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THE GOVERNMENTS of Indonesia and Singapore agreed on an agreement to adjust the air space service or Flight Information Region (FIR). This agreement is the result of a meeting between President Jokowi and Singaporean Prime Minister (PM) Lee Hsien Loong.
The meeting between President Jokowi and PM Lee was held on Tuesday (1/25) in the Bintan Islands. The FIR adjustment agreement was signed by the Indonesian Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi and Singapore’s Minister of Transport S. Iswaran, and witnessed by President Jokowi and PM Lee.
“With the signing of the FIR agreement, the scope of Jakarta’s FIR will cover all of Indonesia’s territorial airspace, especially in the waters around the Riau islands and Natuna islands,” Jokowi said as seen from the Presidential Secretariat Youtube, Tuesday (25/1).
Jokowi hopes that in the future it is hoped that cooperation in law enforcement on Aviation Safety and defense and security of the two countries can continue to be strengthened based on the principle of mutual benefit.
In a press statement from the Ministry of Transportation, Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi explained that this agreement was the fruit of various efforts to adjust the FIR with the Singapore Government.
Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi wearing a mask after chairing a meeting on the plan to integrate transportation services and the construction of the Port of New Palembang.
“Praise be to God, today is a historic day for the Indonesian people. We have succeeded in carrying out the mandate of Law No. 1 of 2009 concerning Aviation. This is proof of the seriousness of the Indonesian government,” said Budi Karya.
This FIR adjustment has a number of benefits for Indonesia. First, it confirms international recognition of Indonesia’s status as an archipelagic country that has full sovereignty over air space over its territory, in accordance with the 1944 Chicago Convention and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The second benefit, will further improve the quality of service and also flight safety in Indonesia.
As for the substance of other agreements regulated in the FIR agreement, namely: for reasons of flight safety, Indonesia still delegates less than 1/3 of the air space (or around 29%) around Singapore’s territory to the Singapore Aviation Navigation Authority on a limited basis. However, the cost of flight navigation services in the delegated service area is the right of Indonesia as the owner of the air space in the area, so that the safety aspect is maintained and no state revenue is lost.
Then, Civil-Military Cooperation in Aviation Traffic Management was carried out, including the placement of Indonesian personnel in Singapore and the imposition of fees for Aviation Navigation Services (PJNP), in accordance with the prevailing laws and regulations in Indonesia. [sources/photo special]
