Singapore halts defence cooperation agreement talks

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 03/11/2009 7:47 PM  

Singapore has ceased all negotiations on the controversial Defence Cooperation Agreement with Indonesia, defence minister Juwono Sudarsono said on Wednesday. 

The Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA), signed by the two heads of states in Bali on April 27, 2007, was never ratified by the Indonesian legislature due to a number of issues, including the volume intensity of proposed military exercises and also its location that was deemed intrusive to Indonesia. 

Under the agreement, Singapore had proposed to hold nearly weekly joint military exercises that would also include third foreign parties. 

Indonesia previously argued that negotiations over Singapore's joint exercise proposal had not finalized 

Singapore, meanwhile, had argued that the arrangement was already implicit in the agreement. 

According to Sudarsono, Singapore's recent move would render all extradition talks void as well. 

"That [the talks] would also cease to continue," he said, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com. 

He said he did not know the reason behind Singapore's decision. 

"You should ask them [Singapore]," Sudarsono said. 

On Tuesday, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeoh and Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirayuda had signed a treaty on the two countries' maritime boundary. 

Wirayuda was reported to have said that no mentioning was made regarding the DCA during the treaty signing. (amr)