Malaysian Deputy Minister for Defence Liew Chin Tong called on Singapore Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen at the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) yesterday.

"Both sides reaffirmed the bilateral defence relationship and exchanged views on the bilateral and multilateral defence cooperation between Singapore and Malaysia," a Mindef statement said.

It added that the ministers also discussed ongoing geopolitical and security developments in the region.

Mr Liew visited Safra Punggol earlier yesterday. Today, he will deliver the keynote speech at the 2018 South-east Asia Counter-Terrorism Symposium organised by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

The Chief of the Malaysian Armed Forces, General Tan Sri Zulkifli Zainal Abidin, separately also called on Dr Ng at Mindef in Bukit Gombak yesterday.

Gen Zulkifli is making his first visit to Singapore as armed forces chief. During the meeting, Dr Ng and Gen Zulkifli affirmed the positive trajectory of the bilateral defence relationship, said a Mindef statement.

It said they also discussed how the two defence establishments could strengthen cooperation to deal with common security challenges in the region.

Gen Zulkifli, who took up the post in June, also met the Chief of Defence Force, Lieutenant-General Melvyn Ong, and reviewed a guard of honour at Mindef before meeting Dr Ng.

The Malaysian armed forces chief arrived in Singapore on Tuesday and visited Changi Naval Base to observe the opening ceremony of Exercise Bersama Lima - a multilateral exercise involving the five member nations of the Five Power Defence Arrangements - Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

He also visited the Changi Command and Control Centre and the Formidable-class frigate RSS Steadfast.

Yesterday, he visited the Island Defence Task Force at Clementi Camp, as well as ST Engineering.

"General Zulkifli's visit underscores the warm and longstanding defence relations between Singapore and Malaysia," Mindef added.

The Singapore Armed Forces and Malaysian Armed Forces regularly interact across a wide range of activities, including bilateral exercises, visits, exchanges and cross attendance of courses.