue water which is an open water area.

“Now, we will try to immediately provide ships on the edge of green water. So that the blue water does not enter,” he said.

But when asked how many ships and how many sizes of ships will be propagated in order to enclose the territorial waters of Indonesia, Mahfud was reluctant to explain.

“Yes, later it is very technical, basically we identify it and we decide to pump up the weapons industry itself,” he explained. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)