Landmark Singapore-Indonesia bilateral pacts draw critics, and a staunch defence - A Straits Times special

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (left) and Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the Singapore-Indonesia Leaders' Retreat. - The Straits Times/ANN

JAKARTA/SINGAPORE, Feb 13 (The Straits Times/ANN): Days after Indonesian leaders and media welcomed the landmark agreements announced at last month's Singapore-Indonesia Leaders' Retreat on longstanding bilateral issues - airspace management, defence cooperation and an extradition treaty - several Indonesian critics began to question the pacts.

Government officials have in turn come out to defend the agreements, and the need to see them in perspective, in some cases making detailed points that articulate Indonesia's approach to dealing with delicate, potentially thorny issues in a measured way.