bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Bhavan Jaipragas

Singapore’s rocky relations with China are “on track” with plans for high-level official visits and upgrades to a free-trade pact.
Singapore also planned to ­expand its involvement in the “Belt and Road Initiative”, China’s ambitious project to revive trade along ancient Silk Road routes, the city state’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, said at the two-day FutureChina business forum last week.
Asked about the state of ties between the two countries, Lee said: “[They have] always been on track.”
Lee said the belt and road scheme, the main focus of the forum, was a chance for Singapore to become a “base [for other countries] to jump off into the whole ­region”.
By signing new agreements, have China and Singapore kissed and made up?
“The belt and road is the way in which China can grow its links with the world, and also grow its influence in the world but in a constructive sort of way,” he said on Friday, the forum’s last day.
“The more China does business through the belt and road with countries in the region, the more opportunities there will be to use Singapore for this.”
Lee rejected suggestions that the initiative could make other countries beholden to China.
“It is not a bloc. It is not a closed group. It is an open, welcoming, free, intensification of mutually beneficial linkages,” he said.
China ready to improve ties with Singapore, Xi Jinping tells Lee Hsien Loong at G20 summit
The prime minister also said he had a “good discussion” with President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg early this month. The two discussed a government-to-government project in Chongqing and Singapore’s role as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations next year.
“We [also] talked about how things are in the South China Sea and I congratulated the president on the 20th anniversary of [the handover] in Hong Kong,” Lee said. “He explained to me how he saw Hong Kong and why he was satisfied with the progress which had been made.”
Singapore’s ties with China have been tested over the last year by tensions in the South China Sea and the impounding in Hong Kong of several military vehicles being shipped back to the city state from Taiwan.
Lee said Chinese officials “appreciate our point of view”.
“I understand they have a different point of view but they appreciate where we stand and why have to take that position as Singapore,” he said.
‘A satisfactory outcome’: Singapore’s PM on Hong Kong’s seizure of military vehicles
Lee said ties with Beijing were now “moving faster”, and he looked forward to meeting Premier Li Keqiang during a visit to Singapore. No date has been set for the trip.
Addressing the conference a day earlier, Lee’s deputy, Teo Chee Hean, said freedom of navigation through key choke points in Asian waterways like the Malacca and Singapore straits was crucial to the success of the new Silk Road trade plan.
Teo also said China and Singapore were working towards “an upgrade” of a bilateral free-trade deal first inked in 2009.
Observers said comments by leaders of both countries in recent months signalled a warming in ­relations.
Lee also said he hoped Singapore would continue to punch above its weight as a key Asian economy even amid fierce competition from a rising China.
“I do not accept the principle that ‘anything that I can do, they can do better’,” he said.


How China is cementing its central role as the architect of green tech

China pledges aid to Latin America, Caribbean with no ‘political conditions’

Nepal charges Chinese contractor with corruption over airport deal

Why China may be better placed than US in tussle for rare earths

Belt and Road Initiative

Singapore gets on board China’s Silk Road push as ties get back on track

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says China’s Belt and Road Initiative offers opportunities for the city state. Photo: Reuters

Sino-Singapore bid fails test

Sino-Singapore relations look good now – but rocky seas ahead

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, right, meets with Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, at the World Economic Forum in Dalian, China. Photo: Xinhua

Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore's deputy prime minister, speaks during a session at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian, China, on Wednesday, June 28, 2017. The forum runs through to June 29. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

F7P38W Mao Zedong (1893 ? 1976). Chinese Communist revolutionary and the founding father of the People's Republic of China, which he governed as Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976.. Image shot 1966. Exact date unknown. [28MAY2017 THEN AND NOW POST MAGAZINE]

Chinese President Xi Jinping and other leaders attending the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. Photo: Xinhua

(150321) -- SINGAPORE, March 21, 2015 (Xinhua) -- File photo taken on Aug. 6, 2013 shows Singapore's former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew attending his new book launch at Singapore's Istana. Singapore's former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's condition has "worsened", the Prime Minister's Office said Saturday in its latest press release. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey) (lrz)