Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said on Monday, July 30, that the 1962 water deal between Singapore and Malaysia can still be reviewed.

This is in spite of Singapore reiterating on several occasions that Malaysia had already lost its right to review the price of water in 1987 under the 1962 agreement.

"Can continue talking"

According to Bernama, Saifuddin Abdullah said:

"The agreement says the content of the agreement can be reviewed after 25 years. It doesn't mean at 25 years... so we can continue talking."

Apart from the water agreement, Saifuddin also raised the issue of the Singapore-KL High Speed Rail (HSR) project during his meeting with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his Singapore counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan.

He was in Singapore for his first official visit to the republic after being sworn in as the new foreign minister on July 2 this year.

Issues are not going to hinder relations

Nevertheless, Saifuddin noted that although both governments saw the issues of the HSR project and the 1962 water deal as matters that need to be resolved, they should not hinder both countries in seeking better relations with each other.

He said:

"We are looking at the big picture... As far as our bilateral relations (are concerned)... our ties are strong and we want to work hard to bring it to greater heights."

[related_story]

S'pore's stance

Previously, Vivian said on July 9 in Parliament that Malaysia has not only lost its right to view water prices in 1987 under the 1962 agreement, they have also acknowledged so:

"In fact, Malaysia has previously acknowledged that they themselves chose not to ask for a review in 1987 because they benefited from the pricing arrangement under the 1962 Water Agreement.”

Then Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said in 2002 that Malaysia did not ask for a review when it was due in 1987 as they knew "any revision would also affect the price of treated water sold by Singapore to Malaysia".

Vivian further added that since Singapore honours the agreement, he expects Malaysia to do the same, "including the price of water that was stipulated".

In addition, he reiterated that price was never the issue, saying "the core issue is not how much we pay, but how any price revision is decided upon".

Top image via Saifuddin Abdullah's Facebook page  

Some related stories you might be interested in: