Jordan Times
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
King arrives in Singapore
Agencies
His Majesty King Abdullah arrived Tuesday in Singapore from Tokyo on a three-day
official visit for talks with senior officials on the situation in the Middle
East and bilateral relations, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
King Abdullah will meet with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his
predecessor, Goh Chok Tong, who now holds the second most powerful position in
Singapore politics with the title of Senior Minister, Agence France-Presse said.
Their talks are expected to focus on the two nations' increasingly warm economic
ties.
Singapore and Jordan in May signed a free trade agreement and a bilateral
investment treaty, the first such deals between the wealthy Southeast Asian
city-state and an Arab country.
Prime Minister Faisal Fayez, Royal Court Minister Samir Rifai, the King's
Adviser Akel Biltaji, Foreign Minister Hani Mulki, and Minister of Planning and
International Cooperation Bassem Awadallah are accompanying the King.
Fayez visited Singapore in June and the talks then focused on building tourism,
trade and investment links.
In Tokyo, King Abdullah held regional and bilateral talks with National Diet
(house of representatives) Speaker Yohei Kono, House of Councillors President
Oogi Chikage, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and members of the
Jordan-Japan Parliamentary Friendship Association.
Several excelling students from Jordanian universities accompanied the King to
examine the Japanese experience in scientific and technological fields, Petra
said.
Partnership programme
Meanwhile, Awadallah and Machimura signed the minutes of deliberations on a
partnership programme, under which Japan will pay for Jordan to send experts on
development projects abroad and share technology with its Iraqi and Palestinian
neighbours, officials told AFP.
Jordan is the 12th country to be part of a Japanese programme aimed at turning
its aid recipients into aid givers.
Japan said it would encourage Jordan to transfer Japanese agricultural and
medical technology it used in its own development to Iraq and the Palestinian
territories.
Japan will also help finance the dispatch of Jordanian experts to third
countries and bear most costs of a programme to bring trainees to the Kingdom, a
foreign ministry statement said.