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Can Singapore conduct traditional military exercises in Indonesian waters?
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A bilateral agreement has been concluded specifically to regulate the activities. What constitutes traditional fishers, where they can catch fish and what tools they can use have been agreed upon in the bilateral agreement so it can minimize disputes. (Shutterstock/Novikov Aleksey)
D
uring a bilateral negotiation between Indonesia and Singapore regarding Indonesia’s bid to take over a flight information region (FIR) recently, an unrelated issue emerged, namely Singapore’s right to conduct traditional military exercises in Indonesian archipelagic waters.
Though the issue is not new, this should have nothing to do with the negotiation of the FIR. This is related more to the pending Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) between Indonesia and Singapore. The agreement, which ended in 2003, was renewed and signed by the governments of both countries in 2007, but Indonesia’s House of Representatives refused to ratify it.
The pending agreement has a provision regarding Singapore’s right to conduct military exercises in Indonesian waters. Due to the House’s refusal to ratify the DCA, Indonesia argues that Singapore should stop conducting military exercises in certain parts of Indonesian waters.
Singapore insists that the right to hold military exercises in Indonesian waters is part of Singapore’s traditional right warranted under Article 51 (1) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Hence, Singapore can exercise its right with or without the agreement.
Article 51 (1) of the UNCLOS says an archipelagic state shall respect existing agreements with other states and shall recognize traditional fishing rights and other legitimate activities of the immediately adjacent neighboring state in certain areas falling within archipelagic waters.
Moreover, it says the terms and conditions for the exercise of such rights and activities, including the nature, the extent and the areas to which they apply, shall at the request of any of the states concerned be regulated by bilateral agreements between them.
Singapore insists the right to military exercise falls under the term “other legitimate activities”. Historical records by the Virginia UNCLOS Commentary briefly shows that Article 51 (1) was initially a joint proposal from Indonesia and Singapore.
