President, Members of the Court, I have two pieces of good news for you. The first is that this is my final statement in Singapore's first round and the second is that it will be brief. But it does not follow that the fates of these three features should differ.
Granted, that could be the case if material in the record showed that they had received different treatment either de jure or even de facto. This is actually an understatement, Mr. President: neither Middle Rocks nor South Ledge was ever, from any perspective, treated differently from Pedra Branca. Malaysia has not been able to cite any act prior to the critical date which was connected specifically with one or other of these features. And while Singapore, for its part, has been able to name a few40, they are clearly linked with its territorial sovereignty over Pedra Branca and, as a result, over the adjacent waters where Middle Rocks and South Ledge lie and there is nothing specific about them.
It is moreover telling that in all its written pleadings Malaysia consistently used the arguments it deployed in support of its claims to Pedra Branca in an attempt to justify its claims to Middle Rocks and South Ledge.
Malaysia may well deny that these three features form a group but it nevertheless treats them as one throughout its pleadings. Having made this preliminary comment, I intend, Mr. President, first to rebut the two arguments to the contrary which Malaysia still feebly offers in its Reply.
I shall then very briefly review Singapore's position as to sovereignty over Middle Rocks and South Ledge. The question of navigable channels 6. Malaysia goes to great trouble in attempting to establish that navigable channels separate Pedra Branca from Middle Rocks, on the one hand, and Middle Rocks from South Ledge, on the other. Besides the fact that this assertion attests a rather odd conception of what makes a navigable channel, I have difficulty, Mr.
