IN an effort to avoid a deadlock in its negotiations on a defense cooperation agreement (DCA) with Singapore, Indonesia will likely allow Singapore to bring a third party to its military training exercises on Indonesian territory, the country's chief negotiator says.

Maj Gen Dadi Susanto, who is also defense strategy director general at the Defense Ministry, said four areas of disagreement remain out of a total of 17 articles, including the inclusion of the third party in Singapore's military training, especially in its air force training.

"After various internal discussions, we have decided that we can allow them but we must give our consent every time Singapore brings in a third party," he told the Jakarta Post in an exclusive interview last week.

Indonesia, he said, also wanted the third party to be subjected to the agreement, especially the provision that Indonesia will have jurisdiction over any criminal offenses that may occur during the training.

"We are ASEAN members, and if Brunei or the Philippines want to join the training, we will allow them. In principle, Indonesian law should be applied on Indonesian territory," he said.

Many here said third-party inclusion is the most sensitive issue in the agreement as several groups have expressed fear that the inclusion of third party, which some said could be the US, would undermine Indonesia's sovereignty.

It appears that Indonesia is also willing to compromise in all the other areas of disagreement.

Indonesia initially wanted the agreement to last five to 10 years, with a renewal every five years. Singapore wants 15 years, with a renewal every five years until 25 years.

"We agreed to add 10 years because our president has a maximum term of 10 years. If we can't resolve the difference, we will hand it over to our leaders," Dadi said.

Another dispute is over access to Indonesian territorial waters for training.

"Singapore wants the training to be conducted in areas where many fishermen from Malaysia look for fish and which are used as a route from West Malaysia to Sabah and Sarawak in East Malaysia.

"We can't allow this because we signed a treaty with Malaysia in 1982 on this matter. We propose that Singapore shift a little bit to another location," Dadi said.

On the fourth problem -- Singapore's reference to the South China Sea as its traditional training area -- Indonesia is also expressing willingness to find a solution.

"There is no such thing as a traditional training area in the 1982 Unclos (United Nation Convention on Law and Sea). What exists are traditional fishing rights. We reject that because we don't want to violate international and domestic laws. We are still trying to find ways to avoid deadlock," Dadi said.

DCA is an agreement to facilitate Singapore's military trainings inside Indonesian territory, including air, land and naval exercises.

Air force training, which consists of air combat maneuvering areas and air weapons areas as well as an overland flight training space, will be done above Pekan Baru in Riau.

For naval training, Indonesia has provided Kayuara island in the South China Sea. Army training will be conducted on the Indonesian Army's 43,000 hectares of land in Baturaja, South Sumatra.

Indonesia appears to want to conclude the DCA as soon as possible.

                                                      Home