Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid will pay a one-day visit to Singapore on January 15, during which he will meet Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, his spokesman said Thursday.
"The visit is to inaugurate the first (Indonesian) gas export via pipeline to Singapore," presidential spokesman Adhie Massardi told AFP.
During the visit to the island republic Wahid is also scheduled to meet with Goh, Massardi said.
Relations between Jakarta and Singapore were strained late last year when Wahid accused Singapore of looking down on Malays and being only interested in profit.
The Indonesian leader also reminded the Southeast Asian neighbor that it relied on Malaysia for its water supplies, which could easily be cut off.
Massardi did not say whether the meeting was intended to be a fence-mending one.
A source in Singapore also confirmed that Wahid's visit would take place and that he would meet with Goh, signalling a healing of the rift between the Southeast Asian neighbors.
In the latest barb in the often prickly relationship between the two countries, Indonesia has suggested negative articles in Singapore newspapers could affect bilateral relations.
It has taken issue with a number of reports printed recently in the Straits Times, Singapore's main daily, which included extensive translations from Indonesian newspapers.
Sulaiman Abdulmanan, the information director for Indonesia's foreign affairs department, wrote to the Straits Times saying it was "rather unfortunate" the articles were published.
"They may present a distorted view of Indonesia and affect bilateral relations," he said in the letter which the Straits Times printed without comment on Thursday.
Indonesia's state oil and gas company Pertamina said Wednesday that it had begun deliveries of natural gas to Singapore from the West Natuna Sea through a 656 kilometer (407 mile) submarine pipeline -- JAKARTA (AFP)
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