Singapore, Indonesia agree on western maritime boundary

Neighbours' first pact since 1973 paves way for talks on border's eastern segment
Salim Osman, Straits Times 4 Feb 09;

JAKARTA: - Indonesia and Singapore have agreed on the western segment of their maritime border after nearly four years of negotiations, officials here said.

The new borderline was drawn between Indonesia's Pulau Nipah and Singapore's Sultan Shoal, and is the first agreed upon since the two countries last signed a border pact in 1973.

Disclosing this, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that Indonesia can now further explore economic development in territories including the Batam, Bintan and Karimun islands.

'With a clearer boundary, there would be economic expansion in Indonesia, including forging cooperation with Singapore and Malaysia,' he said after a Cabinet meeting on Monday.

Yesterday, buoyed by the agreement, Dr Yudhoyono used another Cabinet meeting to call for a blueprint to develop Pulau Nipah, including setting up a military post to be manned by the Indonesian navy on the island. 'It is one of the outer islands with strategic value for our country,' presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng told reporters after yesterday's Cabinet meeting.

Pulau Nipah is located between the Indonesian islands of Batam and Karimun Besar.

In February 2004, then Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri placed a marker on Pulau Nipah to reinforce Indonesia's claim of sovereignty.

The move was made amid nationalist sentiment in the run-up to the legislative elections that year and followed reclamation works undertaken by Singapore.

Singapore has maintained that the reclamation works were carried out entirely within its territorial waters, and that they did not alter its maritime boundaries with Indonesia.

An Indonesian Foreign Ministry official involved in the border talks, Mr Arif Havas Oegroseno, told The Straits Times agreement was reached in December, after a series of discussions that started in February 2005.

'We achieved a breakthrough in the negotiation in Bali and the pact was finalised in Singapore,' said the director for treaties on political security and territorial affairs. He said Singapore agreed not to use its southern reclaimed shoreline as the basis to determine the border.

The line that forms the western segment of the boundary between both countries was finally drawn halfway between Pulau Nipah and Sultan Shoal.

Mr Arif noted that the two countries had agreed on the central segment of their territorial sea boundary in the Strait of Singapore in 1973.

'Now we are ready to negotiate the eastern segment of our maritime boundary,' he said.

Discussions on this segment could not previously get under way because of Singapore's dispute with Malaysia over Pedra Branca.

Last year, the International Court of Justice granted Singapore sovereignty over Pedra Branca and awarded Malaysia the Middle Rocks outcrop.

The court did not make a definitive ruling on South Ledge, a rock formation in the vicinity visible only at low tide.