PM Lee to visit Bintan on Tuesday for fifth Singapore-Indonesia Leaders' Retreat

PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Indonesian President Joko Widodo will meet on the resort island of Bintan on Tuesday (Jan 25) in what will be their first Leaders' Retreat in nearly 27 months.

The meeting between the leaders of the 2 South-east Asian neighbours is usually held annually but it has not taken place since the last one in Singapore in October 2019 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

PM Lee and President Widodo will review the progress made on bilateral cooperation since the last Leaders' Retreat and discuss ways to expand collaboration in key areas of priority for both countries", said a statement from the Prime Minister's Office on Monday.

They will also exchange views on regional and global developments.

PM Lee will be accompanied by 6 members of the Cabinet on this visit - Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam, Transport Minister S Iswaran, and Manpower Minister and Second Trade and Industry Minister Tan See Leng.

During the day-long retreat, the leaders will witness the signing and exchange of a set of agreements negotiated on the basis of the "Framework for Discussions", which was announced at the last retreat.

These agreements are:

- an Agreement on the Realignment of the Boundary between the Jakarta Flight Information Region (FIR) and the Singapore FIR;

- a Treaty for the Extradition of Fugitives;

- a Joint Statement between the Defence Ministers on the 2007 Defence Cooperation Agreement and its Implementing Arrangement between the Singapore Armed Forces and the Indonesian Armed Forces (now referred to as the Indonesian National Defence Forces) for the Military Training Area in Indonesia.

There will also be an exchange of letters undertaking to bring all these agreements into force simultaneously.

PM Lee and President Widodo will also endorse the announcement of several Memorandums of Understanding, signed ahead of the Retreat, including in financial and economic cooperation, green and circular economy development, energy cooperation, and human capital development.

Both leaders have kept up their regular interactions over the last couple of years, virtually and in-person.

They last met each other on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Rome last October. PM Lee also flew to Jakarta for the Asean Leaders' Meeting hosted by President Widodo in April last year.

Singapore has been Indonesia's top foreign investor since 2014, with realised investments in Indonesia increasing by 50 per cent in 2020 to reach US$9.8 billion.

That year, Singapore was Indonesia's third-biggest trading partner, while Indonesia was Singapore's seventh-largest. Bilateral trade in 2020 amounted to some S$48.8 billion.