SINGAPORE (May 7): Yang Di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar on Tuesday visited the Parliament of Singapore as part of his two-day state visit to the republic.

Sultan Ibrahim was accompanied by Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook and Singapore’s Foreign Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, as well as the Malaysian delegation.

The Agong arrived at 11.15am and was welcomed by Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng.

The King also spent about five minutes observing the parliamentary sitting from the Speaker's Gallery located within the Parliament Chamber.

Singaporean lawmakers greeted Sultan Ibrahim with their usual parliamentary convention of thumping their armrests.

Earlier, Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong had an audience with the King at 9am at a hotel here.

The meeting, which lasted about an hour, was held at a significant time as Wong is set to take over from Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to become the nation's fourth prime minister on May 15.

Meanwhile, Raja Permaisuri Agong Raja Zarith Sofiah visited the KK Women's and Children's Hospital and spent about an hour at the hospital.

Before returning to Malaysia, Sultan Ibrahim and Raja Zarith Sofiah, who arrived in the republic on Monday, are scheduled to inspect the progress of the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System Link (RTS Link) project.

On Nov 22, 2020, Sultan Ibrahim launched the groundbreaking of the project.

This is the Agong's maiden state visit since ascending the throne on Jan 31, at the invitation of Singapore's President Tharman Shanmugaratnam.