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China and Singapore vow more exchanges as Asean welcomes Beijing’s warmer ties with US

  • In call with Singaporean counterpart, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi says cooperation with the city state has maintained ‘strong momentum’
  • Singapore’s foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan praises ‘improved tenor’ of Beijing-Washington relations following Xi-Biden meeting

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Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan (left) and his  Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, shown here in 2018, reaffirmed the “long-standing and substantive” relationship between their countries in a call on Wednesday. Photo: AFP
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China was ready to elevate its cooperation with Singapore to a “higher level” and create conditions for continuing to resume exchanges that were interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
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In a telephone call with his Singaporean counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan on Wednesday, Wang said China’s cooperation with Singapore had maintained “strong momentum”.
In April, the two countries agreed to upgrade bilateral relations to an “all-round high-quality, future-oriented partnership”, which comes with more cooperation in fields such as trade and investment, the green and digital economies and finance.

“China is willing to work with Singapore to provide more convenient conditions for the further resumption of personnel exchanges between the two sides to make up for losses suffered during the pandemic over the past three years,” Wang said, according to China’s foreign ministry.

Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wang and Balakrishnan reaffirmed the countries’ “long-standing and substantive” relationship, and that they looked forward to strengthening people-to-people exchanges.

During the call, Wang and Balakrishnan also traded views on regional and international issues, including the situation in the Middle East.
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The Singaporean foreign minister welcomed the “improved tenor” of US-China relations following the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden.
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