ASEAN Beat | Security | Southeast Asia

To Secure the Natuna Sea, Indonesia Needs More Than New Ships

Maritime security is one of Indonesia’s most demanding defense domains. And at its current stage, Indonesia needs significant help. 

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is one of Southeast Asia’s most persistent maritime security challenges. Indonesia, the owner of the region’s largest maritime area, has expanded patrols in its most contested waters, added community surveillance, and expanded international partnerships to address the threat. As the world’s largest archipelagic country, maritime security is one of Indonesia’s most demanding defense domains. And at its current stage, Indonesia needs significant help. 

The North Natuna Sea, which lies along the southern portion of the South China Sea, is a hotspot for commercial fishing. Home to over 750,000 tons of fish stock, is among the areas where China’s sweeping South China Sea claims overlap Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Yet despite stepped up maritime law enforcement by Indonesia’s Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP), illegal activities – including, but not limited to, IUU fishing – continue.

Indonesia is not starting from zero. Since the 2019-2020 confrontations near the Natuna Islands, the government has expanded the Indonesian Navy and Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla) patrol programs, incorporated fishermen and community surveillance into maritime surveillance through the Kelompok Masyarakat Pengawas (POKMASWAS) program, and distributed communications equipment to selected fishermen communities. Yet these initiatives remain unevenly distributed and insufficiently connected to the agencies responsible for verification and enforcement.

Indonesia still faces substantial capacity limitations. In 2025, only three of the seven KKP patrol vessels assigned to the broader WPPNRI 711 area could reach the North Natuna Sea. Even when the KKP is able to catch IUU fishing boats in the act, there aren’t enough dock space or facilities to store impounded vessels and accommodate the crew. Jakarta began addressing those shortages this July by announcing ten new Class I surveillance vessels and an expansion of the PSDKP pier in Batam, which will become the principal base for operations in WPPNRI 711. 

Indonesia’s partners have likewise invested in its maritime capacity. Japan, for example, through a 9.053 billion yen grant (USD $56.57 million) is funding an offshore patrol vessel for Bakamla, scheduled for delivery in 2028. Other Japanese programs have trained Bakamla personnel in boat operations, maritime law enforcement, criminal investigations, and instructor development. Australia’s current strategic partnership plan with Indonesia provides for fisheries surveillance cooperation, maritime domain awareness information sharing, technical training, coordinated patrols, and desktop exercises. 

In early August, at the Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training exercise in Singapore, Indonesian personnel joined representatives from 15 other Indo-Pacific countries in practicing the real-time transfer of sensor data and vessel-contact information among operational centers, patrol aircraft, and ships. Days later, Bakamla hosted Malaysian and Singaporean coast guard personnel for a trilateral exercise in the Riau Islands covering cooperation in the Natuna Sea. Bakamla Chief Vice Admiral Irvansyah subsequently proposed expanding that model to other ASEAN countries. 

However, a shared regional maritime security architecture is only reliable as the national systems that feed information into it. Exchanging satellite tracks, radar data, or participating in joint exercises are meaningless if fishermen’s observations are unable to reach Indonesia’s national surveillance and enforcement system in time. 

In June, local Indonesian fishermen spotted foreign vessels conducting IUU fishing in the North Natuna Sea within Indonesia’s EEZ. The fishermen reported the sighting to patrol officers, and Indonesia’s Navy deployed........

© The Diplomat