<![CDATA[Malaysia and Singapore freeze port limit claims in bid to resolve maritime tensions, but water woes remain]>
Singapore and Malaysia on Thursday said they had resolved to begin negotiations over a disputed maritime boundary " one of three issues that had plunged ties between the neighbours to their lowest point in recent times.
Analysts welcomed the move but said any firm resolution was years away.
The two countries' foreign ministers said talks were ongoing over two other major sticking points that had caused open bickering in recent months " the price Singapore pays Malaysia for fresh water, and the city state's management of a small section of Malaysian airspace.
Singapore's Vivian Balakrishnan and his Malaysian counterpart Saifuddin Abdullah said both nations had agreed to suspend the implementation of their overlapping port limits for now.
In a joint statement following a meeting in Putrajaya, Malaysia, the ministers also said port limits in effect before October 25 and December 6 " when Malaysia and Singapore respectively tried to extend their maritime boundaries " would apply.
On top of this, no government vessels will anchor in the area, commercial activities will be suspended and no new ones authorised, and Malaysian and Singaporean vessels will operate in the area in accordance with international law including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The two governments will also establish a committee chaired by Malaysian foreign ministry secretary general Muhammad Shahrul Ikram Yaakob and Singaporean foreign ministry permanent secretary Chee Wee Kiong to ensure these recommendations are implemented within a month. Negotiations for maritime boundary delimitation in the area will commence within a month of that implementation.
If the committee is unable to reach a consensus on delimitation, the two nations can use an international third-party dispute settlement procedure.
Dr Mustafa Izzuddin of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore said the third-party arbitration caveat served as a viable diplomatic alternative to resolve disputes peacefully only if both parties agreed to accept the verdict, even if it was not in their favour.
"At this point, Malaysia and Singapore are prepared to settle the water spat through third party arbitration, which is certainly a welcome move to de-escalate the conflict and accept the verdict," he said.
The use of third party arbitration has only been used twice between the two nations " in 2008 when the matter of sovereign claim to the small island of Pedra Branca went to the International Court of Justice, which ruled in favour of Singapore, and in 2003 when the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ruled in favour of Malaysia over Singapore's land reclamation activities.
A Singapore Police Coast Guard vessel (centre) passes a Malaysian government vessel (left) in the waters between Singapore and Malaysia last December. Photo: EPA
The maritime dispute between the two Southeast Asian countries began after Malaysia extended the limits of its Johor Baru port on October 25, causing the Singaporean government to accuse it of encroaching into the waters off its Tuas planning area, the limits of which were extended by Singapore on December 6.
Singapore has previously said it exclusively patrolled the disputed waters without a challenge from Malaysia from as far back as 1999.
After rising tensions, in early January the countries extended a truce. Malaysia suspended the restricted status of an area in Pasir Gudang, Johor, which it had declared a military training zone, while Singapore postponed the implementation of an instrument landing system at its Seletar Airport that Malaysia claimed would interfere with development in Johor.
These airspace and maritime boundary disagreements are two of a trio of grievances between the two nations, whose diplomatic relations have undergone a chill since Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad returned to power last May.
Mahathir, who previously served as premier from 1981 to 2003, has historically been hawkish towards Singapore, which split from Malaysia in 1965.
The third quarrel between the two nations is that of the price of fresh water, with Malaysia saying it was "ridiculous" Singapore paid 3 Malaysian sen (less than 1 US cent) per 1,000 gallons of water " a price fixed in a 1962 agreement.
The resource-poor city state buys about half of its fresh water supply from Johor, the same southern Malaysian state with which it shares a maritime border.
Foreign ministers Balakrishnan and Saifuddin also discussed the water price issue on Thursday.
Singapore's Balakrishnan told reporters both sides had "differing views" on the right to review water prices.
Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has historically been hawkish towards Singapore. Photo: AFP
"Both of us have agreed that the attorneys general of Malaysia and Singapore will continue their discussions to better understand each other's positions on the right to review the price of water under the 1962 agreement," he said.
Observers believe this latest agreement may indicate smoother waters going forward, following a period where Singapore accused Malaysia of provocation after the Johor state chief minister visited the disputed waters on January 9.
Mustafa of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute said it was imperative that Malaysia and Singapore lower the temperature of their relations, and that the temporary pause was a good start.
"It is a fair and necessary bilateral agreement ... to ensure that Malaysia-Singapore relations do not flare up to the extent that it results in an outright confrontation or a rupture," said Mustafa, who is a fellow in regional strategic and political studies.
"[It] suggests that the preferred route is diplomatic negotiation to resolve conflict."
Foreign policy analyst Shahriman Lockman of Malaysia's Institute of Strategic and International Studies, however, pointed out that all these gripes could have been avoided if both sides had agreed to negotiate in the first place.
"It's taken almost 40 years since Malaysia first declared a maritime boundary in the area for this to happen. Singapore has kept everything ambiguous all that time," he said.
"What usually happens in cases such as this is for each side to clearly state where it believes the maritime boundary ought to be. They'll then resolve the issue by choosing the median line between the two claims. That might sound straightforward but it often takes negotiators years upon years of stonewalling to reach that conclusion."
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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