Singapore, Indonesia sign landmark agreements on extradition, defence and airspace

Leaders Lee Hsien Loong and Joko Widodo ‘decisively settle’ long-standing issues, and endorse pacts on financial regulation, innovation and energy cooperation

Jakarta will control airspace above the Riau Islands and be free to repatriate wealthy fugitives, while Singapore’s armed forces will be able to train in Indonesia

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Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo at their leaders’ retreat on Bintan island. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:18pm, 25 Jan 2022

Indonesia and Singapore on Tuesday signed three landmark agreements covering extradition, defence cooperation and airspace management, ending years of wrangling over issues that had coloured bilateral relations.

Both sides agreed that Jakarta would now control the airspace above the Indonesian archipelago’s northernmost islands in the Natuna Sea, which borders the disputed South China Sea. Singapore had been administering the airspace above the Riau Islands since 1946 under the direction of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), but Indonesia had in recent years sought to reclaim it to enforce sovereignty over its borders.

They also concluded a treaty that will allow Jakarta to bring back fugitives including wealthy Indonesians thought to have sought refuge in the city state with millions of dollars from the Indonesian government’s liquidity funding after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

This treaty was initially signed in 2007 together with the defence pact allowing armed forces from space-starved Singapore to train in Indonesia’s expansive territory. But the defence pact stalled in the Indonesian parliament with lawmakers opposing then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono insisting it was not in Indonesia’s national interest. Singapore maintained that both agreements were part of a package and that the extradition treaty could come into force only at the same time as the defence pact.

In 2006, a year before the treaty was first signed, Merrill Lynch and Capgemini found that one third of Singapore’s high-net-worth individuals – those with more than US$1 million in wealth – were of Indonesian origin. The 18,000 Indonesians had total assets worth US$87 billion, the report said.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong with Indonesian President Joko Widodo at their leaders’ retreat on Bintan island. Photo: AFP

Indonesian President Joko Widodo – popularly known as Jokowi – and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong presided over the signing of the three landmark agreements at their leaders’ retreat on Tuesday, and endorsed six other pacts covering financial regulation, innovation and energy cooperation, among other things.