SINGAPORE - Iceland's President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson will be in Singapore for a three-day State visit from Wednesday to Friday.
The visit - a first by an Icelandic President here - is at the invitation of President Tony Tan Keng Yam, whom he will call on after an official welcome ceremony at the Istana on Wednesday .
Mr Grimsson will also meet Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and be hosted to a state banquet by Dr Tan and his wife Mrs Mary Tan.
On Thursday, he will open the Arctic Circle Singapore Forum with a keynote speech along with Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean. He will also chair the forum's dinner dialogue, which has the theme "Advancing Global Cooperation In The Arctic".
The forum is organised by the Arctic Circle, a non-profit organisation co-founded by Mr Grimsson, and by the Singapore Maritime Institute. It has the support of the Singapore Government.
Singapore was admitted as an observer state to the Arctic Council, a forum for inter-governmental cooperation among Arctic states, in May 2013. Developments in the Arctic will affect Singapore, as a small low-lying island and an international sea port.
Mr Grimsson is accompanied on the visit here by his wife, Madam Dorrit Moussaieff, and by Foreign and External Trade Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson and senior officials.
On Wednesday morning, Mr Grimsson and his wife will visit the Singapore Botanic Gardens, where an orchid will be named in their honour. He will also visit the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore.
On Friday, he will visit the Centre for Liveable Cities, as well as the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, which is a stopover point for more than 118 species of migratory birds including several Arctic species.
He will close his visit with a public lecture on "Clean Energy, Climate and the Arctic" under the Yale-NUS College President's Speaker series on Friday evening.
