PUTRAJAYA, 7 January- Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who is on a two-day official visit to Malaysia, was accorded an official welcoming ceremony at Perdana Putra Complex, here, today.
Wong arrived yesterday for his second visit to Malaysia since assuming office on 15 May 2024. His first visit was on 11 June last year.
Wong was received by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at the venue at 9.00 am.
The ceremony began with the national anthems of both nations played before Wong inspected a guard of honour mounted by three officers and 103 members of the First Battalion of the Royal Ranger Regiment (Ceremonial).
The ceremony was attended by Wong's spouse, Loo Tze Lui, and Anwar’s wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution and Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil.
Wong later signed the guest book before joining Anwar for the 11th Leaders' Retreat delegation meeting.
The meeting is expected to take stock of Malaysia-Singapore bilateral relations and discuss regional and international issues of mutual interest.
Both leaders also witnessed the exchange of the joint agreement on Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ), six memoranda of understanding (MoU) and one letter of intent (LOI) on education, women and social welfare, climate change, carbon capture and storage, urban development and combatting transnational crimes.
The JS-SEZ is expected to bring mutual benefits to businesses and people from both sides, 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 relations across various fields.
Singapore remains Malaysia's second-largest trading partner, with bilateral trade amounting to US$78.59 billion (RM360.12 billion) from January to November 2024, a 6.7 percent increase over the same period in 2023.
This year also commemorates 60 years of steadfast diplomatic ties between the two nations.
