Singapore and Australia will enter a new phase of partnership in 2025, with their leaders pledging to cooperate in fresh and strategic ways, amid geopolitical uncertainties.

These new areas of cooperation include the fields of renewable energy, supply chain resilience, artificial intelligence and air connectivity, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday (Mar 5), adding that they fit well with the priorities of both countries.

“There is much more that our two countries can do together. After all, we are natural partners with complementary economies, (as well as) compatible world views and strategic perspectives on the region and on international affairs,” said PM Lee.

He was speaking at a joint press conference with his Australian counterpart, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, shortly after their annual leaders’ meeting concluded in Melbourne.

Giving an update on the Singapore-Australia Green Economy Agreement signed in October 2022, PM Lee said that the effort – that facilitates trade in environmental goods and services and the promotion of investment in the green economy – has made significant progress.

On Tuesday, the leaders welcomed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on a Green and Digital Shipping Corridor, to encourage maritime decarbonisation and digitalisation, as well as a set of principles that both sides have jointly developed to guide cross-border electricity trade for the region.

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PM Lee said ministers and officials from both sides have been tasked to develop an “ambitious” plan for their next chapter of cooperation.

In 2025, the two countries will mark the 10th year since forging a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP), as well as the 60th year of establishing diplomatic relations.

“We share a vision for an open, stable and prosperous region. And this meeting has solidified a relationship that is unique in its depth and breadth, and a relationship that we are turning to the future,” said Albanese, calling the new phase “CSP 2.0”.

Both leaders agreed that cooperation under the next stage of their partnership should be ambitious, future-oriented and pathfinding, and will comprise initiatives across a wide range of sectors, such as food security, energy security and cyber and critical technologies.

Landmark event

PM Lee is in Melbourne until Wednesday to attend the Asean-Australia Special Summit, which marks the 50th anniversary since Australia became the bloc’s first dialogue partner.

The meeting of regional leaders in Melbourne comes against the backdrop of increasing geopolitical tensions and economic rivalry between the US and China, as well as during a period when conflict continues in Myanmar, Ukraine and Gaza.

Both PM Lee and Albanese expressed continued commitment to promote peace and stability in the region, and also the South China Sea, where negotiations over a Code of Conduct to avert confrontations between competing parties are progressing slowly.

In recent years, Australia has moved to boost engagement with Asean. In 2023, it launched its South-east Asian economic strategy to increase trade and investment with its regional neighbours, particularly in key sectors, such as the growing clean energy sector.

PM Lee said that Singapore has “long supported” Australia’s strengthening links with South-east Asia and “will always continue to do so”.

“Our bilateral relations continue to flourish amid global uncertainty and economic headwinds,” he said.

Singapore and Australia have close and longstanding ties in the areas of defence, science and innovation, as well as economic trade. In 2023, Australia was Singapore’s 10th-largest trading partner, with total bilateral goods traded amounting to S$29.6 billion.

The two nations share a long-term defence and security partnership, and both leaders underlined and affirmed the progress on related programmes, such as the plans to expand the Shoalwater Bay Training Area in Queensland that is to be completed in 2024, and to also further expand training opportunities for the Singapore Armed Forces in Australia.

The defence cooperation between the two nations is an important aspect of the partnership, and Singapore has “significant” air force detachments in Australia. In turn, Australian ships and aircraft are welcome to visit Singapore, said PM Lee.

“When the Australian new submarines are ready, we welcome them to visit Changi Naval Base in due course,” he added.

In 2021, Australia, the UK and the US announced a trilateral security partnership for the Indo-Pacific amid concern of China’s growing power and influence in the region.

Among other initiatives, the Australia-UK-US (Aukus) pact will allow the Royal Australian Navy to acquire conventionally-armed nuclear-powered submarines. However, the pact has also raised concerns from Indonesia and Malaysia that it could worsen tensions in the region.

Singapore has previously said that it was “comfortable” with all the three partners within Aukus because it had long-term relationships with each of them.

Since Singapore and Australia became Comprehensive Strategic Partners in 2015, the two have teamed up on more than 100 initiatives in various sectors such as the digital and green economy.

Noting PM Lee’s intention to step down later in 2024, Albanese said that Australia and others in the region have benefited from the Singaporean leader’s “acute understanding of our strategic circumstances”, and his “commitment to building a region that is open and stable”.

“He is an extraordinary leader for our region and I wish him very well for his future,” said Albanese. THE STRAITS TIMES