Please Hope Me Find the Text of a Multilateral Agreement/Arrangement
August 21, 2019 8:18 PM Subscribe
a library patron is looking for the text of a trilateral maritime cooperative agreement between Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia that was signed on July 14, 2016...
greetings.
its been a while.
received a stumper of a reference question today and thought someone here might be able to point me in the right direction. it was initially proposed as definitely existing as a treaty (international agreements are considered treaties according to the UN - i am unsure on the treaty status of formal international arrangements)
there have been several different names for the agreement/treaty/arrangement in several references:
"Framework Trilateral Cooperative Arrangement (FoA) on Immediate Measures to Address Security Issues in the Maritime Areas of Common Concern"
and
"Trilateral Cooperative Agreement"
and
"Trilateral Cooperative Arrangement"
i have check the UN's treaty depository, ASEAN's treaty depository documents, the IMO, the World Legal Information Institute, American Society of International Law and several university websites with treaty databases.
i have also tried all of my library's subscription databases (ProQuest, International Maritime Boundaries, JSTOR, HeinOnline, and have consulted a law librarian at the local university.
everyone is stumped so far.
i am 98.1%% certain the document will be available in English. (i found a bilateral agreement signed a month later between the Philippines and Indonesia in English.)
greetings.
its been a while.
received a stumper of a reference question today and thought someone here might be able to point me in the right direction. it was initially proposed as definitely existing as a treaty (international agreements are considered treaties according to the UN - i am unsure on the treaty status of formal international arrangements)
there have been several different names for the agreement/treaty/arrangement in several references:
"Framework Trilateral Cooperative Arrangement (FoA) on Immediate Measures to Address Security Issues in the Maritime Areas of Common Concern"
and
"Trilateral Cooperative Agreement"
and
"Trilateral Cooperative Arrangement"
i have check the UN's treaty depository, ASEAN's treaty depository documents, the IMO, the World Legal Information Institute, American Society of International Law and several university websites with treaty databases.
i have also tried all of my library's subscription databases (ProQuest, International Maritime Boundaries, JSTOR, HeinOnline, and have consulted a law librarian at the local university.
everyone is stumped so far.
i am 98.1%% certain the document will be available in English. (i found a bilateral agreement signed a month later between the Philippines and Indonesia in English.)
I know a little bit about this from being involved in US Navigation agreements from my last three years in the Navy, so this seemed like a good challenge. If this isn't it, it will certainly get you a lot closer. It helped to change search terms to "Joint Declaration", which is how media articles described it. If this declaration has the force of a treaty is a completely different question, of course. You may also have luck in seeing if in fact a "Trilateral Maritime Patrol Working Group" was ever established, and that may lead you to any subsequent agreements. Then again, this declaration may be exactly what your patron is looking for. Best of luck and let us know here how it turned out!
posted by seasparrow at 9:43 PM on August 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by seasparrow at 9:43 PM on August 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
i find coverage of it in the jakarta post, and the diplomat, a press release from the republic of the philippines department of foreign affairs, an article in maritime affairs by a dr. noortmann of coventry university's center for trust, peace and social relations (inviting contact), and slides from a presentation by jay batongbacal of the university of the philippines institute for maritime affairs and the law of the sea, all claiming or evincing familiarity with the joint statement of trilaterial cooperative arrangement (variously), but the only links purporting to be to that statement itself all point to the same apparently-bit-rotted-away page of the ministry of foreign affairs of the republic of indonesia, where my efforts to drill down have failed, so far, to reach 2016. similar searching at foreign affairs offices of the philippines and malaysia has been unavailing. suggest contacting noortmann or batongbacal.
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:47 PM on August 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:47 PM on August 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: @seasparrow i found that document and sent it to the patron a few hours ago. i feel certain it is not the document they are looking for. its really just a press release.
@20_year_lurk i have found all of those documents and article as well - and even more in several journals. but i had not thought about corresponding with the University of Singapore law professors who made that PowerPoint!
mahalo for giving this query the old college try y'all!
posted by cinemafiend at 10:52 PM on August 21, 2019
@20_year_lurk i have found all of those documents and article as well - and even more in several journals. but i had not thought about corresponding with the University of Singapore law professors who made that PowerPoint!
mahalo for giving this query the old college try y'all!
posted by cinemafiend at 10:52 PM on August 21, 2019
This thesis [PDF] describes a trilateral meeting on 5 May 2016 in Yogyakarta (p. 58) and footnote 192 references a document "Kementerian Luar Negeri Indonesia - Joint Declaration of Foreign Ministers and Chiefs of Defence Forces of Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines" at the link https://www.kemlu.go.id/id/berita/Pages/Joint-Declaration-Foreign-Ministers-and-Chiefs-ofDefence-Forces-of-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines.aspx , the same link-rotted site that 20 year lurk mentions. Entering that link into Wayback Machine yields this Joint Declaration which seems to have been issued from Yogyakarta on the same day as the trilateral meeting. I'm not sure why something as important as an international joint declaration would be allowed to just disappear from an official website, but to me this seems like what you're looking for.
posted by Cheese Monster at 12:21 AM on August 22, 2019
posted by Cheese Monster at 12:21 AM on August 22, 2019
Upon lack-of-preview, the document I linked to is actually earlier than the date you mentioned, so probably not what you are looking for. Sorry about that!
posted by Cheese Monster at 12:26 AM on August 22, 2019
posted by Cheese Monster at 12:26 AM on August 22, 2019
Best answer: Looks like it may not be available - I think I've found an FOI where someone requested a copy here which was denied for security reasons.
posted by scorbet at 4:29 AM on August 22, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by scorbet at 4:29 AM on August 22, 2019 [5 favorites]
Response by poster: @scorbet now that was a good find! this was the only link in this thread that i had not already seen in my own search.
i will inform the patron and let them utilize other channels for the document.
posted by cinemafiend at 9:32 AM on August 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
i will inform the patron and let them utilize other channels for the document.
posted by cinemafiend at 9:32 AM on August 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by carmicha at 8:55 PM on August 21, 2019 [1 favorite]