The IX Navy Regional Command Tightens Naval Patrol to Anticipate Cross-State Violations

AMBON - The Regional Command of the Navy (Kodaeral) IX Ambon has tightened naval patrols to anticipate cross-border violations in the Maluku waters.

Assistant Intelligence (Asintel) of the IX Regional Command of the Navy, Rear Admiral (KH) Iwan Hariwanto, said that surveillance was tightened because the Maluku waters had many open sea lanes and were directly adjacent to international waters.

"The supervision aspect in the waters and coastal areas will continue to be tightened to anticipate various potential maritime security vulnerabilities and other forms of violations of the law," said Iwan in Ambon, Wednesday (20/5), as quoted by Antara.

He conveyed this when representing the Commander of Kodaeral IX Laksda TNI Hanarko Djodi Pamungkas in the Foreign Person Supervision Meeting in Maluku Province.

According to Iwan, the geographical conditions of Maluku, which is dominated by an archipelago with thousands of islands and open shipping lanes, pose a challenge in monitoring the activities of foreign nationals (WNA), especially in coastal areas and outermost islands.

Therefore, he said, supervision requires collaboration between the Indonesian Navy, Immigration, local government, police, and other supervisory agencies that are included in the Foreigner Supervision Team (Tim Pora).

"We are ready to increase naval patrols, strengthen coordination with related agencies, and provide the necessary data and information so that supervision can run effectively. Synergy between institutions is the key to maintaining the sovereignty and security of our maritime territory," he said.

He explained that the naval patrol carried out by Kodaeral IX was not only focused on monitoring the activities of foreign nationals, but also anticipating cross-border crimes such as smuggling, immigration violations, illegal fishing, and the potential entry of foreign vessels without permission.

He said that the increase in maritime patrols would be carried out through the optimization of patrol ship elements, the exchange of maritime intelligence data, and the strengthening of coordination of joint operations between agencies in the Maluku region.

According to him, this effort is also in line with strengthening security in the eastern Indonesian waters, which have long been a strategic international shipping route.

Based on data from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP), the Banda Sea, Arafura Sea, and Maluku waters are areas prone to illegal fishing and cross-border violations because they are directly adjacent to neighboring countries.

In addition, the Indonesian National Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla) in a number of maritime surveillance reports also places the waters east of Indonesia as one of the priority patrol points due to the high mobility of foreign ships and cross-sea activities.