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Seeking to cool a simmering territorial dispute with Malaysia that has boiled over to the presidential campaign trail, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to fast track talks with Kuala Lumpur on a settlement to the Ambalat waters issue.

The two sides have met 13 times since 2005 about conflicting claims of sovereignty over the oil-rich waters off the northeast coast of Borneo Island, but haven’t sat down since April 2008. They are scheduled to meet again in July, said Widodo AS, coordinating minister for political, security and legal affairs.

“The president asked the Foreign Affairs Ministry to speed up its negotiations with Malaysia over the Ambalat issue,” Widodo told reporters after Yudhoyono chaired a meeting of military and security officials at the presidential office.

Widodo said the president discussed various domestic security issues, including two recent intrusions by Malaysian warships into Indonesian waters in the Ambalat area.

While Yudhoyono said the Ambalat issue should be resolved through bilateral talks, Widodo said “Malaysia should respect the ongoing negotiation process and not engage in provocations.”

“We don’t want any acts of violence that can be a disadvantage to all parties and firmly protecting our national sovereignty remains our highest responsibility.”

The long-running dispute returned to the fore when the Navy said Malaysian naval ships encroached into Indonesian territory on May 25 and on Saturday. The Navy said they were at least the 9th and 10th incidents this year involving Malaysian military or police vessels, while the National Police said on Monday that they had apprehended at least 11 Malaysian fishing boats in Indonesian waters around Ambalat.

With the July 8 presidential election just weeks away, candidates have sought to score political points on the dispute. Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who is gunning for the top job, said on Monday that the country was “ready to be in a war,” while vice presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto claimed that Indonesia was militarily vulnerable because of its small defense budget.

Effendi Gazali, a political analyst at the University of Indonesia, said the candidates must be ready to explain their national defense policies since they’re using Ambalat as a campaign issue. “The issue is not ‘war’ or ‘not war,’ but about our defense systems,” he said. “What will the candidates do to upgrade the defense systems?”

However, Bima Arya, a political analyst at Paramadina University, said international affairs were not big issues in domestic campaigns. “The impact on the grass roots is not strong,” he said.