Singapore not keen to review price of water under deal

It says any review should have been done in 1987 — 25 years after signing of the water agreement.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has expressed his displeasure with the water agreement, saying it is unfavourable to Malaysia and he wants it renegotiated. (File pic)

SINGAPORE: Singapore today indicated it was not keen to review the price of water under a 1962 agreement it had made with Malaysia.

Its foreign affairs ministry said in a statement that the review should have been done in 1987 — 25 years after the signing of the agreement, as was stated in the pact.

“This position was most recently set out by Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan in a parliamentary reply on July 9, 2018,” said the ministry in the statement issued in conjunction with the official visit to Singapore of Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah.

In an interview with Bernama yesterday, Saifuddin said he had underlined the fact that there could be a review as this was stated in the agreement.

“There is a clause about a review that surely we can look at,” he said, adding that he understood that Singapore had its own perspective.

“Surely we can continue the discussion. The agreement says the contents of the agreement can be reviewed after 25 years. It doesn’t mean at 25 years… so we can continue talking,” Saifuddin had said.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had expressed his displeasure with the agreement, saying it was unfavourable to Malaysia and he wanted it renegotiated. - FMT