S'pore, Australia to deepen military ties, cooperation on green projects

Singapore and Australia are in discussions to increase access to each other's military facilities, as part of an ambitious and wideranging pact to be signed in 2025.

- Mike Yeo

A stronger defence partnership is a key plank of a new Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) agreement the two countries want to seal in 2025 when they celebrate 60 years of bilateralties, with other areas of cooperation being food security, energy and climate change.

Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said on Dec 3 that the upcoming agreement between Singapore and Australia is an attempt by both sides to build on a "great track record" of cooperation achieved since the first CSP was signed in 2015.

At a press conference after the 14th Singapore-Australia Joint Ministerial Committee meeting here, Australia also announced that it would invest US$50 million (S$67.3 million) in a Singapore initiative to finance green projects in Asia.

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the two countries share a very close relationship underpinned by deep strategic trust, and that the new CSP will be ambitious in its scope.

"In a difficult world, we understand that this is a moment to double down with friends, and that is the description of Australia and Singapore," he said. "We are the closest of friends, and we intend to see that reflected in next year's CSP." Mindef said in a statement that both countries are looking at "achieving breakthroughs" such that the new CSP will be comparable to the one signed in 2015.

The 2015 agreement allowed Singapore to send larger numbers of Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) personnel annually to Australia for training over a longer period, and put into motion the expansion of and upgrades to the Shoalwater Bay Training Area (SWBTA) and the agreement to set up a new training area in Greenvale.