Jakarta. The Indonesian government sees no need to renegotiate international maritime law despite the emergence of new underwater drones, saying that it’s best to enforce the existing treaty.

The 1982 UNCLOS is the decades-old law that calls for ships to freely transit in the waters. However, it has not explicitly addressed modern-day challenges, lacking mentions of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and artificial intelligence-assisted targeting.

Indonesia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Arif Havas Oegroseno admitted that the UNCLOS did not fully anticipate these modern technologies, citing that the text uses “very old language”. Despite the emergence of the unmanned sea robots that are mainly deployed for underwater research, the archipelagic Indonesia doubts upgrading the UNCLOS is necessary. Jakarta also warns such changes can put the other articles at risk.

“No. If we renegotiate the UNCLOS, that would leave room for the 'reopening' [or changes] to the well-settled articles. So what’s important is the implementation,” Havas told the press on the margins of a symposium at the Dutch Embassy.

“The text doesn’t specifically say ‘underwater vehicles’ or drones, but at the end of the day, they should be treated as vessels.”

Dutch Ambassador Marc Gerritsen echoed Jakarta’s stance of keeping the treaty unchanged, calling for governments to “uphold the norms that the UNCLOS carries in itself”.

“... And also to make sure we interpret in such a way that it is consistent with current developments. And that current developments are not overtaking things, but are strengthening the UNCLOS. It remains the law of everything that is governing the sea and the freedom of navigation,” Gerritsen said.

The UNCLOS has been witnessing a surge in diplomatic popularity as the Strait of Hormuz closure drags on. Ever since the US-Israeli strikes on Tehran in late February, Iran has kept its stranglehold on the strategic strait that carries a quarter of the global maritime oil trade. The continued near shutdown has caused the global crude benchmark Brent to repeatedly break the 100-dollar barrier, even reaching the $110 a barrel on Monday.

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