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A deeper, more substantive strategic partnership

Singapore and the United States issued a joint statement early yesterday that laid out an ambitious vision for bilateral cooperation across a wide spectrum of areas, following talks between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who was making the first official visit to the US by a Singapore prime minister in over three decades. “Through a half-century of diplomatic relations, the United States and Singapore have forged an expansive and enduring relationship by cooperating on issues of mutual interest and shared principles,” the statement said. “Both leaders committed to further enhance the US-Singapore strategic partnership, making it deeper, more substantive, and more effective to better support peace, stability and cooperation across the region and around the world.” Below are the key highlights of new bilateral initiatives in the statement.

Singapore Armed Forces and United States Marine Corps soldiers during an exercise last year. An SAF medical team will be deployed to Iraq to help with global efforts against the Islamic State. TODAY file photo

Singapore Armed Forces and United States Marine Corps soldiers during an exercise last year. An SAF medical team will be deployed to Iraq to help with global efforts against the Islamic State. TODAY file photo

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Singapore and the United States issued a joint statement early yesterday that laid out an ambitious vision for bilateral cooperation across a wide spectrum of areas, following talks between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who was making the first official visit to the US by a Singapore prime minister in over three decades. “Through a half-century of diplomatic relations, the United States and Singapore have forged an expansive and enduring relationship by cooperating on issues of mutual interest and shared principles,” the statement said. “Both leaders committed to further enhance the US-Singapore strategic partnership, making it deeper, more substantive, and more effective to better support peace, stability and cooperation across the region and around the world.” Below are the key highlights of new bilateral initiatives in the statement.

1 Security and Defence Cooperation

Explore new training opportunities for the Singapore Armed Forces in Guam

The statement did not give further details, except to say that this is with “an eye towards a potential long-term training detachment for the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF)”. This is arguably the most significant point in the 10-page document.

Guam, a US island territory strategically located in the Western Pacific, has long been a station for passing jets and submarines and is a lynchpin in Washington’s pivot to the Asia-Pacific region.

Plans are afoot, according to US media reports, to upgrade the military facilities on the island into a hub for about 5,000 US Marines, who will be tasked with responding to conflicts and disasters in East Asia.

“The opportunity to site a Republic of Singapore Air Force training detachment in Guam opens up a new training area where the air force can conduct realistic military manoeuvres over a maritime and land environment with terrain and a tropical climate similar to that found in South-east Asia,” Mr David Boey, a member of the Ministry of Defence’s Advisory Council on Community Relations in Defence who blogs on defence issues, told TODAY.

“More importantly, Guam is one-third of the distance to the continental United States. This means RSAF warplanes can relocate quickly to Singapore should the need arise, while easing the long-term logistics support required to support such a detachment. A Guam detachment will add resilience to Singapore’s deterrence strategy as additional RSAF air power will be within closer reach.”

Singapore expressed “continued interest” in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a development welcomed by Mr Obama

The F-35 is a state-of-the-art aircraft which can travel at nearly twice the speed of sound and is designed to be nearly invisible to enemy radar.

Lockheed Martin is developing three variations for the US military services and eight partner countries that helped fund the plane’s development — the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, Turkey, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Canada.

Japan has also placed an order, while Singapore and Belgium are among other countries that have expressed interest in the advanced fighter jet. The Republic is considering whether it will be the vanguard of its air force’s future fleet.

Signed a new US-Singapore Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate in cyber-security

This includes regular information exchanges and sharing of best practices and cyber-security trends as well as coordination in cyber-incident response, among others. Both sides will also conduct joint cyber-security exercises and collaborate on regional cyber-capacity building and cyber-security awareness building activities.

This issue has taken on greater importance for the US as its companies and even government agencies have been hit by high-profile hacking incidents. Singapore has also been giving the issue increased attention as the Republic has one of the highest rates of Internet penetration in the world.

“Considering the interdependence in cyberspace between Singapore and the US, the borderless nature of transboundary cyber-attacks would have a significant impact on both countries’ critical information infrastructures,” said Mr David Koh, chief executive, Cyber Security Agency of Singapore.

“This MOU will pave the way towards a secure and resilient cyberspace, and we look forward to working together with the US to strengthen cyber-security cooperation between our countries.”

Extend a security dialogue (Law Enforcement and Homeland Security and Safety Dialogue) for another three years to reinforce cooperation in law enforcement matters, including counterterrorism and anti-corruption

2 Economic Cooperation and Innovation

New cooperation on Smart City development and digital innovation

This includes i) identifying opportunities for research collaboration between the National Science Foundation and Singapore’s National Research Foundation, ii) sharing of best practices and information exchange between both governments on topics such as smart city policies, digital government, urban innovation and digital citizen engagement, and iii) facilitating exchanges for start-ups.

Deepen cooperation under the Asean-US Connect (“Connect”) initiative

Connect is a strategic framework for US economic engagement with the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) announced in February 2016 by President Obama. Specifically, Singapore offered support for a new Connect programme focused on the digital economy, which could include innovation policy workshops under the US-Singapore Third Country Training Program.

3 Addressing Regional and Global Challenges

Enhance information-sharing on counterterrorism-related issues

The two countries have co-invested US$30 million (S$40 million) to date under the 2006 Combating Terrorism Research and Development agreement to improve capabilities to combat terrorism. Both leaders welcomed the extension of the agreement for another 10 years for investments up to US$100 million.

Singapore will send a medical team to Iraq as part of its contribution towards global efforts to defeat the Islamic State

The move was welcomed by Mr Obama. The Singapore Armed Forces team, when deployed, will take care of both soldiers and civilians who are injured, said Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen. “Soldiers from the ADF will also join them (the SAF team in Iraq) for force protection,” he added, referring to the SAF’s new rapid response Army Deployment Force that deals with terror incidents and peace support operations, among others.

4 Strengthening People-to-People Ties

Singapore launched an exchange scholarship programme to fund summer exchanges for 50 Singaporean and 50 US students over the course of the next five years

During his visit, Mr Lee has spoken about how the strong relations between both countries are underpinned by the friendships and the relationships between the peoples.

On the US’ part, in support of its Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative which has grown into a network of more than 80,000 youths across the region, it will convene an Urban Planning Workshop in 2017 in Singapore.

“I welcome Singapore’s announcement of a new exchange programme, which will include scholarships for students of our two countries,” said Mr Obama. “And through our Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative, we’re going to keep empowering young people in Singapore and across the region to become the leaders of tomorrow in their own communities in business and in civil society.”

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