M’sia, S’pore agree to postpone meet

CAMERON HIGHLANDS: Both Malaysia and Singapore have mutually agreed to postpone the 14th Malaysia-Singapore Joint Ministerial Committee for Iskandar Malaysia (JMCIM) meeting scheduled to take place tomorrow, said Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.

Azmin, who was supposed to lead the Malaysian delegation to the meeting, said this was because certain issues to be discussed in the meeting were closely related to matters raised in an earlier bilateral meeting between Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah and his Singaporean counterpart Dr Vivian Balakrishnan.

Azmin will be holding meetings with Dr Balakrishnan and Singapore’s National Development Minister Lawrence Wong today and tomorrow to further discuss certain issues because these are brought to the next JMCIM meeting.

“Since the meeting (between the two foreign ministers) has just taken place and both countries have issued a positive joint state- ment, I do not want to interfere with the process by having the JMCIM meeting now.

“It’s a good idea to defer it,” he told Bernama.

Singaporean authorities said that Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Osman Sapian, who was seen in disputed waters off Tuas during a visit to a naval vessel on Jan 9, had made the meeting “untenable”.

“Singapore therefore proposed to postpone the JMCIM meeting, and Malaysia agreed,” said the spokesman.

Asked if the incident had affected the relationship between the two countries, Azmin replied: “No.”

“The foreign ministries of both countries have taken an open approach to ensure that all issues pertaining to the maritime border are resolved in good faith,” he said.

The two-day event was supposed to discuss non-bilateral matters between Malaysia and Singapore, including environmental issues, transport, cross border problems, joint tourism promotion efforts and others.