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SINGAPORE: Singapore and Indonesia have agreed to elevate discussions on the extradition treaty and defence cooperation agreement to the ministerial level.
This is done so that they can be jointly concluded on the basis of "an overall balance of benefits" agreed to between Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Revealing this in Parliament, Foreign Minister George Yeo said both countries believe they are not far from a solution.
Minister George Yeo said Singapore's relations with Indonesia were improving, until recently.
In fact, in October 2005, Prime Minister Lee had held a retreat with President Yudhoyono in Bali and they both agreed to negotiate an extradition treaty and a defence cooperation agreement in parallel, and concluded as a package.
Good progress has been made on both matters even though a few difficult issues remain.
Nonetheless, these gaps could be overcome.
"Unfortunately, despite these positive developments, other issues have recently emerged that could sour relations and affect bilateral cooperation," said Mr Yeo.
On February 5, Indonesia banned the export of land sand to Singapore.
Indonesian legislators argued it was a way to put more pressure on the Republic to move faster on the extradition treaty and border demarcation.
However, Mr Yeo stressed that his counterpart in Jakarta had clarified that the sand ban was not to pressurise Singapore.
He said: "Last week, I met Minister Hassan during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Retreat in Siem Reap. He repeated that there was no linkage between the ban on land sand and other bilateral issues. He explained Indonesia's environmental concerns.
"I told him that our offer to work with Indonesia on these concerns was still on the table. On sand, I acknowledged Indonesia's prerogative to stop its export – subject to international rules, of course. I told him we were disappointed, but we would find alternatives."
Early last week, another issue arose with reports that the Indonesian Navy was detaining barges carrying granite chips to Singapore.
However, both the Indonesian Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministers assured their Singapore counterparts that there was no ban on such exports.
On Monday, Singapore's Foreign Ministry delivered a Third Party Note to the Indonesian Embassy asking the Indonesian government to take immediate action to release detained vessels.
Mr Yeo said: "From time to time, we must expect countries to pressure us in the hope that we will then give way to their demands. Singaporeans know that if we give in to such pressures, we would only invite more such pressures.
"However, we are always prepared to build good relations with them on the basis of mutual respect and mutual benefit. We should still help them when they are in difficulty not because we expect gratitude or reward, but because that is the right thing to do."
- CNA/so
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