Sabah kept in loop on Malaysia-Indonesia Sulawesi Sea Treaty negotiations, says CM

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is being kept in the loop on the ongoing Sulawesi Sea Treaty negotiations between Malaysia and Indonesia to determine maritime boundaries.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said this after a high-level briefing on the Sulawesi Sea Treaty signed between Malaysia and Indonesia on June 8.

"We are being kept in the loop on the latest developments and ongoing negotiations to determine the border and areas in dispute within our maritime boundaries.

"Sabah will honour the treaty but we also want to ensure Sabah's rights are intact and all issues are resolved amicably (in the ongoing negotiation)," he said after chairing the State Security Working Committee special meeting at Menara Kinabalu near here on Wednesday (June 6).

Hajiji said the treaty between Malaysia and Indonesia Relating to the Delimitation of the Territorial Seas of the Two Countries in the Sulawesi Sea, which was signed on June 8 during the visit of Indonesia President Joko Widodo to Malaysia, had been hotly debated in the last Parliament sitting.

"It has been turned into a political issue and facts have been manipulated," he said.

The committee was briefed that the Sulawesi Sea Treaty only touched on the territorial sea border off Sebatik Island, not the continental shelf and beyond the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Pulau Sebatik is a shared island between the two countries in Sabah's south western Tawau district.

Briefing the State Security Working Committee were Federal Attorney General's Foreign Affairs division head Alfian Yang Amri, the Foreign Affairs Ministry's Maritime Affairs Department director-general Datin Paduka Nur Ashikin Mohd Taib and Survey and Mapping Department deputy director Powzy Mohd Som.

Present at the meeting were Sabah Stgate Secretary Datuk Seri Safar Untong, Federal government's secretary in Sabah Datuk Makhzan Mahyuddin, Special Adviser to the Chief Minister (International Relations) Senator Tan Sri Anifah Aman, Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Jauteh Dikun, Army's fifth division commander Major General Datuk Abdul Rahman Wahab and Sabah Security Director Datuk Noor Alam Khan.