Chapter 8 Regulation on Navigation of Foreign Vessels: Singapore’s Practice
Zhen Sun
I Introduction
Located at the crossroads of the East-West trade and with extensive connectiv- ity to the emerging Asian market, Singapore is the trading hub that connects Asia and the world.1 Singapore borders the Straits of Malacca and Singapore (soms), a strait used for international navigation as defined under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (unclos).2 The soms is the main shipping channel linking the East-West trade for oil, natural gas, and raw and manufactured goods. As the major trading hub in Asia, there are about 1,000 vessels at any given time within Singapore port, and more than 130,000 ships call at Singapore annually.3 Singapore is an island State that is separated from Malaysia by the Strait of Johor with a width of 0.8 to 2.6 nautical miles (M), and separated from Indonesia by the Singapore Strait with the widest point of less than 10 M.4 These geographic factors determine that the waters under Singapore’s jurisdiction is limited to internal waters, as defined under the Port Limits Notification 2010, and a very narrow territorial sea, with much part of the latter forming the Singapore Strait that is subject to the regime of transit passage.5
1 Maritime and Port Authority Singapore (mpa), “A Maritime Gateway to Key Asian Mar- kets,”
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This chapter will discuss Singapore’s practice of regulating foreign ships and identify the gaps that need to be filled. It will first chart the marine areas that are under Singapore’s jurisdiction, including internal waters, the limited ter- ritorial sea and the potential claim to an exclusive economic zone (eez). It will then review the regulation of foreign vessels within waters under Singa- pore’s sovereignty, including the criteria and procedures for foreign vessels to re-register to obtain the Singapore flag, and the scope and processes of port regulation and port State control. This chapter will then discuss Singapore’s rights to and practice of regulating foreign ships relating to innocent passage within its territorial sea and transit passage through the Singapore Strait. The last part of this chapter will discuss the measures that have been adopted by the International Maritime Organization (imo) based on the joint proposals from the three littoral States Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, respecting the Singapore Strait. The chapter concludes with recommendations.
II Singapore’s Maritime Jurisdiction
Singapore ratified unclos and the Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part xi of unclos on 17 November 1994 and became its 68th State Party.6 It is, however, geographically restrained from having the full extent of the mari- time areas set out in the unclos. Singapore has indicated that it has a territo- rial sea that extends up to 12 M and an eez, but has not adopted legislation to clarify its maritime claims.7 The Singapore Island is surrounded by the Malaysia Peninsula from the north semi-sphere with a narrow Johor Strait, and facing Indonesian islands across the Singapore Strait. The Johor Strait is about 27 M long that connects to the Strait of Malacca on the west, and the Singapore Strait on the south- east. The Singapore Strait is about 52.1 M long with a width of 8.7 M at the West entrance and 17.4 M at the East entrance.8 Singapore has settled its ter- ritorial sea boundaries with Malaysia in the Johor Strait, and the main parts
6 United Nations, Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (doalos), “Chronological Lists of Ratifications of, Accessions and Successions to the Convention and the Related Agree - ments,”