SINGAPOREAN Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has invited Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim to visit him back on the island republic, following a meeting with the Malaysian prime minister in Putrajaya today.

Lee said he wished to continue the tradition of holding regular retreats with his Malaysian counterpart as former Singapore prime minister Goh Chok Tong did with Dr Mahathir.

“I hope that after he has settled some of his domestic priorities, (of) which he has many, he will be able to follow it up,” Lee told the Straits Times.

Lee said of their 30-minute meeting: “We had an exchange of views - what was on his mind, what was on mine, and I think it was a warm, fruitful meeting from that point of view.”

He said they did not discuss substantive issues, including the Kuala Lumpur and Singapore high-speed rail project which Dr Mahathir had said would be reviewed.

Lee said he told his “closest neighbour” that he thought he would visit to “touch base, renew our links” upon Dr Mahathir again taking the prime minister’s office.

“I said that we have worked with them over many years. We have cooperation projects. We have issues from time to time which we have to deal with, but we have made a lot of progress with the cooperation and we hope to continue to make further progress and build on what we have achieved in the past.

“I think he shares that hope,” Lee said.

During the meeting, Lee received a call from Anwar Ibrahim, whom he had known when they were both deputy prime ministers.

“We had a general conversation on how he saw developments in Malaysia, his views on what has been happening and what his plans were,” Lee said.

Lee also offered to host Anwar at a Singapore institute if he wanted time and space to think.

“If he wants time to reflect, to write, perhaps to detach himself a little bit for a while, we welcome him to Singapore. Come to one of our institutes and write a book. So he said he would consider that,” Lee said. – May 19, 2018.