Transcript by Minister for Trade and Industry (Energy and Industry) Dr Tan See Leng at the 15th Meeting of the Singapore-Australia Joint Ministerial Committee Joint Press Conference

As my colleagues have already highlighted, I think the key thing is the word “trust”. Over the years, our economic partnership is really a key pillar of that broader bilateral relationship. The trust is important because it allows us to set pathfinders to find new ways, new paradigms, new horizons for us to work closely together. 

One of the few new areas of economic cooperation are, for instance, the Singapore-Australian Green Economy Agreement. And then just last year, we also worked on and launched the Singapore-Australia Cross-Border Electricity Trade Framework.  

And of course, tomorrow I’m flying up to Sydney. We are going to have the inaugural Ministerial Dialogue on Energy between myself and Minister Chris Bowen, and I look forward to many new areas of working with him on low-carbon energy research, energy security, supply chains, so on and so forth.

Today’s signing of the Protocol on Economic Resilience and Essential Supplies to the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement is a very significant milestone.  

It reaffirms our shared commitment to keeping essential goods flowing during times of disruption, while strengthening cooperation on broader issues, broader processes, transparency, as well as allowing us to fast-track an early consultation should there be any issues that crop up.  

Now, at a time like this – heightened geopolitical uncertainty, increasing pressures on global supply chains – this signing of the Protocol reflects the deep reservoir of strategic trust between both our countries and our shared commitment to keeping trade open, reliable and resilient.  

Beyond our bilateral relationship, both our countries continue to work closely to strengthen the rules-based multilateral trading system.  

We are longstanding partners in the WTO, APEC, RCEP and the CPTPP, and we are now working towards the timely implementation of the E-Commerce Agreement through the Interim Arrangements. 

Next year, Singapore is going to host ASEAN as ASEAN Chair. We look forward to working closely with Australia to support a region that remains open, connected and outward-looking.  

We hope that Australia would level up and continue to engage with ASEAN, because this will be a very significant and important contribution to our region’s growth, resilience and prosperity.  

The breadth of economic cooperation initiatives reflects, once again, the depth of trust between Singapore and Australia, and our shared ambition to build a stronger, a more resilient and a more progressive and future-ready partnership.  

Thank you once again.