Depok, October 24th 2023. Universitas Indonesia (UI) through the Department of Geography, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FMIPA) together with The Society for East Sea, Northern Asian History Foundation, and the Indonesian Toponymy Community held an international seminar entitled The 29th International Seminar on Sea Names on 18th–21st of October 2023. The seminar, with the theme “Sustainable Geographical Naming at The Border Region For Peace and Tolerance: Asian Perspectives”, was held offline in the Auditorium Building I and Building IV, Faculty of Humanities (FIB) UI, Depok Campus, West Java .
The 29th International Seminar on Sea Names discussed international issues related to geographical naming especially in border areas, peace values, cultural heritage, and other toponymic studies. To accommodate this interdisciplinary study, experts from the Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities (FIB) UI and FMIPA UI acted as the local organizing committee. There were around 70 seminar participants, consisting of experts and academics in the fields of geography and linguistics from various countries, including Indonesia, South Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines and the United States.
The seminar was divided into five sessions, starting with discussing the conflict over naming the territorial waters located between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Korea named the waters the “East Sea” while Japan named the same waters the “Sea of Japan”, which is more internationally recognized. The Korean government has been trying to propose the implementation of a dual naming system since 1992. However, the Korean government’s hopes were only granted in 2020 by the International Hydrographic Organization through the S-130 policy which decided to use numerical identifiers in all maritime areas of the world.
Professor of Linguistics at FIB UI and Co-Chair of this activity, Prof. Dr. Multamia RMT Lauder said, “This is an international problem. Toponymy is the study of place names. Place names are very important because place names also form territorial boundaries, be that between countries, provinces or districts. The naming of a territory by a country must be honored to mutually respect each other’s territorial areas.”
First held in Indonesia, The 29th International Seminar on Sea Names took advantage of this momentum to compare similar problems that also occurred in the Southeast Asia region, namely regarding the conflict over the naming of the South China Sea. The naming of these waters is different in each bordering country. Since 2016, Indonesia has called it the North Natuna Sea, while Vietnam calls it Bien Dong or East Sea, and the Philippines calls it the West Philippines Sea. This naming is a tool for each country to secure their respective Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) in these waters.
Dean of FMIPA UI, Prof. Dede Djuhana, Ph.D said that the presence of the seminar participants enriched the discourse and strengthened FMIPA UI’s collective determination to address critical issues in geographical naming, with a focus on peace, tolerance, and understanding in border areas. In line with this, Dr. Taqyuddin, S.S., M.Hum, lecturer at the Geography Department, FMIPA UI and Local Chair for this activity said, “The aim of this toponymy event is to achieve peace and tolerance. This means that the naming of these places should not be debated and fussed over, but each country can give names to their respective territories so that relations on the borders are peaceful.”
