PM Lee Hsien Loong at the Joint Press Conference with Australia PM Anthony Albanese (Mar 2024)

Prime Minister Albanese

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good morning

First, may I thank Prime Minister for his remarks, and particularly for his very warm words to me personally. They are greatly appreciated — this is a very important friendship which we value greatly, and which I hope will continue even after I move on to other roles after being Prime Minister.

I would also like to thank the Prime Minister for hosting our Annual Leaders’ Meeting today and for his warm hospitality to our delegation. It is very good to be back in Australia again, and especially in this beautiful city of Melbourne.

The Prime Minister and I affirmed the good progress we have made in our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP). Over the last nine years, we have jointly completed more than 110 initiatives across the six pillars of cooperation in the CSP. And we greatly appreciate, first of all, Australia’s strong and longstanding support for the Singapore Armed Forces’ military training in Australia, which has gone on now for much more than 30 years. Our economic ties are robust. Singapore is Australia’s 7th largest trading partner and 5th largest foreign investor.

We are updating the CSP with fresh and groundbreaking areas of cooperation, for example on the digital and green economies. We are happy that the Singapore-Australia Green Economy Agreement signed only 18 months ago has made significant progress. We signed an MOU on a Green and Digital Shipping Corridor, including building a zero or near-zero greenhouse gas emission fuel supply chain on the shipping routes between Singapore and Australia, which will boost efforts by both countries to reach net zero. We have also developed a set of joint principles for cross-border electricity trading, which will enhance our decarbonisation pathways and energy security.

Next year (2025) will be the 10th anniversary of the CSP and the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Singapore and Australia. There is still much more that our two countries can and should do together. After all, we are natural partners with complementary economies and compatible world views and strategic perspectives on the region and on international affairs. The Prime Minister and I therefore agreed that we should identify new, strategic and forward-looking areas of cooperation for the next edition of the CSP; for example renewable energy, supply chain resilience, Artificial Intelligence and air connectivity – areas which will fit in well with Singapore’s and Australia’s priorities. We have tasked our Ministers and officials to develop an ambitious workplan for this next phase of the CSP by the time the leaders conduct their Annual Leaders’ Meeting next year.

The Prime Minister and I also discussed regional and geopolitical developments. We agreed on the importance of an open and inclusive rules-based multilateral order which supports ASEAN Centrality. I welcomed efforts by Prime Minister Albanese and his government to deepen engagement of Southeast Asia, including through its Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040. Singapore has long supported Australia strengthening its links with Southeast Asia and we will always continue to do so.

Our bilateral relations continue to flourish amidst the global uncertainty and economic headwinds. I am confident that together, we will take these relations to better heights, to greater heights, and I look forward to a successful ASEAN-Australia Special Summit tomorrow.

Thank you.