Our Series on Tiny Disputes takes us to Pedra Branca, an isolated rock located in the South China Sea that was the subject of a 40 year long dispute between Malaysia and Singapore.
While located closer to the shores of the Malaysian State of Johor than to the island of Singapore, the Singaporean authorities had been operating a lighthouse on the rock since the mid 19th Century to guide the ships entering the Strait of Malacca from the East. The dispute was submitted to the International Court of Justice in the Hague, which decided in 2008 that the rock itself was under Singapore's sovereignty while adjacent reefs were under Malaysian sovereignty.
Malaysia initially contested that decision, but it formally accepted the conclusions of the ICJ in 2018 and both countries are now finalizing the demarcation of territorial waters around the rock.
The Pedra Branca Dispute
