S'pore-M'sia leaders' retreat next week to discuss unresolved issues

Malaysia and Singapore will discuss unresolved bilateral issues during the ninth Singapore-Malaysia Leaders' Retreat, scheduled from April 8-9 in a friendly manner, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“We will not going to confront them,” he told a press conference in Putrajaya today.

Among the unresolved issues to be discussed include water problems, airspace and maritime borders, he said.

“All these will be discussed in a friendly manner...but I believe that even Singapore understands the need to revise the price of water,” he said.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will meet his counterpart Mahathir in Putrajaya next week. This latest edition of the leaders’ retreat was supposed to have been held in November last year but was postponed.

On whether Malaysia is expecting to receive money from Singapore following a Singapore court's order to return S$15.3 million in 1MDB-linked funds to Malaysia, Dr Mahathir said: “Our job is to receive the money and to make sure that money came from 1MDB. We cannot accept money that is not ours.”

It was reported in September last year that a Singapore court had ordered the return of about S$15.3 million to Malaysia, a portion of the total cash and assets seized in the city-state as part of an investigation into transactions linked to scandal-hit state fund 1MDB.

- Bernama