The Straits of Malacca and Singapore extend for approximately 600 miles.
(See Map 33.) The Strait of Malacca is located between the east coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the west coast of peninsular, or west, Malaysia.
The Singapore Strait is located south of the island of Singapore and the
southeastern tip of peninsular Malaysia, and north of the Indonesian Riau
Islands. The straits provide the shortest sea route between the Indian Ocean
(via the Andaman Sea) and the Pacific Ocean (via the South China Sea).
At the broad western entrance to the Strait of Malacca, the littoral coasts of
Indonesia and Malaysia are separated by about 200 miles. The strait, however,
begins to funnel in a southeasterly direction. At 3°N and south of One Fathom
Bank, the territorial sea of Indonesia and Malaysia overlap. The narrowest part
of the Strait of Malacca is at the southwestern tip of the Malay Peninsula –
8.4 miles wide, and, given the shallow depth, is much narrower for deep
draught vessels.
The narrowest breadth of the Singapore Strait is only 3.2 miles and throughout
its length is constantly less than 15 miles wide (the combined territorial
seas claimed by Indonesia (12 miles) and Singapore (3 miles)). At its eastern
outlet into the South China Sea, where it is bounded solely by Malaysia and
Indonesia, the sea passage is approximately 11.1 miles wide.
The governing depth of the Strait of Malacca is less than 75 feet, with a tidal
range between 4.6 feet at the eastern outlet of the Singapore Strait and 12.5
feet at the western entrance to the Strait of Malacca.
On April 29, 1982, Ambassador James L. Malone, United States Representative
to the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, submitted
a letter to the President of the Conference “confirm[ing] the contents” of a
letter dated April 28, 1982, from the Chairman of the Malaysian delegation
on behalf of the delegations of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, regarding
their statement concerning the purpose and meaning of article 233 of the LOS
Convention in its application to the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. The
Malaysian statement reads:
Following consultations held among the delegation of States concerned, a common
understanding regarding the purpose and meaning of article 233 of the draft
convention on the law of the sea in its application to the Straits of Malacca and
Singapore has been confirmed. This understanding, which takes cognizance of
the peculiar geographic and traffic conditions in the Straits, and which recognizes
the need to promote safety of navigation and to protect and preserve the marine
environment in the Straits, is as follows:
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