Are China-Singapore relations about to thaw?

Singapore and China, at odds over the prolonged detention of the city state’s armoured vehicles in Hong Kong, may find themselves clawing out of their diplomatic low point early on in the Year of the Rooster, analysts say, after the two countries announced that high-level talks would be held in February.

Foreign policy experts say bilateral ties look likely to thaw sooner rather than later after Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin’s ( 劉振民 ) visit to the island republic this week for a scheduled meeting with its foreign policy bureaucrats.

Inside the Terrex military vehicle at the centre of Singapore-China storm

In a statement about the ministry-level meeting, Singapore said the Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) – an annual bilateral forum featuring both countries’ deputy premiers – would take place next month.

Photographs of Tuesday’s meeting between Liu and Chee Wee Kiong, permanent secretary of Singapore’s foreign ministry, showed the two men and other officials tossing the “yu sheng” prosperity salad to mark the Lunar New Year.

“The meetings between Singaporean and Chinese officials that took place this week, together with the announcement that the JCBC will meet next month, is a clear signal that the [armoured vehicles] issue is not a roadblock to expanding cooperation between the two countries,” said Ian Storey, an international relations researcher at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

The Singaporean statement said Liu and Chee had discussed various bilateral initiatives, but it did not mention the November 23 seizure of the nine Terrex armoured vehicles by Hong Kong customs. A separate China-Singapore Forum on Leadership is scheduled for later this year.