Cross-straits bilateral relations between Singapore and Malaysia are perhaps warmer than it appears.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told grassroots leaders on Oct. 14 that Singapore's relations with its neighbours are fine.

More specifically, PM Lee said Singapore's relations "are good with Indonesia", while Singapore's "relations with Malaysia are also stable".

This was revealed in the transcript of a closed-door post-National Day Rally dialogue that has only recently been released to the public.

Relations with Malaysia

During his opening remarks at Ci Yuan Community Club, PM Lee updated the audience on the state of relations with our closest neighbour Malaysia.

He said that the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail "was an issue potentially", but Singapore and Malaysia worked out a two-year deferment for the HSR project.

Notably, PM Lee concluded that it was a "constructive resolution of what could have been a spiky dispute".

Annual Singapore-Malaysia leaders' retreat continues

PM Lee then revealed matter-of-factly about the good news with the Singapore-Malaysia leaders' retreat:

"Next month, Dr Mahathir is visiting Singapore. He is coming for the Asean meetings and then about 10 days after that, I am going up to Putrajaya for our annual retreat between the Singapore and the Malaysian PM."

Malaysian newspaper, The Star, also noted the positive development, reporting in a headline: "S'pore PM to meet Dr M at Putrajaya retreat next month".

The retreat between leaders would take place in late November in Malaysia, about 10 days after Mahathir’s visit to Singapore for the five-day Asean Summit starting from Nov. 11.

Significance of Singapore-Malaysia leaders' retreat

The leaders' retreat is an annual meeting between PM Lee Hsien Loong and his Malaysian counterpart.

According to The Straits Times, "the highlight is a '4-eye' session in which the two leaders hold frank discussions alone without their officials or delegations".

Since 2012, the retreats have taken place yearly, alternating between Singapore and Malaysia.

The past eight retreats occurred when PM Lee's Malaysian counterpart was former premier Najib Razak.

In fact, PM Lee last met then PM Najib in Singapore on Jan. 16 for the eight Singapore-Malaysia Leaders’ Retreat, before the Malaysian general election on May 9.

Why are there two Singapore-Malaysia leaders' retreats this year?

The eighth Singapore-Malaysia Leaders’ Retreat in January 2018 was originally supposed to take place in 2017.

It was postponed at Najib's request, as he had to attend a special meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Turkey, to discuss the United States' move to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Najib said then:

"Coincidentally, I have an annual consultation with Singapore's Prime Minister. I called (PM Lee) Hsien Loong and said 'please understand this affects my faith as a Muslim and the faith of all Muslims'".

Win-win opportunities

Previously, these retreats have yielded major bilateral breakthroughs.

In 2010, the leaders came to an agreement about Malayan Railway land in Singapore, an issue that was up until then, unresolved for two decades.

In 2013, they came up with the KL-Singapore HSR that would cut travel time between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to 90 minutes.

Early this year, the bilateral agreement for the Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link was finally signed.

This time round, PM Lee aims for a good friendship with new and old friends from the Malaysian administration.

He said at the closed-door dialogue:

"I hope that at the retreat, we will be able to look ahead, to discuss win-win opportunities in order to deepen our cooperation and friendship."

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