Jakarta, GIVnews.com – Indonesia is an archipelagic country that extends 5,120 kilometers from east to west, and 1,760 kilometers from north to south. The country has approximately 17,000 islands, of which only 6,000 are inhabited.

Indonesia’s land area reaches around 1,920,000 square kilometers, far below its sea area of almost 3,300,000 square kilometers. However, currently Indonesia has only two submarines to ply its vast seawaters.

Compare this with Singapore which has one submarine, Malaysia (2 submarines), Japan (3 submarines), China (77 submarines), and the United States (71 submarines), according to reports.

Yet, the Indonesian government’s plan of increasing the number of submarines to 12 remains a topic of discussion only. “It has been discussed since 2005, and at this time Indonesia still has two submarines only,” Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Ade Supandi told a national workshop on maritime affairs in Surabaya last Thursday (10/9).

Admiral Ade Supandi reminded the audience, including Technology Research and Higher Education Minister M. Nasir, that the government under the leadership of President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo has a vision of transforming Indonesia into a ‘World Maritime Axis’. The meeting was held to commemorate the 56th anniversary of the Indonesian Navy’s Submarine ‘Hiu kencana’ Unit, Tempo.co reported.

In the past, Indonesia had 12 submarines which supported its defence and security.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Navy’s chief spokesperson Col. M Zainuddin said in June of this year that some foreign submarines had suspectedly entered Indonesia’s seawaters in the past decade. They included the seawaters north of Java and off Banten.

In 2006, Col. Zainuddin said as quoted by cnnindonesia.com that some fishermen in Banten had spotted a submarine emerging from the sea, followed by the emergence of two small boats carrying white people from the submarine.

In last year’s presidential election campaign, Jokowi said to a group of retired high-ranking police and military officers that he would buy more submarines and sea patrol armadas for Indonesia if he was elected president. “We are obliged to buy submarines because we are a maritime country,” Jokow then said.

According to Ade Supandi, the Navy had ordered three new submarines from South Korea. They will be ready by April 2017, the admiral said.