Quora Answer: Is It Possible for Singapore to Reclaim Land All the Way to Pedra Branca?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Is it possible for Singapore to reclaim land all the way to Pedra Branca, without intruding into Malaysian or Indonesian waters?”

Pedra Branca is almost 24 nautical miles east of Singapore.  A nautical mile is 1.852 km, meaning the island is around 44 km away.  As per the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, of which Singapore is a signatory, we claim territorial water up to 12 nautical miles from our baseline, meaning the mean low water mark of the chart.  Pedra Branca lies outside that.  The intervening waters belong to Malaysia and Indonesia, in overlapping claims.

As part of the same convention, innocent passage of these littoral waters is guaranteed.  However, Singapore may not reclaim the land.  If the idea is to reclaim the land, and extend the 12 nautical mile boundary, reclamation does not automatically extend territorial waters unless the waters are already unclaimed.