Wikileaks of an email conversation between a staff of Washington Center for Equitable Growth and John Podesta, Chairman of the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, reveal that the Singapore Government was adamant that the United States of America sent a high ranking head of delegation to the SG50 National Day celebrations.
The Wikileaks released on 11 Oct 2016 suggest that Mr Podesta acceded to the request and besides being personally attending the National Day Parade, also had lunch with Singapore’s President and Prime Minister. The leaked email said:
“*PPO Delegation Request: SINGAPORE Aug 7-10Conflicts: Aspen (but Valerie asked still that we let you know of the request) Delegation Purpose: Honor Singapore’s 50th National Day. Singapore is one of our closest partners in Asia across a wide range of issues, and often our most candid advisor in the region. Singapore was part of the P4 that later became the Trans-Pacific Partnership and is the only Southeast Asian nation to join our counter-ISIL coalition and to contribute military assets and personnel. Others Confirmed to go: Nobody else is confirmed at this point. Singapore would like us to send a small delegation, so it would likely be the Head of Delegation and the U.S. Ambassador to Singapore, Kirk Wagar. Why you? “PPO was hoping that Podesta could do it because he’s a high ranking former official who we think would be well received by Singapore. We sent former President Clinton and Tom Donilon recently for the funeral of the former Prime Minister of Singapore. The Singapore government is adamant we send a high ranking head of delegation.”Do you want to rearrange things to go, or shall we decline citing existing commitments?*”