Singapore seen to be meddling in Spratlys pact
The Star, Malaysia
October 31, 2002
Comment by MERGAWATI ZULFAKAR
Related:
Singapore meddling in Spratlys - Filipino Foreign Affairs Philippine Star
AN intriguing article headlined ?Singapore meddling in Spratlys? appeared in the Philippine Star recently in which the island republic is accused of trying to gatecrash a declaration being drafted for adoption by claimant countries to avoid conflict in the oil and mineral-rich area.
It is obvious Singapore has no business in the Spratlys as it is a non-claimant country.
The claimant countries comprise four Asean members ? Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and the Philippines ? while Taiwan and China also have a stake.
So why does Singapore want to be included in the activities when it is not a claimant?
Asean leaders at their summit in 1998 agreed to promote efforts to establish a regional code of conduct within the South China Sea on how claimant countries should behave and go about resolving the issue of the Spratlys.
But it hit a snag when members could not reach an agreement on the geographical scope of the code.
Things picked up again in July during the Asean Ministerial Meeting when Malaysia proposed that the group issue a declaration as a confidence-building measure towards creating peace and security within the South China Sea.
Everything went well and the draft Declaration on the Conduct of the Parties in the South China Sea is set to be adopted at the Asean summit in Cambodia on Nov 4-5.
But now Singapore has thrown a spanner in the works. It wants to be involved directly in the activities in the Spratly islands.
Singapore apparently made representations at a recent senior officials meeting about its desire to have non-claimant countries included.
One can?t help but wonder why Singapore is doing this because all 10 members of Asean will be ?signatories? to the declaration.
The Philippine Star report said Singapore does not want the declaration to be confined exclusively to between China and the other Spratly claimants.
Being a non-claimant country, Singapore can only hope to be ?invited? to join in the activities.
The draft of the declaration, among other things, states that the ?parties concerned,? meaning the claimant countries, may explore or undertake co-operative activities including marine environmental protection, marine scientific research, safety of navigation and communication at sea and search-and-rescue operations.
Perhaps if there is no other way to get the declaration adopted by every single member, then the Asean claimant countries could make the declaration exclusive among themselves.
But that is not the Asean way of doing things, is it?
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