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S’pore rebuts Malaysia’s challenge on Pedra Branca

SINGAPORE — Singapore has filed its rebuttal to Malaysia’s recent challenge to the Pedra Branca judgment at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said on Thursday (May 25).

The tiny island of Pedra Branca sits at the entrance to the Singapore Strait about 30km east of the city state and 15km off peninsular Malaysia's southern coast on Jan 6, 2003. Reuters file photo

The tiny island of Pedra Branca sits at the entrance to the Singapore Strait about 30km east of the city state and 15km off peninsular Malaysia's southern coast on Jan 6, 2003. Reuters file photo

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SINGAPORE — Singapore has filed its rebuttal to Malaysia’s recent challenge to the Pedra Branca judgment at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said on Thursday (May 25).

In a statement, the MFA said Singapore’s written observations to the ICJ are “a comprehensive rebuttal to Malaysia’s application”.

“Singapore is confident of our case and our legal team,” it added. 

“The next step is for the parties to present their oral arguments after the ICJ has fixed the schedule for the oral proceedings.” In February, Malaysia filed an application at the ICJ to review its May 2008 judgment awarding the tiny island to Singapore.

According to Malaysia, it had “new facts”, originating from three documents recently discovered in the United Kingdom’s national archive, which it said would have resulted in a “different conclusion” by the court.

Singapore’s filing on Wednesday was well before the deadline of June 14 set by the ICJ. 

 

In a Facebook post, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said that Singapore’s written observations were the product of a whole-of-government effort involving the Attorney-General’s Chambers, National Archives, Maritime and Port Authority, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Law and the MFA.

He added that Singapore is fortunate to have former Senior Minister S Jayakumar, Senior Judge Chan Sek Keong, and Ambassador-at-Large Tommy Koh helming the legal team together with Attorney-General Lucien Wong. 

“Their wisdom, experience, and guidance has been invaluable to the younger lawyers on the team,” he added. 

“Their collective effort has been tremendous, and there is a strong sense of unity and purpose as we prepare for the oral arguments at the ICJ.”

When contacted, Malaysia’s Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali told TODAY he could not comment as he has not received or read Singapore’s rebuttal.  

The row over the ownership of Pedra Branca dates back to 1979, when Malaysia published a map indicating the island to be within the country’s territorial waters. 

Singapore lodged a formal protest with Malaysia in early 1980.

It took more than 20 years for the dispute to be brought before the ICJ in July 2003. 

In May 2008, after several rounds of written pleadings and public hearings, the court ruled Pedra Branca to be Singapore territory.

Article 61 of the ICJ’s Statute of the Court provides that an application for revision of a judgment may be made only when it is based upon the discovery of facts which were unknown to the court and the party claiming revision when the judgment was given.

In March, Dr Balakrishnan had told Parliament that Singapore’s legal team has studied Malaysia’s application carefully, including the three documents the country used to support its application.

“Our legal team strongly believes that the documents relied on by Malaysia do not satisfy the criteria under Article 61,” he said then.

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