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Singapore's Foreign Affairs Ministry has denied that it is deliberately hampering the defense cooperation agreement (DCA) process between Indonesia-Singapore by delaying the extradition agreement.

By the spirit of friendship and cooperation, the ministry instead claimed to have presented a proposal to Indonesia that contains a method of continuing and advancing cooperation agreements between the two countries.

“Yet, so far Singapore has not yet received any response from Indonesia regarding the proposal,” said Singapore's Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson in a press statement sent via fax from Singapore's Embassy in Jakarta, Friday (6/7),

Singapore instead accuses Indonesia of hampering for refusing to sign the implementing arrangement on May 7.

This is in spite of the regulation having apparently been agreed by both sides on April 23.

Kristiarto, the Indonesia's Foreign Affairs Department's spokesperson, has not yet been able to provide any comment on Singapore's explanation.

Via an SMS, he said he was out of town.

Defense Minister Juwono Sudardono, said earlier that Singapore asked for military training 15 days a month in Bravo Area, which stretches from the Anambas Islands to Natuna Besar, Riau.

He considered this to be a very demanding request that Indonesia certainly rejected and that this was Singapore's attempt to hamper the DCA process so that the extradition treaty, which is in the same package, also failed.

Juwono also explained that the implementing arrangement for Bravo Area was not yet agreed on April 23, 2007.

What has been agreed was only the training location.

On the other hand, according to Singapore, it is Indonesia who has asked for substantive changes in the document that has been agreed, and this was the core problem.

Thus, Singapore reminded about the guarantee Indonesia promised that the DCA will not be altered from the agreement.
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Labels: Indonesia, Internet News, Singapore