Later this month, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is expected to host Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for their annual retreat, most likely in Batam, Riau Islands. This can be another diplomatic scoop for the President to strengthen his credentials, especially now that Indonesia assumes the Group of 20 presidency, as he shows how to resolve complicated disputes amicably.

The Omicron variant hopefully will not spoil the scheduled summit, during which the two leaders will witness the signing of four documents, including a legal umbrella for the agreements, by four ministers from each country.

As a legal umbrella, Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan and his Singapore counterpart Theo Chee Hean will sign a separate document to cover the three agreements. Hean reportedly insisted that the Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) should stay as it was when he signed it as Singapore’s defense minister in 2007.

The DCA will be signed by Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and his Singaporean counterpart Ng Eng Hen. For me, Prabowo’s readiness is surprising, because the agreement is politically unpopular and it could backfire on him if he runs for president in 2024. But he should have calculated the consequences. After all, his status as Gerindra Party chairman will be crucial in pushing the House of Representatives to ratify the agreement. During the Yudhoyono administration the House refused to ratify the DCA.

The Extradition Treaty will be signed by Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly, who is a senior Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) member. As the PDI-P and Gerindra are among the largest factions in the House, their role will be instrumental in making the legislative body accept the deal.

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi and his Singaporean counterpart S. Iswaran will be in charge of the FIR affairs. Under the new scheme, Singapore will only be able to reach up to 90 nautical miles of Indonesia’s airspace, a bit further from Batam until around Pekanbaru.

According to the official, who attended and actively participated in the negotiations from the very beginning, a combination of Indonesia’s much better preparedness in dealing with the complicated and detailed legal matters and the key role of Luhut as a “sledgehammer” during the final decision-making process gave Indonesian a strong bargaining position. In the meantime, Singapore is convinced the new treaties will benefit it in the long term.

Still, according to the senior official one of the key game-changers was Indonesia’s ability to prove that the 1973 FIR agreement with Singapore was no longer valid after the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). In 1946, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) granted the FIR rights for Singapore, including controlling Indonesia’s aviation traffic. Since 1973, the island state’s FIR rights included the whole Riau region and some parts of Kalimantan.

UNCLOS has changed the status of Natuna waters from a free sea status to archipelagic waters because Indonesia is an archipelagic state. Even though UNCLOS is a “law of the sea”, its provisions also affect airspace and the operation of aircraft. Therefore, archipelagic waters and the airspace above them are sovereign and part of the territory of Indonesia.

“I described to our counterpart that with UNCLOS the marriage between the two countries lost its legality. We now live together with no marriage certificate. Therefore, the husband and wife must get a new legal status,” said the official.

“ICAO also recognizes our new rights as an archipelagic state,” he added.

With the new treaties, of course after the House ratifies them, Indonesia and Singapore will enter a new phase of more mature bilateral relations. Leaders of the two countries have demonstrated readiness and ability to make mutual sacrifices in the alienating long-standing deficit of trust among the public and elites.

We hope the scheduled meeting in Batam will not repeat the embarrassment that followed the summit in Bali on April 27, 2007. At that time, president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and PM Lee witnessed the signing of two milestone treaties on defense cooperation and extradition between the two countries.

Back then Indonesia agreed to continue letting the Singapore military use Indonesia’s territory for its routine training, not for free of course, and hoped the extradition treaty would enable the government to bring back home super-rich Indonesians who had been found guilty of robbing billions of dollars in liquidity assistance disbursed during the 1997-1998 financial crisis.

The House however refused to ratify the Defense Cooperation Treaty, saying it was a blatant violation of Indonesia’s territorial sovereignty. Singapore insisted the two treaties should be treated as one package. So take it, or leave it!

For Singapore, the extradition issue is actually not a big fuss, as the agreement will only pave the way for repatriation of the corruption convicts, while their money will remain safe in the island state. In bringing back the money, the government must use the Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) framework.

Anyway, the historic treaties will be crucial and mutually beneficial for the two countries. There is a transparent give-and-take process.

President Jokowi should make sure the House does not find new excuses to turn down the agreements, again, or individuals or a group who look to file a judicial review with the Constitutional Court to invalidate the treaties. The deal, for better or worse, serves the interests of the nation.

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The writer is a senior editor at The Jakarta Post.