S'pore & M'sia to sign agreement on HSR, witnessed by Mahathir & DPM Teo

A breakthrough.

Sulaiman Daud | September 05, 2018, 12:54 PM

Singapore and Malaysia have reached an official agreement on the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail project (HSR).

On Sept. 5, Channel News Asia correspondent Melissa Goh tweeted at about 11.30am that a signing ceremony would take place at 2pm on the same day.

You can see it below:

Signing ceremony in Malaysia, witnessed by PM Mahathir and DPM Teo

The screen shot of the statement included in the tweet, which was in Malay, includes the following details:

  • The Signing Ceremony will be held in Putrajaya, Malaysia, at the Prime Minister's Office.
  • The Agreement will be signed by Malaysian Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali and Singaporean Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan.
  • The Signing Ceremony will be witnessed by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, and Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean.

The statement, which was from the Malaysian Ministry of Economic Affairs, did not include further details of the Agreement itself.

However, CNA stated that it "expected" the agreement to confirm that the HSR project will be delayed.

Azmin's earlier statement on HSR agreement

Previously, on Sept. 3, Singapore's Ministry of Transport said that both countries were still in discussion and that it hoped a mutually acceptable agreement would be reached soon.

It said that the two countries were still in discussions over Malaysia's request to defer the HSR.

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This was different from Azmin's own public statements earlier on Sept. 3, as he said that Singapore and Malaysia had already reached an agreement.

Speaking to local media, Azmin said:

"After a series of discussions, the Singapore government is in agreement with Malaysia to put the HSR project on hold for a period of time."

He also claimed that Malaysia would not need to pay compensation to Singapore during this period of deferment, as it is only required to do so if it decides to terminate the project entirely.

Win-win deal?

On Aug. 30, Azmin was in Singapore to meet with Minister Khaw. Both Ministers later posted about their meeting on social media.

Azmin claimed that "We are inching closer to a win-win deal on HSR", while Khaw called Azmin an "inspiring leader".

Top image adapted from MFA