Jakarta official lists issues in defence talks with Singapore

The Straits Times, February 24, 2007
By Salim Osman, INDONESIA CORRESPONDENT


Four sticking points, says Indonesia's chief negotiator

JAKARTA - INDONESIA'S chief negotiator to a defence agreement with Singapore has offered proposals which are reportedly aimed at avoiding a deadlock in talks.

Major-General Dadi Susanto told the Jakarta Post in an interview published yesterday that there were four unresolved issues in the negotiations over the 17-point Defence Cooperation Agreement.

These, he said, had to do with allowing third parties to join Singapore's military training exercises on Indonesian territory, the duration of the agreement, access to Indonesian territorial waters for training, and the concept of 'traditional training areas' in South China Sea.

The agreement was meant to restore defence cooperation between the two countries after Indonesia froze the use of a joint military training area in 2003.

Maj-Gen Dadi said that Jakarta was willing to allow Singapore to include a third party in its military exercises.

But, he said, that party must be subject to the provisions binding the signatories to the agreement, especially the condition that Indonesia has jurisdiction over any criminal case that might occur during training.

Jakarta 'must give our consent every time Singapore brings in a third party', he added.

'We are Asean members and if Brunei or the Philippines wants to join the training, we will allow them,'' said Maj-Gen Dadi. 'In principle, Indonesian law should be applied on Indonesian territory.'

The third party inclusion is the most sensitive outstanding issue, said the Jakarta Post, as several groups here have expressed fears that it could mean the United States taking part in the exercises. Many here see the US presence as undermining Indonesia's sovereignty and therefore unacceptable.

On the dispute over the duration of the agreement, Maj-Gen Dadi said that Indonesia initially wanted it to last five to 10 years, with renewal every five years. Singapore, he said, sought 15 years, with renewal every five years until 25 years.

'We agreed to add 10 years because our President has a maximum term of 10 years. If we can't solve the differences, we will hand it over to our leaders,' he said.

He also said Singapore wanted the training to be conducted in areas which, he said, are fishing grounds for fishermen from Malaysia and which are also used by them to travel from peninsular Malaysia to Sabah and Sarawak.

'We can't allow this because we signed a treaty with Malaysia in 1982 on this matter. We propose that Singapore shift a little bit to another location,' he said.

Maj-Gen Dadi also said Singapore wanted to refer to the South China Sea as its 'traditional training area'.

Indonesia objected to that because 'there is no such thing as a traditional training area' in the 1982 United Nations convention on the Law of the Sea', he said. 'We reject that because we don't want to violate international and domestic laws.'

But he added: 'We are still trying to find ways to avoid the deadlock.'

Indonesia and Singapore are in talks over an extradition treaty and the defence cooperation treaty. They had agreed in 2005 that the two pacts should be 'negotiated in parallel, as one package'.

But recently, senior Indonesian Foreign Ministry official Imron Cotan said Jakarta wanted the two agreements signed separately.

Shortly after, another official, Mr Primo Alui Joelianto, said Indonesia's recent ban on sand exports was a way to put pressure on Singapore over both the treaty issue and 'border disputes'.

Adding fuel to the debate over the sand ban and border issues, Parliamentary Speaker Agung Laksono then called on the government to send back the Singapore Ambassador in protest against reclamation works which he said threatened to encroach into Indonesian territory.

But Indonesia's armed forces chief, Marshal Djoko Suyanto, was reported as saying yesterday Singapore's reclamation project would not affect Indonesia's territory.

And Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda was reported by Antara news agency on Thursday as saying there was no plan to expel Singapore's Ambassador.

He also rejected charges that Singapore was seeking to expand its territorial waters and that the reclamation works would undermine a 1973 agreement laying out the sea border north of Nipah and Batam islands.

'Any developments as the result of reclamation, especially towards the south, would not change anything, including the sea boundary,' he said.

'What we are now negotiating is an extension of the sea boundary to the west and east from Singapore, Batam and Nipah.''