Lee and Turnbull hail deep friendship and closer partnership

Canberra

AUSTRALIA is more than 10,000 times the size of Singapore and has abundant natural resources, while Singapore has none. The societies of both countries are also quite different in their make up, with Australia mostly Anglo-Saxon, and Singapore, Asian.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong pointed to these differences on Wednesday, as he spoke about how they belie the shared outlook and ethos of both countries that share a "deep friendship". In a historic address to the Australian Parliament, he said: "How is it that Australia and Singapore, two very different countries - as PM Turnbull said, a wide brown land and a little red dot - can forge such a deep and long-standing friendship?