The two countries reached a "mutually acceptable" in-principle agreement to settle their 18-month dispute over Singapore's land-reclamation works in the Johor Strait, according to a joint government statement on Friday, Jan 14.

Political experts said the deal was an early sign of warming ties between the two ASEAN members, which would help set the foundation for resolving larger disputes between them.

Singapore's former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong had said that the countries should seek to resolve their many disputes by dealing with the less thorny issues first, or plucking the "low-hanging fruits".

Bilateral relations have been complicated since Singapore and Malaysia formally separated in 1965. But they have warmed over the past year, since veteran and outspoken Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad retired. His successor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, has adopted a more consensual approach to foreign relations.

"It's one of the signals of warming relations between the two countries," said Alan Chong, associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.

"They are now taking out one of the low-hanging fruits," he said.

Malaysia took Singapore to the Hamburg-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in September 2003, accusing its tiny island-state neighbour of going ahead with the land reclamation without consulting Malaysia. It raised concerns about the impact on navigation and on the local environment.

Singapore defended the dredging work, saying its roughly 4 million people occupied an island covering an area smaller than Hamburg and that it had been reclaiming land for housing, economic and industrial uses for more than a century.

Under the agreement, the two countries agreed the strait constituted "a shared water body" and recognised a common interest in cooperating to ensure the safety of navigation there.

They also recognised that they have a common interest in cooperating to protect the environment.

By resolving the dispute over land reclamation, Chong said the nations could move on to tackle more contentious issues such as the cost of water Malaysia supplies to Singapore, and the sovereignty of a small island islet east of Singapore.

But many bigger disputes still remain to be resolved, including Malaysian plans for a bridge over the strait and the fate of disused Malaysian-owned railway land in Singapore.

Additional reporting by Koh Gui Qing in Singapore

                                                      Home