The 9th Malaysia-Singapore Leaders' Retreat has been postponed.

But contrary to certain reports from the Malaysian press, this request came from Malaysia's side, not Singapore.

On Oct. 14, during a dialogue with local grassroots leaders, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that the retreat would take place in Nov. 2018 after the ASEAN Summit.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is expected to attend the summit, which will be hosted by Singapore.

PM Lee would then travel to Putrajaya for the Retreat about 10 days afterwards.

But on Oct. 26, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in response to media queries that the retreat had been postponed.

Mahathir doesn't know

On Oct. 30, Mahathir said to reporters that he was "unaware" that the event was postponed.

Speaking after hosting the Anti-Corruption Summit 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, he said:

"This is the first time I heard about it. I didn't read the news."

Malaysian news site Malaysiakini said that the decision came from Singapore:

"Singapore's foreign affairs ministry appeared to have unilaterally announced the decision to postpone the meeting two days ago."

Singapore corrects the facts

But on the same day, Singapore's High Commission in Malaysia issued a public clarification to Malaysiakini, saying that they were "puzzled" by the report.

According to them, the postponement was made on Malaysia's request. The statement read:

"We are puzzled by the report in Malaysiakini on the postponement of the 9th Singapore-Malaysia Leaders' Retreat, which claimed that Singapore's Foreign Ministry "appeared to have unilaterally announced the decision to postpone the meeting".

Singapore had initially agreed to Malaysia's proposal to hold the retreat in late November. However, on Oct. 23, 2018, the Malaysian Foreign Affairs Ministry had informed us of the postponement of the retreat due to scheduling constraints on the Malaysian side.

Singapore looks forward to Malaysia hosting the next retreat at a mutually convenient date."

Previous retreat was with Najib

The retreat is an important event in the government calendar.

It gives both leaders one-on-one time with each other.

Mahathir's predecessor, Najib Razak, visited Singapore in January 2018 for the 8th Leaders' Retreat, where several projects were discussed.

However, following the change in Malaysia's government, some of those projects like the High Speed Rail have been put on hold.

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Top image from PM Lee Hsien Loong's Facebook page