“Singapore had initially agreed to Malaysia’s proposal to hold the retreat in late November 2018,” the Singapore High Commission said in a statement.
It said the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had on Oct 23 informed Singapore of the postponement of the retreat due to “scheduling constraints”, adding that it was looking forward to Malaysia hosting the retreat.
Malaysiakini today quoted Dr Mahathir Mohamad as saying that he was unaware of the postponement.
“This is the first time I heard about it,” the prime minister said.
The report went on to state that Singapore’s foreign affairs ministry “appeared to have unilaterally announced the decision to postpone the meeting two days ago”.