Bandar Seri Begawan. The Indonesian government has said that no ASEAN or European diplomats had brought up the Malacca Strait tax chaos at their recent Brunei meeting, while reaffirming Jakarta's commitment not to slap charges on foreign ships for simply passing.

Just recently, Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa jokingly floated a plan to impose transit fees in the strategic waterway. The move was meant to copy Iran's shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz. Jakarta had repeatedly stated it would continue to honor international maritime law after Purbaya’s statement put the government under hot water. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy also denied that such tolls were ever in the pipeline.

Despite the clarification, all this took place less than a week before ASEAN and European Union (EU) chief diplomats gather in Brunei Darussalam for their biennial meeting. The Jakarta Globe asked Vice Foreign Minister Arrmanatha Nasir whether any foreign dignitaries had mentioned the Malacca Strait tax controversy during the conference.

"Over the past two days of the meeting, none of the participant countries raised that [Malacca tax] issue," Arrmanatha told the press on the margins of the meeting on Tuesday.

He went on to talk about the UNCLOS. According to Arrmanatha, some countries also underlined the need to abide by the decades-old maritime law in their national statements. This is the same treaty that recognizes Indonesia’s archipelagic statehood. The UNCLOS forbids countries from charging tolls on transiting ships.

“We [Indonesia] share the same stance of honoring the UNCLOS. This law fundamentally builds our archipelagic country. So we have to uphold the UNCLOS in its entirety and not be selective with the rules," Arrmanatha said.

The Strait of Malacca -- bounded by Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand -- carried 29% of total maritime oil flows in the first half of 2025. The 900-kilometer waterway is also the shortest route for a ship to go from East Asia to the Middle East and Europe or vice versa.

A joint statement from the ASEAN-EU ministerial statement has one long paragraph dedicated to the marine traffic hurdles, particularly the Hormuz blockade. 

The two world’s economic powerhouses expressed “deep concern over any discriminatory or unilateral measures, that may impede or obstruct vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz”. This statement also applies to “any straits used for international navigation”, according to the 63-point document. 

Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan -- who had previously commented on the Malacca levy -- was also in the Brunei meeting. When Purbaya’s statement went viral, Hasan said that the four bordering countries could not make any unilateral decision on the strait, adding that they all share a “water-tight understanding”.

“ASEAN is entirely based on consensus,” Hasan was quoted as saying by the Malaysian state news agency Bernama.

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