Chinese premier calls for city state’s cooperation on major rail scheme and ‘Belt and Road’ projects
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang welcomed Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to Beijing on Tuesday, saying he hoped to “inject new energy” into China’s ties both with the city state and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Singapore will assume chairmanship of the 10-member trade bloc next year.
“Singapore is an important member of Asean … it is the country coordinator between China and Asean and will be [the group’s] rotating chair next year,” Li said.
“I hope and trust this will inject new energy into not just China-Singapore relations but also China-Asean relations,” he said.
Lee, who was starting a three-day trip to China, said he too hoped to “make a contribution to bringing Asean and China closer together”.
Li also called for Lee and his government’s support for Chinese companies’ participation in the development of a high-speed railway linking Singapore with the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
The relationship between China and Singapore has been under close scrutiny since Lee’s absence from a major summit on China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” – a plan to boost infrastructure and trade links from Asia to Africa – in Beijing in May.
Visit to China by Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong is a sign relations are back on track
Lee did not attend the event after Beijing blamed Singapore for siding with the United States on South China Sea disputes – in which Singapore is not a claimant – and honouring an international tribunal ruling from July 2016 that dismissed most of Beijing’s claims to the disputed waters.
