Malaysia Increasingly Confused: Philippine Takes Over Sabah to the United Nations

Malaysia and the Philippines have taken their argument over who owns the Malaysian state of Sabah all the way to the United Nations, in what analysts describe as the heating up of a long-running dispute for domestic political consumption. The latest round of the spat stems from Malaysia’s submission to the United Nations late last year that sought to extend its continental shelf beyond the standard 200 nautical miles off the northernmost point of Malaysian Borneo, ostensibly to ward off Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea. That move drew a rebuke from the Philippines in March, via a so-called note verbale addressed to the U.N. secretary-general, stating that Malaysia was projecting its claim from parts of North Borneo “over which the Republic of the Philippines has never relinquished its sovereignty.” Last week, Malaysia fired back with its own letter to U.N. chief Antonio Guterres, saying that its request and reckonings of its boundaries were legitimate under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS).