AS Malaysia grows closer to China, expect bilateral ties between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to get more challenging especially in both the economic and military spheres.

The point of contentions are likely to be:

1) the contractor to build the high-speed-rail between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and

2) the offer to by China to install an air defence and radar system in south of West Malaysia.

At several meetings over the past few days, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Prime Minister Najib Razak that Beijing will make Malaysia the cornerstone of its one belt one road policy in Asean.

A measure of how close both leaders were was Najib posting pictures and writing in his social media channels that he sat next to the powerful Chinese leader at lunch today. Najib was among 30 world leaders attending the forum.

Najib and a high-profile Malaysian delegation have been in Beijing since last Friday for both bilateral ties and the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation yesterday and today. 

This is Najib’s seventh visit to China since taking office in 2009. Singapore was not invited to the forum which also saw attendance by senior officials from the US and the UK.

Sources told The Malaysian Insight the Chinese leader made a pitch for China to be awarded the high speed rail contract for the KL-Singapore line, pointing out that China is going to finance a high-speed rail link from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur.

Both rail links should have the same gauge and system, otherwise it would not make much sense, Xi was quoted as saying by officials at the lunch.

Apart from China, Japan is also bidding for the HSR contract between KL and Singapore. Malaysia is said to favour the Chinese while Singapore is keen on Japanese companies due to their experience and technology.

Not much is known about the proposed rail link between KL and Bangkok except that the terminus is also expected to be in Bandar Malaysia.

China has also promised loans for the RM55 billion East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) that would link Port Klang to Kuantan and provide a rail bridge for goods from the Strait of Malacca to to the South China Sea, bypassing Singapore’s busy port.

The Chinese president also noted with concern the IS build-up in the region and offered to install air defence and radar systems as a joint initiative to combat terrorism and gather intelligence.

Sources said an air defence and radar system in the southern part of the Malay peninsula could prove to be a sore point with Singapore, seen as a proxy of the US in the region by China.

Malaysia and Singapore are in the Five Power Defence Arrangement (FPDA) but the neighbours have been slowly building up their defence assets and have had some issues over airspace control.

Others in the FPDA set up to defend Malaysia and Singapore during the Cold War are the UK, Australia and New Zealand. – May 15, 2017.