PUTRAJAYA: Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, on a two-day official visit to Malaysia, was given an official welcome at Dataran Perdana here on Tuesday (Jan 7).
Wong was accompanied by his wife Loo Tze Lui.
They arrived on Monday (Jan 6) for Wong's second visit to the country since assuming office on May 15.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim received him upon arrival at Dataran Perdana at 10am.
The national anthems of both countries were then played.
Wong inspected a guard of honour mounted by three officers and 103 members of the First Battalion of the Royal Malay Regiment.
Also were Deputy Prime Ministers Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof, Cabinet ministers, foreign diplomats and senior government officials.
Wong is here in conjunction with the 11th Malaysia-Singapore Leaders’ Retreat on Tuesday.
After the welcoming ceremony, he will attend the delegation meeting of the Leaders’ Retreat with Anwar.
Wisma Putra said in a statement on Sunday (Jan 5) that during this visit, both sides are expected to take stock of bilateral relations and discuss regional and international issues of mutual interest.
Both leaders are also scheduled to witness the exchange of the joint agreement on the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ), six memorandums of understanding and a letter of intent on education, women and social welfare, climate change, carbon capture and storage, urban development and combating transnational crime.
The JS-SEZ aims to bring mutual benefit to businesses and citizens of both countries, including enhancing the flow of goods and people, improving the ease of doing business, and supporting talent development.
As close neighbours and founding members of Asean, Malaysia and Singapore have long-standing, broad and multifaceted relations across various fields.
They remain each other’s second-largest trading partners, with bilateral trade amounting to RM360.12bil (US$78.59bil) from January to November, a 6.7% increase over the same period in 2023.
This year marks 60 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
