JAKARTA: Indonesia and Malaysia will fix border signs to avoid misunderstanding, an Indonesian official said here on Wednesday, Xinhua News reported.
Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters before a parliamentary hearing that the repair will be based on the existing coordinates shown by satellite data.
“In case of displacement of border sign, we could fix them as we have the coordinates. Our border is not just determined by border signs but the most important thing with coordinates shown by satellites. Just send a joint team and fix them,” he said.
The minister commented on finding by parliamentary Commission I focusing on foreign affairs, military and police that claimed Malaysia has occupied several hectares of Indonesian territory.
Natalegawa said that according to Coordinating Minister for Politic, Law and Security Joko Suyanto, an Indonesian survey team has making a research in the border on Kalimantan Island. “It confirmed that the displacement of several borders signs on the sea was caused by abrasion. Meanwhile, several land border signs were ruined as they are built many years ago,” he said.
Natalegawa added that the border signs were made at the era of Dutch colonisation in Indonesia and British occupation on Malaysia in 1861, but they had not yet set demarcation line.
“We just agreed the demarcation line in 1978,” he said.