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S'pore asked M'sia to respond by July 31 on HSR, date of meeting

SINGAPORE — Amid confusion over the Malaysian government's intentions for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR), Singapore's Ministry of Transport said it had asked Putrajaya to clarify its official position in writing by July 31 and to indicate, also by that date, if it still wished to hold bilateral talks on the strained project.

SINGAPORE — Amid confusion over the Malaysian government's intentions for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR), Singapore's Ministry of Transport said it had asked Putrajaya to clarify its official position in writing by July 31 and to indicate, also by that date, if it still wished to hold bilateral talks on the strained project.

The Malaysian government has yet to formally respond on its position and the dates for the proposed talks, even as Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Cabinet ministers like Mr Azmin Ali continued to comment on the project in the media.

"We note the multiple and conflicting statements made by the Malaysian Government concerning its intentions for the HSR project," the ministry said in a statement on Friday (July 20).

It added: "We have requested via diplomatic channels that the Malaysian Government provide a written response clarifying its position on the HSR project by July 31, 2018, and that if it wishes to meet with Singapore to discuss the HSR project, to do so by that date.

"They have yet to provide to Singapore the clarifications sought, or communicate their proposed dates for such discussions."

The "game changing" HSR project, a 350km line scheduled for completion by 2026, was first proposed by Malaysia in 2013 and would have slashed rail travel time between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to 90 minutes.

But its fate has been uncertain since the Pakatan Harapan coalition won Malaysia's May 9 election, with Dr Mahathir and some of his ministers vowing to scrap the project in order to trim Putrajaya's RM1 trillion (S$336 billion) debt.

Dr Mahathir made a U-turn on the issue this week, and said that Malaysia will look to negotiate the deferment of the project with Singapore instead of scrapping it. "The problem is that if we just unilaterally discard the agreement, we have to pay a very high compensation," he told reporters on Thursday.

His comments came a day after newly-minted Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali said that Malaysia had not excluded the possibility that the HSR project could go ahead, pending his meeting with Singapore's Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan at the end of this month.

Mr Azmin had earlier told the Malaysian Parliament that he will discuss with Singapore on how to proceed with the HSR project, but stressed that Putrajaya is committed to ensuring that talks with the Republic will be conducted in accordance with the law and in a manner which upholds diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Singapore continues to incur cost on the HSR project, with expenditure expected to hit some S$300 million by year-end, Mr Khaw told Parliament on July 9, warning that a "significant" amount of the funds spent would be "completely wasted" if the project was called off.

Giving a detailed breakdown of the costs involved, Mr Khaw said that the Government had spent over S$250 million on the project by the end of May this year.

In June, Singapore had spent over S$6 million on the project and expects to spend a similar amount for it in July. Costs for the project are expected to "increase rapidly' with time, the minister added, estimating the expenditure for the August to end-December period at over S$40 million.

“As the HSR bilateral agreement is a binding international treaty, both Malaysia and Singapore remain obliged to fulfil the existing terms of the agreement, in the absence of mutually agreed amendments to the agreement," Singapore's transport ministry pointed out on Friday.

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