因水資源嚴重不足，長期以來馬來西亞都提供水源給新加坡。馬來西亞政府於1998年趁著參加東協高峰會議之便，和當時新加坡總理吳作棟舉行會談，建議雙方開啟新水供談判。新馬雙方政府在多次的雙邊問題磋商中，對於水供議題也曾經達成一些共識。在這配套形式的共識中，馬來西亞政府原則上答應在2061年舊的水供協議終止之後，將繼續提供水源給新加坡，而新加坡則願意提高15 倍的水價購買。然而，經過雙方政府長期的談判，這個原則性的配套共識最終宣告失敗。本文試圖模擬出新馬兩國政府為何有意願開啟談判，但是卻無法達成新水供協議的原因。

Owing to the lack of water resources, Singapore has been buying water
from Malaysia. In 1998, Malaysia representatives discussed this issue with
Singapore President Wu Zhuo Dong during the ASEAN annual meeting,
hoping for a new round of negotiation. Wu agreed and organized the so-called four-eye meeting between Mahathir and Lee in 2000 and 2001 in Putrajaya. The two sides discussed in details about various issues and made important agreements on several issues. Malaysia agreed to stick to the current contract under 2061 and would continue to supply water to Singapore with a 15-fold increase in price. But after several communications between the two governments, the new agreement was declared void. Both the Singapore and Malaysia governments were once optimistic about making a new agreement. The objective of this thesis is to explain why the two governments are willing to negotiate but has not come up with a long-lasting agreement.