The border between

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

and the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

consists of a

maritime boundary A maritime boundary is a conceptual division of the Earth's water surface areas using physiographic or geopolitical criteria. As such, it usually bounds areas of exclusive national rights over mineral and biological resources,VLIZ Maritime Boun ...

mainly on the

Celebes Sea The Celebes Sea, (; ms, Laut Sulawesi, id, Laut Sulawesi, fil, Dagat Selebes) or Sulawesi Sea, of the western Pacific Ocean is bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea and Mindanao Island of the Philippines, on the east b ...

that separates the two

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

n countries as defined through a pact that was signed by both parties in 2014. The border is also the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) boundary between Indonesia and the Philippines, which is delimited through eight

geographic coordinate The geographic coordinate system (GCS) is a spherical or ellipsoidal coordinate system for measuring and communicating positions directly on the Earth as latitude and longitude. It is the simplest, oldest and most widely used of the various ...

points. It has a length of dividing across the Celebes Sea to the Philippine Sea.

History

Miangas island territorial dispute

When

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

ceded the Philippines to the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

through the

Treaty of Paris of 1898 The Treaty of Peace between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Spain, commonly known as the Treaty of Paris of 1898 ( fil, Kasunduan sa Paris ng 1898; es, Tratado de París de 1898), was a treaty signed by Spain and the United Stat ...

, the sea borders of the Philippines were drawn in a rectangular line that resulted in ambiguous maritime boundaries of the neighboring territories including the then Dutch-colonized Indonesia. Territorial dispute arose in 1906 when then American Governor for the

Moro Province Moro Province was a province of the Philippines consisting of the regions of Zamboanga, Lanao, Cotabato, Davao, and Jolo. It was later split into provinces and regions organized under the Department of Mindanao and Sulu, along with the form ...

Leonard Wood Leonard Wood (October 9, 1860 – August 7, 1927) was a United States Army major general, physician, and public official. He served as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Military Governor of Cuba, and Governor-General of the Philipp ...

, went to the island of

Miangas Miangas or Palmas is North Sulawesi's northernmost island, and one of 92 officially listed outlying islands of Indonesia. Etymology ''Miangas'' means "exposed to piracy", because pirates from Mindanao used to visit the island. In the 16th centur ...

after he discovered that the island was included in the Treaty of Paris of 1898. He learned that the island was claimed by the Dutch East Indies after seeing a Dutch flag. In March 1906, the matter was referred by the United States government to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

through

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

. In October 1906, the Netherlands Foreign Ministry replied and explained the reasons why the island was included in the Dutch East Indies. A legal case was filed on January 23, 1925, by the Netherlands and the United States to the

Permanent Court of Arbitration The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is a non-UN intergovernmental organization located in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense, the PCA provides services of arbitral tribunal to resolve disputes that aris ...

, under a sole arbitrator Max Huber of Switzerland. It was decided on April 4, 1928, by Huber that the island is part of the territory of the Netherlands in its entirety. When Indonesia was no longer a Dutch colony and turned into a republic, the island of Miangas became part of its territory. Although, maritime boundaries surrounding the island as well as the border between Indonesia and the Philippines were unclear due to technicality.

Negotiations on sea borders

Indonesia and the Philippines are both signatories on the 1982

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 167 c ...

(UNCLOS). Eventually, Indonesia contested the sea territories of the Philippines as defined by the Treaty of Paris of 1898. Indonesia argued that the rectangular box drawn in the Treaty did not follow the UNCLOS. The Philippines understood the dispute of Indonesia but the Philippines was inclined to abide with Treaty of Paris due to pressure internally. In June 1994, negotiations to resolve the border dispute started between the two countries during the First Senior Officials Meeting on the Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary at

Manado Manado () is the capital city of the Indonesian province of North Sulawesi. It is the second largest city in Sulawesi after Makassar, with the 2020 Census giving a population of 451,916 distributed over a land area of 162.53 km2.Badan Pusa ...

, Indonesia. After which, the negotiations was inactive until 2003. In December 2003, Arif Havas Oegroseno from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia was designated to resume the negotiation talks with the Philippines. He continued the talks until 2010 when his successor took over his work to negotiate the sea border dispute. The series of negotiations from 1994 to 2014 were handled by the Joint Permanent Working Group on Maritime and Ocean Concerns (JPWG-MOC) helped by the three sub-working groups and the joint technical team.

Agreement

As the negotiation progressed, the Philippines reconsidered its position from what is defined on the Treaty of Paris of 1898 to conforming to the UNCLOS of 1982. On March 8, 2011, then Philippine

Secretary of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

Alberto del Rosario and then Indonesian Foreign Minister

Marty Natalegawa Raden Mohammad Marty Muliana Natalegawa, more commonly known as Marty Natalegawa (born 22 March 1963 in Bandung, West Java), is an Indonesian diplomat and was the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Second United Indonesia Cabinet. He served as ...

concurred to hasten the bilateral talks by signing a Joint Declaration that was issued during the state visit of then

President of the Philippines The president of the Philippines ( fil, Pangulo ng Pilipinas, sometimes referred to as ''Presidente ng Pilipinas'') is the head of state, head of government and chief executive of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of t ...

Benigno Aquino III Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (; February 8, 1960 – June 24, 2021), also known as Noynoy Aquino and colloquially as PNoy, was a Filipino politician who served as the 15th president of the Philippines from 2010 to 2016. The son of ...

. After eight meetings of the JPWG-MOC, an agreement on delimitation of maritime boundaries was finalized on May 18, 2014, at Jakarta, Indonesia. The agreement was signed by Del Rosario and Natalegawa on May 23, 2014, at

Malacañang Palace Malacañang Palace ( fil, Palasyo ng Malakanyang, ; es, Palacio de Malacañán), officially known as Malacañan Palace, is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the Philippines. It is located in the Manila distric ...

. The sea border agreement was ratified by Indonesian Parliament on April 27, 2017. The agreement remained pending on

Philippine Senate The Senate of the Philippines ( Filipino: ''Senado ng Pilipinas'', also ''Mataas na Kapulungan ng Pilipinas'' or "upper chamber") is the upper house of Congress of the bicameral legislature of the Philippines with the House of Representatives a ...

Committee on Foreign Relations for a little more than 5 years when on June 3, 2019, it adopted a resolution concurring in the ratification of the border agreement.

Border

The following table shows the geographical coordinates points (using

WGS 84 The World Geodetic System (WGS) is a standard used in cartography, geodesy, and satellite navigation including GPS. The current version, WGS 84, defines an Earth-centered, Earth-fixed coordinate system and a geodetic datum, and also descri ...

) as defined in the Philippine and Indonesian agreement on the Exclusive Economic Zone boundary that was signed in 2014.

References

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