Australia PM Scott Morrison in Singapore for leaders' meeting

Singapore

AUSTRALIA Prime Minister Scott Morrison is visiting Singapore on Thursday to meet Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, making him the first world leader to come here for an official visit since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic last year.

A statement from Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday said that the two leaders will meet at the Istana, after which they will hold a virtual joint press conference.

The last Singapore-Australia Leaders' Meeting - held via video conference in March last year due to the pandemic - saw the signing of a treaty on military training, along with a number of new agreements on digital cooperation, cybersecurity, and food safety and standards.

The leaders' meeting was established under the Singapore-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) for the prime ministers of both countries to meet annually to discuss bilateral cooperation and exchange views on regional and international developments.

Singapore and Australia have been in talks since last September about setting up a travel bubble that would allow residents to fly between both countries without the need to quarantine, although the signs are that a breakthrough is still quite far away.

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Singapore is in the last few days of a four-week Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) to curb the spread of the coronavirus after a spike in community cases last month.

Some media reports have cited Australia's slow national vaccination rate and its zero tolerance to community spread as reasons why a travel bubble or corridor with Singapore is not possible for now.

Singapore's borders are open to a handful of countries where the virus spread is under control, and Australia is one of them.

Australia has shut its borders to foreigners and non-residents since March 2020 and has allowed very limited international arrivals, mainly citizens returning from overseas.

Before the pandemic struck over a year ago and forced international travel to an almost complete standstill, Singapore was Australia's sixth largest source of visitor arrivals. In 2019, there were 478,500 arrivals from Singapore among the 9.5 million visitors to Australia.

According to latest available figures, Australia was Singapore's 15th largest trading partner in 2020, with bilateral trade at S$18.3 billion. Singapore was Australia's sixth biggest trading partner last year.

The Republic was also Australia's sixth largest foreign investor at the end of 2019 with A$99.9 billion (S$102.3 billion) worth of investments.

The two countries also have a free trade agreement (FTA) that was inked in February 2003 and entered into force five months later. The third review of the FTA was completed in October 2017 and ratified two months later.

Security is likely to be tightened when Mr Morrison and his delegation are in town.

On Wednesday, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said it was aware of a tweet - by a Twitter user with the handle @watermelonsalt5 - indicating that a protest will be held in front of the Australian High Commission along Napier Road on Thursday.

The user had claimed a check with the SPF was done and that a permit for the protest would likely be granted. The police have clarified, however, that they did not receive any enquiries on or an application for a permit for this protest.

Organising or participating in a public assembly without a permit is illegal and constitutes an offence under Singapore's Public Order Act.

"The Police will not grant any permit for assemblies that advocate political causes of other countries. Foreigners visiting or living in Singapore should abide by our laws," SPF said in a statement.

After his meeting with PM Lee, Mr Morrison will depart on Thursday night for the UK to attend the Group of Seven (G-7) summit.

The three-day summit, which begins on Friday, is held in the seaside village of Cornwall in the south west of England. While there, Mr Morrison is expected to have his first face-to-face meeting with US President Joe Biden.