'Every time I come to S'pore, I feel a sense of closeness': Premier Li Qiang & PM Wong toast S'pore-China bilateral relations

China’s Premier Li Qiang was hosted to an official dinner by Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Oct. 25 at Gardens by the Bay.

During the toasts, both men paid tribute to the 35 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Mutually Beneficial Cooperation

PM Wong noted that Li had visited Singapore on numerous previous occasions, but this was his first visit since he was made China’s Premier in 2022; he also thanked Li for the hospitality shown to Wong and the Singaporean delegation when they visited Beijing earlier in 2025.

PM Wong said that Singapore and China were commemorating the 35th anniversary of bilateral relations, but said that ties went back much further, speaking about the relationship between Singapore’s founder, Lee Kuan Yew and China’s former leader, Deng Xiaoping.

Since then, formal recognition in 1990 “marked the start of sustained and mutually beneficial cooperation, and that has continued to grow year after year.”

Future-orientated

He mentioned the three major Singaporean projects in China, beginning with the Suzhou Industrial Park, which PM Wong said Li would be familiar with. Li was previously Party Secretary of the Communist Party in Jiangsu, where the SIP is located.

PM Wong also spoke about the 2008 Tianjin Eco City, which he lauded for pioneering sustainable development efforts, before such a thing had become “an international priority or buzzword”, as well as the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative, launched in 2015.

“Unlike the first two, it is not confined by a physical location, but it focuses on connectivity and modern services, linking our financial systems, logistics and transport networks.”

These projects had built trust and laid the foundations for Singapore and China’s “all-round high-quality, future-oriented partnership”, to which the Singapore-China bilateral relationship was upgraded in 2023.

Cooperation

PM Wong said that Singapore and China looked forward to further cooperation, cooperation that would benefit not just the two countries but the entire region.

He also looked forward to the signing of the Asean-China Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade at the 47th Asean Summit in Kuala Lumpur, which both men would be attending.

“For 35 years, China and Singapore have been important partners in each other's development journeys,” PM Wong said.

“I am confident that the new initiatives launched today will continue to bring benefits to our peoples while contributing to the development of our wider region.”

A sense of closeness

During his speech, Li Qiang spoke fondly of Singapore, saying he was happy to commemorate the 35th anniversary of bilateral relations between China and "beautiful Singapore".

Li said Singapore's government and people had striven for Singapore's prosperity and had gone all out to achieve success.

He said that the foundations of the bilateral relationship had become stronger, and that the path to "win-win had become wider.

Singapore and China are "culturally connected", and it was natural that the two nations would "feel close".

He related how on arrival, he was asked how he was feeling, to which Li said that he did not "feel the unfamiliarity of a foreign place."

"Every time I come to Singapore, I feel a sense of closeness."

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Top image via Mothership