This study examines Indonesia’s sinking of illegal fishing ships influencing its relationship with countries in Southeast Asia region. Considering that the loss of and damages to national resources due to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Indonesia are so huge, President Joko Widodo has a commitment to no longer tolerate such a crime. The approach of his Minister of Maritime and Fishing Affairs has been to sink IUU Fishing ships which mostly flagged foreign flags. As a result, Indonesia’s relation with neighboring countries is affected. However, the assertive policy of Indonesia did not lead to a commotion among the states in the region. Hence, this study attempts to discover why Indonesia does not find significant obstacles to continuously carry out sinking foreign IUU fishing ships from its counterparts in Southeast Asia region namely Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Statements of the statesmen around the countries and other related documents on the matter are used to examine their response to the Indonesia’s policy. In line with the method, this study capitalizes neoclassical realism by Gideon Rose in which foreign policies are considered a reflection of systemic pressure, domestic political demands (innenpolitik), and state power.

The rise of China that goes along with strategic shifts around the Indian and the Pacific Ocean has started a new stage of major power contestation recently. ASEAN which acts as a host in Southeast Asia has certain stands to deal with the challenges and opportunities presented by the competition. On the other hand, the US Government with its global interests will never ever allow this region to fall into China’s influence. Simultaneously, both ASEAN and the US have the same approach in this situation to utilize the framework of Indo-Pacific cooperation that is definitively open to any explication in order to gain advantages resulted from the global interaction over the region. Nevertheless, their perceptions on the matter of defining the cooperative framework of Indo-Pacific are apparently diverse. Hence, this paper attempts to analyze the rationale of ASEAN and the US development of the Indo-Pacific cooperative concept based on their respective strategic assessment. This paper argues that the distinctive interests and insight of threats from ASEAN and the US toward the rise of China as well as major power contestation in the region are being the two main factors in their different perceptions on the concept of Indo-Pacific cooperative framework.