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BALI: Bilateral ties between Singapore and Indonesia entered a new phase on Friday with the signing of two landmark agreements - the Extradition Treaty and the Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA).
The agreements were signed today in Bali and witnessed by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Mr Lee described the two agreements as important and stressed the time is now ripe to focus attention on enhancing cooperation in many more areas.
The meeting between the Singapore and Indonesian delegations took place at the Presidential palace at Tampak Siring.
And during the four-eye meeting, first with the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and later at the delegation meeting with Ministers and senior officials of both sides, both Prime Minister Lee and President Yudhoyono endorsed the need to further enhance cooperation, to take advantage of what is seen as "an exciting new era in Asia".
But all eyes were focussed on the signing ceremony of the two landmark documents – first, the Extradition Treaty inked by the Foreign Ministers of both countries and next, the Defence Cooperation Agreement, signed by the Defence Ministers from both sides.
Prime Minister Lee noted, it was not easy to hammer out the deal because both sides had to make significant compromises:
"You have to work out a package where both sides have got a good and fair deal but neither side feels that this is imbalanced. And it also has to be a package which can be explained and sold and defended to the parliaments and to the voters and to the citizens of each of their countries.
"And there are sensitivities on both sides because on the Singapore side, people will ask why are we doing this, why are we concluding an extradition treaty…
"…and on the Indonesian side the question will be asked as has been asked today, why do we need the DCA, what is the benefit to Indonesia and it is necessary for us to explain that the ET makes sense, the DCA makes sense and together also taking the whole package it makes sense to us and to the other side and on a sustained basis…
"…because we are not talking about something which is just three year or five years, this is an arrangement which is going to last a considerable period of time and it has to be in accordance with the true interests of both parties for it to be workable and sustainable.
"That took a long time to negotiate because it’s not easy for us to reach these compromises and having reached these compromises, it will now become necessary for the treaties to be ratified and the explanations to be made to the populations so that they will understand and they will support it," said PM Lee.
President Yudhoyono said, "The DCA has a wider scope, the benefits for both sides are more clear. So we hope that this agreement will enable both sides to protect the professionalism of our co-operation in this area, as well as expanding it to the security of the Malacca Straight and in ASEAN."
Mr Lee added that the signing of the Extradition Treaty will clear an issue which has been outstanding for more than 30 years.
But he was quick to caution that it will not solve all problems.
Still, he stressed that it will be a deterrence to Indonesian fugitives who are fleeing from justice.
As for the Defence Cooperation Agreement - this will deepen and strengthen ties between the armed forces of both countries, something which goes back a long way.
Prime Minister Lee adds that now that the defence cooperation agreement and the extradition treaty have been cleared, Singapore and Indonesia can now focus their attention on other areas of cooperation.
These include tackling the bird flu, preventing forest fires and the haze and developing the special economic zones of Batam, Bintan and Karimun.
"This is a project where both sides have a stake, where it is necessary for the leaders to pay attention to it personally to make sure it goes in the right direction and to put emphasis on it so that we would be able to make progress in the next two three years where there is this window of opportunity where companies are looking for places to invest in Asia, China plus one…
"and we should make Batam, Bintan and Karimun and Indonesia one of the important plus ones which such companies have to consider when they are looking for investments in Southeast Asia," said Mr Lee.
Mr Lee says Southeast Asia must be strong and united so that Singapore and Indonesia can ride the tremendous wave of Asian growth together.
And one way to achieve this is to build an enduring partnership between Singapore and Indonesia. - CNA/yy
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