Cross borders: Malaysia and Singapore continue to dispute air and sea boundaries
- Kuala Lumpur and the Lion City exchange terse rejoinders a day after taking their disagreements public
- Political uncertainty in Malaysia ‘inevitably leads to Singapore being used as a bogeyman’, observers say
Bickering between Malaysia and Singapore over their maritime and air boundaries continued for a second day on Wednesday, as both sides hunkered down on their respective positions after abruptly taking the disputes public a day earlier.
While the neighbours on Tuesday said they wanted to deal with the issues “amicably”, rejoinders to the initial accusation and counter-accusation were terse.
Following a phone call between the two countries’ foreign ministers, Singapore said in a statement that its foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan had urged his counterpart Saifuddin Abdullah to see the “urgent need” to cease intrusion in the city state’s waters in order to “avoid escalating tensions on the ground”.
On the Malaysian side, Transport Minister Anthony Loke on Wednesday morning issued a full-throated statement countering Singapore’s claim that his country had violated the Lion City’s sovereignty by unilaterally altering boundaries around a port in the southern state of Johor.
Loke claimed Singapore’s position was wrong because it had judged its maritime boundary based on “basepoints” on reclaimed land.
These actions by Singapore amount to serious violations of Malaysia’s sovereignty
“It is trite law that land reclamation does not extend a state’s basepoints and/or baselines,” Loke said in a statement to the media. “As such, the altered port limits of Johor Bahru are in Malaysia’s territorial sea and it is well within Malaysia’s right to draw any port limit in our territorial sea in accordance with our national laws.”