Indonesia Confirms US Warship’s Passage Through Strait Of Malacca

By Mohd Iswandi Kasan Anuar

JAKARTA, June 21 (Bernama) -- Indonesia’s military said Saturday that the United States (US) aircraft carrier USS Nimitz was transiting the Strait of Malacca in line with international maritime law when it was last detected last week.

The vessel was travelling from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean via the Singapore Strait and the Strait of Malacca, the Indonesian Armed Forces Information Centre (Puspen TNI) said.

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“The ship was exercising its right of transit passage under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS),” the centre’s head, Major General Kristomei Sianturi, stated in a statement.

He noted that the convention allows foreign warships to pass through international straits without prior notification, provided they do not pose a threat to the security of coastal states.

The statement came in response to public concern after a video showing the vessel near Aceh province on June 17 circulated widely on local social media, amid rising tensions in the Middle East involving Israel and Iran.

According to the Indonesian navy, the USS Nimitz was last detected with its automatic identification system (AIS) active in waters north of Belawan, near Medan in North Sumatra, on Tuesday.

Kristomei said the Indonesian Armed Forces continued to monitor all foreign maritime activity in the country’s waters and remained vigilant in safeguarding national sovereignty.

-- BERNAMA