SINGAPORE: The Workers’ Party’s Pritam Singh is part of a parliamentary delegation led by House Speaker Seah Kian Peng that is in Europe this week.
Mr Seah, Mr Singh, Sharael Taha, Cassandra Lee, and Charlene Chen will be attending activities in Strasbourg, France; Rome, Italy; and Vatican City before heading back to Singapore on Oct 23.
In Strasbourg, the delegation is scheduled to meet the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, and the Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, David McAllister.
“The visit aims to strengthen inter-parliamentary ties and deepen Singapore’s engagement with European institutions,” the Singapore Parliament said.
The group is also set to visit the European Parliament and observe a Plenary Session, the Council of Europe, and engage with other Members of the European Parliament.
In Rome, meanwhile, the delegation will be participating in engagements that are meant to provide opportunities to strengthen parliamentary relations between Singapore and Italy; and at the Vatican City, they will be in engagements reaffirming the warm relations between Singapore and the Holy See, as well as have the opportunity to exchange views on regional and global developments.
Pritam Singh’s official overseas visits
Mr Singh, who has represented Aljunied GRC in Parliament since 2011, has been part of official delegations on overseas trips since at least 2018, when he was in London with Edwin Tong and Sun Xueling for the inaugural International Grand Committee Hearing on Fake News and Disinformation.
The following March, he was part of the group led by then-Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin that went to Kuala Lumpur. There, they met the Malaysian Dewan Rakyat Speaker, Senate president and the minister responsible for legal and parliamentary affairs, and observed proceedings in the Malaysian Parliament.
A few months later, in August 2019, he attended the 40th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly with a delegation also led by Mr Tan.
Interestingly, in a Facebook post where he wrote about the visit, Mr Singh noted that the PAP and opposition delegates from Singapore presented a “broadly united front."
“Everyone, including the opposition, wants Singapore to succeed and envisions a better future for our people. Disagreements, different approaches/philosophies is a reality of the human condition. It is no different in Singapore. Our parliamentary democracy gives us the platform to have different views represented in Parliament and to debate and criticise ideas and policies. But once we leave our shores, a broadly united front amongst all parliamentary MPs is consistent with the better future we in the WP seek for Singapore,” he wrote. /TISG
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