S'pore made no new requests of Indonesia after signing defence pact: MFA
By Ng Baoying, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 06 July 2007 1719 hrs
SINGAPORE: Singapore has made no new requests of Indonesia after the two countries signed the Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) in April.
In a statement, the Singapore Foreign Affairs Ministry rebutted remarks made by Indonesian Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono on Wednesday.
He claimed that Singapore demanded 15 days a month for exercises in Area Bravo in South China Sea and this, he said, was unacceptable.
Mr Juwono also accused Singapore of stalling the DCA to avoid implementing the Extradition Treaty (ET).
Indonesia had apparently forwarded a proposal regarding the terms of Singapore's training in Indonesia, but Singapore had yet to respond.
But in its response, MFA clarified that it was actually Indonesia which refused to sign the subsequent (four implementing) agreements in May, despite agreeing to do so in April.
MFA added that Indonesia also asked for substantive changes to the documents.
Again, this was despite having repeatedly assured Singapore that it would not depart from what was agreed upon.
MFA said Singapore has made a proposal to Indonesia on how to move the process forward and is still waiting for Indonesia's reply. - CNA/yy
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/286622/1/.htmlIndonesia already make it clear Singapore is NOT WELCOMED to train in Indonesia........yet our leaders don't seem to get it. They still die die must cling on to the Indonesians. We got no sense of shame ah?
I say to our Defence Minister : Forget the ungrateful Indons and move on......