SINGAPORE has submitted a rebuttal in response to an application by Malaysia to reverse a 2008 international judgment that awarded sovereignty of Pedra Branca, also known as Pulau Batu Puteh, to the island-state.

Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that the government has filed its written observations to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

“Singapore is confident of our case and our legal team. The next step is for the parties to present their oral arguments after the ICJ has fixed the schedule for the oral proceedings,” a ministry statement was quoted as saying by The Straits Times.

In February, Malaysia submitted an application to reverse a judgment in May 2008 by the ICJ that Pedra Branca was a part of Singapore.

The ICJ had considered correspondence from 1953 between Singapore’s colonial officials and Johor as being of central importance in determining the sovereignty of Pedra Branca.

In those correspondences, Johor’s top official had apparently written in a 1953 letter that “the Johor government does not claim ownership of Pedra Branca”, the report said.

This shows, the court said, that while Johor had the original title, “as of 1953, Johor understood that it did not have sovereignty over Pedra Branca”.

In its application to overturn the ruling, Malaysia had cited three documents to argue its point that “Singapore’s officials at the highest levels did not consider that Singapore had acquired sovereignty over Pedra Branca from Johor” in the years following 1953.

It said two of the documents, which are from the United Kingdom National Archives, were declassified after the 2008 judgment. The third document’s release date is unknown.

The territorial dispute between the two countries had also involved two smaller maritime features; Middle Rocks and South Ledge, near Pedra Branca.

The ICJ’s judgment in 2008 said sovereignty over Middle Rocks belongs to Malaysia.

It did not make a definitive ruling on the third feature, South Ledge, saying it belongs to whoever owns the territorial waters it sits in. – May 26, 2017.