Hasyim Widhiarto, Singapore – The Singaporean government on Wednesday said it regarded its current extradition treaty with Indonesia, signed in 2007, as final, despite difficulties the latter had experienced in securing approval from the House of Representatives to ratify it.

Speaking to a group of visiting Indonesian journalists, Singapore's State Minister for Foreign Affairs Masagos Zulkifli said he fully respected the political response to the treaty in Indonesia, but quickly stressed that Singapore would never make it a subject of renegotiation since this would set a bad precedent for the country in front of the international community.

"If we renegotiate the already signed [extradition] treaty, it would mean we might have to renegotiate many other agreements with other countries that we have already made commitments with," Masagos said.

Masagos, however, said Singapore would always support the Indonesian government's efforts to return Indonesian crime suspects residing in Singapore, as long as the latter could "provide enough evidence to charge them".

"Even without an extradition treaty, Singapore will give its commitment to supporting the Indonesian government's efforts in enforcing law," he said.

In 2007, Indonesia and Singapore signed an extradition treaty that would have enabled Indonesian law enforcement officers to go after dozens of corruption suspects who had sought refuge in state, along with another agreement on defense that would have granted both countries the right to conduct naval and air military training in each other's territories.

The long-awaited extradition treaty, however, could not be ratified because the House of Representatives refused to approve both the treaty and the defense agreement, saying the agreements favored Singapore and could compromise Indonesia's security.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) has records that 45 people linked to graft cases have fled overseas over the last 10 years, with 20 choosing Singapore as their destination.

The list includes Djoko Soegiarto Tjandra, a businessman convicted of receiving Rp 546 billion in state funds linked to the Bank Bali bailout in 1999. Nunun Nurbaeti, a key witness in the 2004 vote-buying scandal, was allegedly in Singapore receiving medical treatment, but her location is now unknown.