For strengthening bilateral ties, Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Hamburg in Germany and affirmed the two countries’ substantive bilateral relationship, frequent high-level exchanges and good progress made in bilateral co-operation.
The meeting took place ahead of the G20 Leaders’ Summit at Hamburg where most of the world’s leaders are converging to discuss important issues. Both the leaders last met when China hosted the G20 in Hangzhou last year.
PM Lee congratulated President Xi on the 20th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China under the "One Country, Two Systems" framework.
“Both leaders discussed how Singapore could work with China to implement the Belt and Road (B&R) Initiative, including the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative, which has achieved good progress in financial services and aviation connectivity,” said the Prime Minister’s Office of Singapore in a press statement.
Both agreed that it was important to promote closer economic integration through the expeditious conclusion of the China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement upgrade.
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The two leaders discussed the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail project and PM Lee welcomed China’s interest in it.
PM Lee and President Xi expressed their commitment to work together to promote closer ASEAN-China cooperation, under Singapore's ongoing coordinatorship of ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations and Singapore's chairmanship of ASEAN in 2018.
In a Facebook post, PM Lee wrote, “Met President Xi Jinping who is also in Hamburg for the #G20 meeting. Affirmed our deep and warm bilateral relationship, and congratulated him on the 20th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to the PRC.”
He added, “We discussed how Singapore could work with China to implement the Belt and Road Initiative, including our Chongqing Connectivity Initiative. We agreed that the China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement upgrade and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership should be concluded quickly. Look forward to promoting closer ASEAN-China cooperation, while Singapore is the coordinator for ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations, and chairman of ASEAN next year.
The Singapore PM is in Germany as part of a week-long working visit at the invitation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s invitation. He met with Merkel earlier yesterday in Berlin. He will also visit Munich and wrap his week-long tour on July 11.