Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Singapore on Nov. 6-7, unveiling a series of new collaborations between the two countries.

China and Singapore have long been close partners in every aspect of collaboration, and Xi’s visit comes at a very special moment as this year marks the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two. It is also the first time the top leaders from China and Singapore exchange visits within a year.

When Singaporean President Tony Tan Keng Yam visited China in July, he and Xi pledged to further promote the bilateral ties between the two countries. Therefore, it is widely expected that Xi’s visit will raise bilateral ties to a new level.

“The relationship between Singapore and China has evolved to such an extent that it’s time, for example, for both countries to look at the more strategic cooperation. Of course in the economic field, and also in many more other exchanges, such as more strategic consensus and so on. President Xi Jinping’s visit to Singapore will definitely try to deepen this sort of very special relations between Singapore and China,” Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told Xinhua.