PM Lee Hsien Loong's Remarks at the Joint Press Conference with UK PM David Cameron

Prime Minister Cameron
Ministers
Ladies and gentlemen

May I welcome Prime Minister David Cameron and his delegation to Singapore. The visit comes at a significant moment. This is not only Singapore’s 50th year of independence, but also the 50th year of our bilateral relations with Britain and the UK.

I would like to thank the Prime Minister for making Southeast Asia his first major overseas visit following a decisive election victory. He has many other urgent priorities after forming his new government – setting his domestic agenda, dealing with the immediate issues in the European Union, determining Britain’s role in Europe. But he has decided that Britain’s ties with Asia are important, and he is visiting Southeast Asia, including Singapore. I am very glad he has done so, and encouraged him to continue deepening Britain’s engagement in the region and of course its friendship with us.

This is a friendship which is unique and worthy of celebration. It started nearly two hundred years ago with the founding of modern Singapore when Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles came and had the vision of a free port here. The relations have progressed remarkably since with strong political links at the highest levels, people-to-people ties and economic ties.

Our trade has grown, so have our investments both ways. The Prime Minister this time has brought along a distinguished business delegation, including a separate delegation from the Northern Powerhouse. I am confident that our businesses will find opportunities to cooperate and increase their projects together both ways, in Singapore and the UK. With the development of the Northern Powerhouse and the secondary cities beyond London, there will be more value propositions and opportunities for Singapore investors.

Our cultural and educational links are also growing. Thousands of Singaporeans continue to benefit from the fine traditions of British education and we have a good number of British students who come to Singapore on exchange programmes. This morning, the Prime Minister visited Commonwealth Secondary School to see the ‘STEM’ – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Applied Learning Programme. I hope he found it useful. In time, I hope to see more exchanges in the education field in both directions.

We also discussed how we could deepen our security cooperation because terrorism is very much on our minds for both of us. We both have nationals who have become radicalised, who have got involved in ISIS and we have issues on how to manage this both as a security issue as well as the wider issue of integration and of dealing with the wider community. Our agencies are already working together, and we discussed what more we can do to tackle the problem.

I am also very glad that we have just witnessed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Cyber Security Cooperation. UK has well-known expertise in this field. The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) at Bletchley Park is world famous. We hope to share experiences in this increasingly important area.

This year, we are celebrating SG50 and the last time we had the Queen’s representative in Singapore was for our National Day was in 1969, when we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the founding of Singapore by Sir Stamford Raffles. Princess Alexandra honoured us with her presence. This year, we are honoured that Prince Andrew will coming as the Queen’s representative, the Duke of York, and we look forward to receiving him at our National Day Parade together with the Foreign Secretary in ten days’ time. We are very happy to have Prime Minster here and we look forward to our relationship prospering.

Thank you.

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Q&A Session

Q1: On the Singapore-EU Free Trade Agreement

PM Lee: I think that the Prime Minister is completely right that we have an EU-Singapore free trade agreement which is now in the process of getting ratified. I am not sure it is held up; I would say it is making its progress in a stately fashion through the system. We look forward to it progressing successfully. It will take a while but it important for us and I think it is an important signal for the EU. For us because the EU is a major trading partner and for the EU because it is a signal that you are open for business and no matter your domestic issues and preoccupations, you do want to continue to deepen and strengthen the links which you have with the Far East, with a very rapidly growing part of the world. Singapore is the bellwether. If you can do one with Singapore, I think that will encourage other deals to come, including the ASEAN-EU deal. It is not easy to negotiate a free trade agreement between ten countries one side and 28 countries on the other side because there are many cross-linkages to be preoccupied with but if you can do that, ASEAN is half a billion of population and it is a growing prosperous region. It has a growing number of middle class households and consumption. It diversifies Europe’s engagement with Asia beyond just the big mega economies of China and India but to South East Asia which is a significant part of the world where there is lots of resources, where there is growing purchasing power and where you can be a valued partner who can play a part in our progress and prosperity. It is not going to be easy to do but it is something which is something that is worth pushing for.

Q2: On working together to counter terrorism

PM Lee: A lot of the cooperation happens quietly because it is cooperation between the security agencies. We exchange information, intelligence and work together when we come across something significant. So I do not think that is something which we will be trumpeting from the rooftop. But there is also learning from each other in terms of the programmes we have in terms of how we deradicalise people who have been led astray, how we work with the community in order to make sure that we have the right values and the right interpretation prevail and people do not come to the wrong conclusion and do bad things which hurt themselves and hurt others. We have some experience in Singapore with the Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG). I think Britain has also been working on these areas. I am sure that we will be exchanging notes on those and learning from each other’s’ experiences.

Q3: On working together against corruption

PM Lee: I think every country has different circumstances but in Singapore I think we have found a new way forward. We inherited a system from the British colonial government which was largely clean, and one of the considerations why the PAP fought the 1959 General Elections to win, as opposed to fighting it to become the biggest opposition party was for fear that if it became the opposition party and let someone else take over after self-government, by the time you enter government, the system would be corrupted and beyond redemption. So right from the beginning, anti-corruption was at the top of our agenda and we have worked on it since then. Through thick and thin, through some very difficult cases that sometimes even involve ministers, but we have pushed through. We have got a system and I would never say that there is zero corruption in Singapore but there is zero tolerance for corruption in Singapore. I think many countries would acknowledge that corruption is debilitating and bad for their system. How they can improve the situation and work through their cultures and customary practices and norms they have established would depend on each of their countries. But between Singapore and Britain, we are very happy to work together and I think the Prime Minister has an interest in this and talks about setting up an anti-corruption hub in the region and Singapore would be happy to work with them on this project.

Q4: On new trade and business opportunities

PM Lee: Well the Prime Minister has brought a big business delegation with him, especially from the Northern parts of England and I am sure they will be in touch with our Singaporean companies and looking for opportunities together. We are both countries which believe in free enterprise. We believe in the private sector having the drive, motivation and imagination to look for a new opportunities and I am sure when they get together they will not be short of new ones.

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