Both countries contest ownership of the island group with Malaysia offering exploration acreage in the waters
Malaysian government officials arrested 131 mainly Indonesian illegal workers on the peninsula mainland on Tuesday which Indonesia said had nothing to do with its deployment of three warships to the disputed islands between the Malay state of Sabah and the Indonesian province of Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo.
Two Nomad surveillance aircraft have also been deployed.
Indonesia’s Oil and Gas Director General of the Mines and Energy Ministry Iin Arifin Takhyan in October last year firmly stated the area was within Indonesian territory despite a ruling from the International Court of Justice which handed Malaysia sovereignty over the area in 2002.
Nearby, Malaysia and Singapore are also currently in legal wrangles over the sovereignty of the tiny Pedra Blanca island, north-east of Singapore while Malaysia and Brunei contest the offshore Block J in which a Malaysian navy patrol boat chased a Total exploration vessel away from the area in 2003.
