SINGAPORE

Vietnam and Singapore signed several business agreements to expand investment and trade during a visit last week by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Among the six memoranda of understanding signed and witnessed by Mr Lee and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc, two were for industrial parks to be developed by Singapore’s Sembcorp in central Vietnam. Mr Lee said the two also discussed regional and security issues and in particular the South China Sea, where he said issues should be resolved “in accordance with the international law including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea ... and also on the freedom of navigation on the important artery of global commerce in the South China Sea”.