Hello and welcome to World Today, I'm Ding Heng in Beijing.
Coming up, China and Singapore are marking 35 years of diplomatic ties.
Putin praises Trump but warns supplying US long-range missiles to Ukraine will badly damage ties.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping has exchanged congratulations with Singaporean President Thamun Shenmugratnam on the 35th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Xi Jinping said China is willing to take the anniversary as an opportunity to further deepen political mutual trust,
promote high-level cooperation, and strengthen cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
The Chinese leader also called for jointly upholding the multilateral trading system and basic norms of international relations,
and advancing a more comprehensive, high-quality and forward-looking China-Singapore partnership.
The Singaporean president said that his country will continue to work closely with China to promote the bilateral ties to a new height.
So for more, joining us now on the line is Professor Qu Qiang,
fellow of the Belt and Road Research Center with Mingzhu University of China.
So thank you very much for joining us today, Professor Qu Qiang.
There is no doubt that China and Singapore today enjoy a close and wide-ranging partnership.
Although the two sides established their official diplomatic ties in 1990,
former Chinese and Singaporean leaders Deng Xiaoping and Li Guangyu actually began their contact as early as the 1970s.
So to what extent should we attribute the close partnership between the two countries today to the efforts of the early leaders or pioneer leaders?
Well, I think even though China's Singapore has established its formal diplomatic relations,
but ever since 1970s,