Singapore proudly basks in spotlight
SINGAPORE – Crowds of journalists and curious locals gathered Monday around the hotels where President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Kim stayed. Other Singaporeans went about their daily routines — going to and from work, shopping and jogging past security checkpoints and police stationed with shotguns and rifles.
Locals expressed pride that the tiny nation of 5.5 million could pull off such a major event as the historic summit.
“I think people here are happy about the summit,” said Zainudin Deen, a financial consultant, who was walking nearby the Shangri-La Hotel, where Trump and his entourage stayed.
“As the host nation, we’re proud. We were able to set up the security for this with short notice.”
At the nearby St. Regis hotel, which hosted Kim Jong Un and his delegation, a crowd grew as word got around that the North Korean leader would go on a nighttime mini-tour of Singapore.
Alan Heng, 55, hung around with his brother near the hotel, enjoying the electric atmosphere and hoping to catch a glimpse of the elusive North Korean leader.
“Everybody is excited,” he said. “It’s a big international event, and it’s putting Singapore in the spotlight. There are small inconveniences, but it’s worth it.”
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Sunday that the
$15 million the summit cost the country was money well spent.
“It’s our contribution to an international endeavor, which is in our profound interest,” Lee said at the international media center the city-state set up to accommodate more than
2,500 journalists covering the event. Lee said about half the cost was for security.
“It is a cost we are willing to pay,” Lee said. The summit “gives us publicity. The fact that we have been chosen as the site of the meeting — we did not ask for it, but we were asked, and we agreed — says something about Singapore’s relations with the parties, with America, with North Korea, also our standing in the international community.”