Just about a month after returning from his official visit to China, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is set to fly to the U.S. to meet with President Donald Trump.

They will be discussing ways to further strengthen bilateral economic, political, security, and people-to-people ties when they meet in the White House on October 23.

Announcing the meeting on Tuesday (Oct. 10), the White House said that Trump is looking forward to "reaffirming the relationship between the United States and Singapore, which has been one of America’s closest partners in Asia for more than 50 years".

Second trip to White House in over a year

This will be PM Lee's second trip to the White House in just over a year.

In August last year, he – at the invitation of then President Barack Obama - visited the U.S. to commemorate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between both countries.

It was the first official visit to the U.S. by a Singaporean Prime Minister in more than 30 years, while Obama was into his final months of his presidency back then.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="760"] Screenshot from White House video.[/caption]

The visit marked the warm ties that Singapore had with the U.S., with the host country holding a state dinner at the White House.

There was a memorable moment when PM Lee remained stoic when Obama fumbled his pronunciation of "Lee Kuan Yew". There was that slight glance a the sky right after the fumble though.

Another memorable moment was PM Lee's wisecrack during his state dinner speech at the White House, where he poked fun at Obama's place of birth with a straight face:

"Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, most of us believe"

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Second time meeting President Trump

The Oct. 23 meeting will also be the second time PM Lee is meeting Trump, since the latter took over from Obama as U.S. president.

Their first meeting was at the Group of 20 (G20) Leaders' Summit in Hamburg, Germany in July. Trump had said then that he looked forward to receiving PM Lee in Washington later this year.

But more memorably, that meeting marked the first time PM Lee shook Trump's hand. PM Lee fared well in that handshake, which ended in a draw against Trump, who is known to have a unique way of pulling/jerking others towards him while shaking hands.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="5220"] Source: Getty Images[/caption]

Nevertheless the first meeting ended well, with Trump describing U.S. relations with Singapore as: "Very close...very close...Very big relationship...Get much bigger".

Trump has met two other ASEAN leaders so far

This upcoming meeting will come just over a week before Trump makes his maiden trip to the region as president. He will be travelling to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Hawaii from Nov. 3 to 14. 

Prior to hosting PM Lee,  Trump has also hosted two other ASEAN leaders on separate occasions in the past month -- Malaysian PM Najib Razak and Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha.

Here's the statement in full from the White House on the latest meeting:

"President Donald J. Trump will welcome Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore to the White House on October 23, 2017. President Trump looks forward to reaffirming the relationship between the United States and Singapore, which has been one of America’s closest partners in Asia for more than 50 years. The President and Prime Minister will discuss ways to further strengthen our economic, political, security, and people-to-people ties, and work to advance United States engagement and mutual interests throughout the Indo-Pacific region."

Round two for the handshake. And let's hope the White House doesn't mistake PM Lee for the Indonesian president again.

Top photo from Getty Images

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