Indonesia and Vietnam have recently signed a significant agreement regarding their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). This deal aims to enhance cooperation between the two nations while reinforcing their commitment to international law in the South China Sea.
The agreement allows both countries to explore and utilize marine resources within their respective EEZs, which extend 200 nautical miles from their coastlines. This move is seen as a response to China’s increasing assertiveness in the region, where it has made expansive claims over various territories.
Officials from both countries emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea. They believe that this agreement not only benefits Indonesia and Vietnam but also sends a clear message to other nations about the need to respect international maritime laws.
The signing ceremony took place in Jakarta, with leaders from both nations expressing optimism about future collaboration in areas such as fishing, oil exploration, and environmental protection. This partnership is expected to strengthen economic ties and promote sustainable practices in the region.
As tensions continue to rise in the South China Sea, Indonesia and Vietnam’s agreement serves as a reminder of the importance of diplomacy and adherence to international norms. The two countries hope that their actions will encourage other nations to follow suit and prioritize peaceful resolutions to maritime disputes.
Indonesian and Vietnamese leaders said their countries expect to formally agree in 2025 on exclusive economic zone (EEZ) boundaries. The move not only settles a long-standing debate on the countries’ overlapping maritime territories, but it also presents a united front to oppose China’s expansive and illegal claims on the South China Sea.
The boundaries on which Hanoi and Jakarta agreed are part of the territory that Beijing arbitrarily claims in the sea, a conduit for trillions of dollars in annual global trade. China routinely claims waters in other countries’ internationally recognized EEZs, the area that typically extends 200 nautical miles from a nation’s territorial sea where the country has exclusive rights to marine resources.
For decades, the Chinese Communist Party has used coercion and force against neighbors including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam as it tries to enforce maritime ambitions in contested waters. China continues to defy a 2016 international tribunal ruling that deemed its territorial claims invalid, even though Beijing, as a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), is legally bound by the decision and the treaty’s maritime designations.
The Indonesia-Vietnam EEZ settlement also underscores the importance of international law and its utility for peacefully solving regional disputes, analysts say.
“For Indonesia and Vietnam, upholding UNCLOS matters because it enables them to assert their respective sovereign international maritime rights and to enforce their maritime interests,” Bich Tran, an adjunct fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in 2023 for the East Asia Forum journal.
The countries reached an initial agreement in late 2022 that must be ratified by their respective lawmakers before taking effect. Indications that formal acceptance will occur in 2025 coincide with Hanoi and Jakarta elevating their bilateral relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership.
That upgrade will enhance cultural, scientific, economic, security and defense cooperation, according to the state-run Vietnam News Agency. The nations agreed to strengthen information sharing, search and rescue coordination, and defense industries, as well as to develop joint military exercises and patrols.
Indonesia and Vietnam also emphasized the importance of maintaining stability and freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, as well as the need to avoid the threat or use of force, uphold UNCLOS and refrain from actions that could undermine peace in the region.
Vietnam also upgraded its diplomatic relations with Singapore in March 2025 and New Zealand the previous month. Those promotions follow comprehensive strategic partnerships forged with Australia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and the United States since 2022.
Meanwhile, Philippine and Vietnamese officials have said they are ready to negotiate overlapping claims to the continental shelf in the South China Sea. “Both the Philippines and Vietnam agree that the way to move forward … is for dialogue and consultation,” Jonathan Malaya, the Philippine National Security Council’s assistant director general, said in July 2024, according to The Philippine Star newspaper.
