REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi expressed concern over the late notification of an incident involving a Taiwanese "Hsiang Fu Chen" vessel, which lost contact while sailing near the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean.

"We have conveyed our concerns about the late report that we have just received, and according to the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Economy (KDEI), the Taiwanese authorities have not declared its official status," Minister Marsudi remarked here on Tuesday (10/3).

Hsiang Fu Chen was carrying a crew of 49, which comprised 21 Indonesians, 13 Filipinos, 11 Chinese, two Vietnamese, and a Taiwanese captain and a technical head. The vessel had made last contact at 3 a.m. local time, on February 26.

According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry's Director of Indonesian Citizens and Legal Entities Protection, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, Taiwan should have immediately notified about the incident to the related countries whose nationals were on board the vessel.

"They should notify us immediately. Moreover, most of the ship's crew members are our nationals," he emphasized.

"We have conveyed our concerns, and now, we must focus on the search efforts. We must not be trapped in the blame game," Iqbal added.

Currently, the Indonesian government has identified its 21 nationals on board the Taiwanese "Hsiang Fu Chuen" vessel, which reportedly went missing.

"We have already identified them, but we still cannot release the details to the media as the first side that has the right to know is their families," Iqbal stated.

Besides identifying the 21 Indonesian nationals, Iqbal noted that the government had contacted five agencies that had sent them to Taiwan.

The five agencies are PT Media Maritim Tegal, PT Mutiara Jasa Bahari, PT Binar Jaya Pratama, PT Puncak Jaya Samudra, and PT Bima Samudera Bahari.

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