Singapore files fresh rebuttal against Malaysia's Pedra Branca challenge

SINGAPORE — The Republic has filed a fresh rebuttal to Malaysia's ongoing challenge to the Pedra Branca judgment at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday (Oct 31).

The latest documents were filed with the ICJ on Monday, in response to a second application by Malaysia on June 30 challenging the court's 2008 ruling awarding the tiny island to Singapore. Putrajaya had asked the court to award waters around Pedra Branca, which sits at the entrance to the Singapore Strait about 30km east of the Republic, and a maritime feature south of it called South Ledge, to Malaysia.

Malaysia's second application followed an earlier one in February this year where Putrajaya cited what it claimed was the discovery of new facts from three documents recently discovered in the United Kingdom’s national archive, which it said would have resulted in a “different conclusion” by the ICJ. 

Singapore filed a rebuttal to Malaysia's first application on May 24.

Commenting on the Republic's rebuttal to Malaysia's second application, the MFA said on Tuesday: "Singapore’s written observations are a comprehensive rebuttal to Malaysia’s request for interpretation of the May 23 2008 judgment.

"Singapore is confident of its case and its legal team. After the written proceedings, the next step is for the parties to present their oral arguments after the ICJ has fixed the schedule for the oral proceedings."

The ICJ has yet to fix a date for the oral hearings, according to a Facebook post by Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan on Tuesday. 

He added: "We hope that Malaysia’s interpretation request and its earlier revision application can be resolved as soon as possible, so that both countries can focus on strengthening our bilateral ties."

Separately, the MFA said Singapore has picked Judge Gilbert Guillaume to sit as judge ad hoc with regards to Malaysia's second application. Judge Guillaume, a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague in the Netherlands and a former President of the ICJ, was also chosen by Singapore to sit as judge ad hoc for Putrajaya's first application.

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.