Pedra Branca (), also known as Batu Putih (), is an outlying island and the easternmost point of Singapore. The name of the island, which is Portuguese for "white rock", refers to whitish guano deposited on the rock. The island consists of a small outcrop of granite rocks with an area of about at low tide. During the low water spring tide it measures, at its longest, and has an average width of . Pedra Branca is situated where the Singapore Strait meets the South China Sea, and so is considered a maritime landmark of the eastern entrance of the Singapore Strait.

There are two maritime features near Pedra Branca. Middle Rocks, under the sovereignty of Malaysia, consists of two clusters of small rocks about apart situated south of Pedra Branca. South Ledge, which is to the south-south-west of Pedra Branca, is a rock formation visible only at low-tide.

Pedra Branca was known to sailors for centuries. It was originally within the territory of the Johor Sultanate, which was founded in 1528, and remained under the new Sultanate of Johor while under the British sphere of influence following the signing of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Between 1850 and 1851, the British built Horsburgh Lighthouse on the island without seeking the consent of the Johor authorities or informing them of the decision. From that time, the Straits Settlements administered the island; Singapore then assumed responsibility in 1946 after the dissolution of the Straits Settlements. On 21 September 1953, the Acting State Secretary of Johor, responding to a query from the Colonial Secretary of Singapore about the status of the island, stated that "the Johore Government does not claim ownership of Pedra Branca".

On 21 December 1979, Malaysia published a map that showed the island to be within its territorial waters. This ignited a 29-year territorial dispute which, together with the issue of sovereignty over the nearby maritime features of Middle Rocks and South Ledge, the disputants presented to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for resolution. On 23 May 2008, the ICJ ruled that Pedra Branca was under Singapore's sovereignty. At this point, the ICJ also noted Singapore's plans to conduct reclamation at Pedra Branca. Although the island had originally been under the sovereignty of the Johor Sultanate, the United Kingdom and Singapore had carried out various acts of sovereignty in respect of the island. The failure of Malaysia and its predecessors to respond to these acts, and other actions that demonstrated their acknowledgment of Singapore's sovereignty over the island, meant that Singapore had gained sovereignty over Pedra Branca. On the other hand, Middle Rocks remain part of Malaysian territory as Singapore had not manifested any acts of sovereignty in respect to it. The Court did not rule definitively on the remaining outcrop, South Ledge, declaring that it belonged to the state in the territorial waters of which it is located. Malaysia and Singapore have established the Joint Technical Committee to delimit the maritime boundary in the area around Pedra Branca and Middle Rocks, and to determine the ownership of South Ledge.

Singapore also asserts claims to territorial waters and airspace around Pedra Branca, including a slice of the South China Sea, which is discontiguous with the rest of Singapore's territorial waters. This discontiguity is due to Pedra Branca's location 40 kilometers east of the Singapore mainland, through a narrow strait between Malaysian and Indonesian land. The award of sovereignty of Pedra Branca to Singapore has raised concerns in Malaysia if Pulau Pisang, near the west end of the Singapore Strait on which Singapore also operates a lighthouse, may also face territorial claims from Singapore. Thus far both Malaysian and Singapore governments have expressed that there is no question of Malaysia's sovereignty over Pulau Pisang.

Etymology

Pedra Branca means "white rock" in Portuguese, and refers to whitish guano (bird droppings) deposited on the rock by the black-naped tern, which used the island as a nesting ground. This name is used by both the English-language and Malay-language press in Singapore. Malaysia formerly referred to the island as Pulau Batu Puteh, which means "white rock island" in Malay, but the Government of Malaysia subsequently decided to drop the word Pulau ("Island"). In August 2008 Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said Malaysia considered that the maritime feature did not meet internationally recognised criteria for an island, that is, land inhabited by humans that had economic activity.

The island is known in Mandarin as Baijiao (), The Tamil name is , a transliteration of Pedra Branca.

Geography

350px|thumb|right|The approximate location of Pedra Branca in the [[South China Sea in relation to the countries surrounding it]]

Pedra Branca, located at 1° 19′ 48″ N and 104° 24′ 27″ E, is an island with an area of about at low tide. During the low water spring tide it measures, at its longest, a mere and has an average width of . It is approximately to the east of Singapore; south of Johor, Malaysia; and north of Bintan, Indonesia.

There are two maritime features near Pedra Branca. Middle Rocks, which is under the sovereignty of Malaysia, consists of two clusters of small rocks about apart situated south of the island. They stand to permanently above water. South Ledge, on the other hand, is a rock formation visible only at low-tide. It is to the south-south-west of Pedra Branca. Its ownership has yet to be definitively determined by Malaysia and Singapore.

Rock samples from Pedra Branca, Middle Rocks and South Ledge show they are all composed of a light, coarse-grained biotite granite. Therefore, from a geomorphological standpoint, the three maritime features belong to the same rock body.

History

thumb|A replica of [[Long Ya Men at the Labrador Nature Reserve, put up in 2005 as part of the Singapore Zheng He's 600th Anniversary Celebrations]]

thumb|Detail of a 1620 "Map of Sumatra" by Hessel Gerritz, a cartographer with the Hydrographic Service of the [[Dutch East India Company. The location of the island of "Pedrablanca" (Pedra Branca) is marked]]

Pedra Branca was known to sailors for centuries. Part of the Chinese sailing instructions for the South China Sea based on information compiled by Admiral Zheng He (1371–1433) advised a navigator that after departing Long Ya Men (Mandarin for "Dragon's Teeth Gate"), a rocky outcrop at the gateway to what is now Keppel Harbour in Singapore, he should steer a course of between 75° and 90° for five watches until his vessel reached Baijiao. an account of his voyages in the Portuguese East Indies. After the publication of the work in 1596, the island began appearing regularly on European maps of the Far East. The 1598 English edition of the work stated: