'Israel and Singapore share a deep friendship'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Jerusalem on Tuesday. Lee is in the midst of a historic four-day trip to Israel, becoming the first Singaporean head of state to visit Israel. Lee is being accompanied by his wife, Ho Ching, and a 60-member delegation.

At their meeting, Netanyahu and Lee discussed bilateral cooperation between their two countries in the cyberspace, security, economic and trade realms, among other matters.

Lee invited Netanyahu to make an official visit to Singapore.

"This is truly a historic occasion," Netanyahu said to Lee. "I'm honored to be the first Israeli prime minister to welcome a prime minister of Singapore to our country. I think your arrival here reflects a coming of age of the relations between our two countries. There is a deep friendship between Israel and Singapore. We have so much in common. We are small nations that leave a very large imprint on the world scene."

Lee expressed gratitude to Israel for helping Singapore.

"We are very grateful to Israel that when independence was thrust upon us in August 1965 and when Singapore's security and survival were in doubt, you helped us, the IDF helped us to build up the Singapore armed forces when other countries turned us down," Lee said.

"Our business-to-business ties are strong," Lee said. "Israel is the second largest contributor of foreign direct investments in Singapore from the Middle East, and we admire your technical prowess. ... You have the highest number of scientists, technicians, technologists, engineers per capita in the world. You have the third highest number of patents per capita, and I know that many Singaporean firms are interested in doing business with you, investing in Israel, as some have already done."

Lee was scheduled to meet with Palestinian leaders in Ramallah on Wednesday. Referring to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Tuesday, Lee said, "We are concerned about this situation, as many countries around the world are. We wish Israel well. We are friends with both Israel and Palestine. We hope that you'll be able to resume negotiations and make progress towards a just and durable solution to a long-standing and complex conflict, and we hope to see a two-state solution with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security one day."

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