Whose Sea Cucumber Is It Anyway?

On 7 June 2017, I had a privilege to present ideas representing the UN-Nippon Alumni at the UN-Nippon Foundation Alumni High-Level Event held at the UN Building, New York. I participated in the UN-Nippon Foundation Fellowship program in 2007, a decade ago and I have been an alumnus for almost a decade now. It was a great honour to be selected as one of five out of 100 plus alumni. It is acceptable to be happy.

I presented a maritime boundary issue that Indonesia is now facing, something to do with the need to settle two kinds of maritime boundaries in one particular location. One boundary line is for the continental shelf (seabed) and the other one is EEZ (water column). I presented a famous situation between Indonesia and Australia where, due to different boundary lines, Animation was certainly something that I used to entertain around 90 people in the room.

Oil Concession and Maritime Boundaries

I had an opportunity to present my ideas on oil concession and the definition of maritime claim at the London International Boundary Conference on 5 June 2017. It was my firs time participating in the conference and also my first time to visit London. It was very interesting.

I presented my idea on 5 June, together with speakers from China, the UK, United States and Luxembourg. All went well and I hope that the participants enjoyed my talk. I also managed to extend my network by making friends with a number of participants and also speakers.

Here is a picture of the event: Me in between delivering a presentation.

Download my abstract here

DREaM 2016: Managing the Blue Planet

Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) has been conducting a summer program called DREaM since 2009 attracting young people from around the world to learn at UGM. This year, in 2016, the DREaM program is with a theme: managing the blue planet. In short, the program focuses on the issue related to ocean affairs and the law of the sea. The 2016 program attracts more than 4o students from a number of countries to come to Yogyakarta to learn and have fun at the same time.

I was asked by the organiser to deliver a lecture on geopolitics and maritime security. The lecture is on maritime boundary issues in ASEAN and beyond, including those in the South China Sea. It was interesting to observe how participants from China were interested in debate after the lecture. It shows how the topic attracts the participants, especially the Chinese, so much. The lecture was an interactive one where students did not only sit and listen but also actively asked questions and conveyed their opinion. I had fun.