S'pore and Australia PMs agree to work towards a travel bubble, with students to pilot arrangement

Singapore and Australia will work towards an air travel bubble and both nations will lay the groundwork for resuming two-way travel in a safe and calibrated manner, said the prime ministers of both countries on Thursday. Both prime ministers expressed their hope that Singapore students in Australia would be the first to get the opportunity to travel from this arrangement so that they can continue their studies, which have been disrupted by Covid-19 travel restrictions. They also said that such a move involving students could be a good opportunity to test the systems, before widening such travel arrangements. They were speaking to reporters after PM Lee Hsien Loong met his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison on Thursday at the Istana for the sixth Australia-Singapore Annual Leaders' Meeting. This is the first official visit by a foreign leader to Singapore since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Morrison's second stop after New Zealand last month. At a joint press conference after their meeting, Lee said they discussed the fight against Covid-19 and resuming travel between the two countries. "We discussed how two-way travel between Singapore and Australia can eventually resume, in a safe and calibrated manner, when both sides are ready," he said.<br/>