The maritime boundary between Indonesia and the Philippines follows a generally east-west directional orientation and spans roughly 627 nautical miles. The boundary is composed of seven boundary segments that connect eight turning points and originates at a point lying just beyond the undelimited waters of Malaysia and Indonesia, a disputed area of continental shelf in the Celebes Sea known as Ambalat. It then extends in an easterly direction to a point in the Philippine Sea where the maritime rights of Palau come into play. The boundary was defined in a single agreement signed in 2014, twenty years after the first negotiations between the governments of Indonesia and the Philippines took place. The delimitation was based on the principle of equidistance.