PEDRA BRANCA

Dr Ong Chit Chung asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs (a) what progress has been made in referring the issue of Pedra Branca to the International Court of Justice; and (b) whether the Singapore and Malaysian Governments have ratified the Special Agreement.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs (Prof. S. Jayakumar): Mr Speaker, Sir, after the signing of the Special Agreement on 6th February 2003, the next step is for the two Governments to ratify the Special Agreement and exchange the Instruments of Ratification. Only after this is done can both Governments jointly refer the dispute to the International Court of Justice. On 17th February, we informed Malaysia that Singapore Government has ratified the Special Agreement and we proposed that both Governments exchange the Instruments of Ratification on 24th February 2003 when both Foreign Ministers would be in Kuala Lumpur for the Non-Aligned Meeting. The Malaysian Government replied on 19th February stating that because of heavy commitments that month arising from their hosting of the NAM Summit in KL, it was unable to do so on that date but would propose a new date for the exchange of Instruments of Ratification in due course.

That is where things stand and we have, on 11th April, reminded them again to propose dates for this formality of exchange of Instruments of Ratification.

Dr Ong Chit Chung (Jurong): Sir, does the Minister find it surprising that the Malaysians, who were hurrying us on the date for signing the Special Agreement earlier on, are now dragging their feet on the essential issue of instruments of ratification?

Prof. Jayakumar: Well, in a sense, it is surprising. And I do not know why that is so. I am also as puzzled as the Member is as to why Malaysia is taking so long to ratify the Special Agreement. Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar and I agreed, when we signed the Special Agreement in Putra Jaya on 6th February 2003, that ratification of the Special Agreement would be done expeditiously by both sides so that the ICJ process can begin. More than eight weeks have passed since the hosting of the Non-Aligned Summit, and Dr Ong is right that Malaysia has criticised Singapore for delaying the signing of the Special Agreement. Now that we have signed the Special Agreement, we should get on with the next step without unreasonable delay.

I hope that the Malaysian government would be able to, as it had promised, propose dates for the exchange of Instruments soon. As I have said, we have reminded them recently on 11th April.