Malaysia and Singapore signalled a breakthrough yesterday in a deadlock over a series of disputes which have long soured relations between the two neighbors.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Singapore's former premier Goh Chok Tong presented an upbeat assessment of chances of resolving the issues in revived negotiations after a two-hour meeting in Malaysia's administrative capital of Putrajaya.
"[The issues] are not very difficult," Abdullah told a joint news conference with Goh, who is now Singapore's special envoy to Malaysia, a position created in October to capitalize on rapidly improving relations.
"We believe they can be resolved as quickly as possible. We are aware that we do not have a definite agreement in terms of details but the agreement we have together is that we have to move forward," Abdullah said.
Goh told reporters that one of the general principles agreed upon was that solutions must lead to mutual benefits and not disadvantage the other party.
"We must not allow future relationships between Singapore and Malaysia to be held hostage by past issues. We are happy we are able to move the process forward on old issues," he said.
Separated by the narrow Johor Strait, the two nations have endured an uneasy relationship since Singapore's ejection from the Malaysian federation in 1965, but signs of a rapprochement have grown since the retirement last year of Malaysia's former premier Mahathir Mohamad.
Among the wide range of disputes are the price of raw water that Malaysia supplies to Singapore, rival claims to a rocky islet, the future of Malaysian-owned railway land inside Singapore and a proposed new bridge linking the two countries.
Negotiations were deadlocked under Mahathir in 2002, but his notoriously confrontational negotiating style has been replaced by Abdullah's more diplomatic approach.
He and Goh announced that they had agreed that ministers and officials would resume talks ahead of another meeting between the two men in two months' time.
"The discussions certainly have been successful from the point of view that we are moving forward and not allowing it to stall," Abdullah said.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS