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SINGAPORE and Malaysia have set up a Joint Technical Committee to enforce next week's verdict on the sovereignty dispute over Pedra Branca.
The committee of officials is co-chaired by Singapore's Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs Peter Ho and Malaysia's Foreign Ministry secretary-general Rastam Mohd Isa.
The committee will meet today in Kuala Lumpur, a week ahead of the judgment that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will hand down in the Netherlands next Friday.
Malaysia's English-language daily the New Straits Times yesterday published an opinion piece by Malaysia's Foreign Minister Rais Yatim.
In his commentary, he put the emphasis on what both countries do post-verdict.
'It is what Malaysia and Singapore do after May 23 that will decide whether we can bring closure to a bilateral issue that has besieged us for more than three decades,' he wrote.
He also expressed the hope that resolution of the dispute over the island, which Malaysia calls Pulau Batu Puteh, would 'pave the way to easing our other outstanding bilateral issues with Singapore'.
The issues that have yet to be resolved include those on water, railway land and airspace.
On Monday, Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister S. Jayakumar said officials from both sides have been in touch on ways to ensure a 'smooth and problem-free' enforcement of the Pedra Branca judgment.
Regardless of which way the court ruled, it was good that the two neighbours had referred the matter to the ICJ, Prof Jayakumar said, as that 'sets a certain approach to the resolution of intractable disputes'.
Datuk Seri Rais took the same view in his opinion piece.
He wrote: 'There should be no acrimony on either side, no matter what the judgment may be, and on this both Malaysia and Singapore have agreed.'
lydia@sph.com.sg
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