SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you so much. To my friend and colleague, Vivian, thank you for not only the warm hospitality - literally as well as figuratively - but as always, for the I think very thoughtful and I believe fruitful conversations that we've had today. Thoughtful because for us, for me, the wisdom that resides here in Singapore - the insight that our friends have not just about the region, but about the world - has been something that's been meaningful to me for a long time; in fact, going back to my last tenure in government. And today was really no exception. We deeply value listening to and learning from our partners, and it's something that I personally deeply value. I was telling Vivian the first time I came to Singapore was actually 44 years ago, and it made a strong impression on me that many years ago, and it continues to in a very different way now given my professional responsibilities.

You heard the foreign minister talk about the very important dialogue that we continue today on critical and emerging technology. And simply put, I think there's a shared recognition on the part of the United States and Singapore that in so many ways, together, we're present at the creation - present at the creation of new technologies that are profoundly already and even more profoundly in the future shaping the way we live, the way we work, the way our economies function. And it's imperative, indeed incumbent upon us to do what's necessary to shape the way those technologies are used, to maximize their potential for good and progress, which is extraordinary, but also to minimize the potential for the less good. And our countries working together on this to me is something of great importance, and it's been an area of real focus for the United States. And I'm very glad we could pursue the dialogue today and look very concretely at what we're doing together in this new environment to try to shape the future in ways that benefit all of our citizens and beyond.

And of course, this is on the foundation of what is an extraordinary economic relationship. Vivian mentioned this. We are overwhelmingly the largest provider of foreign direct investment in Singapore, five times more than the next nearest country. And that speaks volumes because what it says is we have tremendous trust, confidence in Singapore. We see the future as being here, and when I say "we," I mean not just the United States Government, but the American people, our private sector. That's a very, very good indication, a leading indicator of confidence in the future and confidence in the future together. I'd note, by the way, that the United States is the largest recipient of foreign direct investment in the world, which I think speaks volumes about the confidence that other countries have in us in this moment in time.

The two MOUs that we signed, I just want to speak briefly to them. First, the third country training renewal - for President Biden, Vice President Harris, we have been working very closely and deliberately throughout this administration to weave together networks of interconnected Indo-Pacific partners to address some of our biggest shared opportunities as well as some of our biggest shared challenges. I mentioned the other day this is my 18th visit to the Indo-Pacific over the last three and a half years, and that's just one small piece of evidence of the focus - the sustained focus - that the United States has put on the region as a whole.

But what's powerful about what we did today is this partnership between the United States and Singapore is being used to build capacity throughout the ASEAN region and its member states, and that I think demonstrates our vision in action. When we were just in Laos for the ASEAN meetings, the EAS, I heard strong support across the board for United States engagement, for United States leadership. And one of the things that many of our partners are looking for is capacity-building, sharing of knowledge, and our two countries are uniquely placed, I think, to do just that.

Through this program, and you heard Vivian say, we have trained nearly 2,000 government officials to help make countries more resilient, more connected, and as a result more prosperous. We've been working on trainings in cyber security, public health, dealing with climate change, smart cities, trade facilitation, protection of intellectual property. And this benefits our extraordinary collection between us and the ASEAN countries of some 1 billion people. And we're extending the reach even further, as you heard Vivian say, to the Pacific Island countries - 16 of them that will benefit from this program. So we've now extended the program for another three years. I think it's proof in action that the work we're doing is not only benefiting out own people but benefiting so many others in the region.

And then the 123 Agreement, the peaceful nuclear power agreement. We are also together taking on global priorities like the clean energy transition. Both of our countries have put forward very ambitious net-zero climate targets, and we're also working together to help reach them. As Singapore decides whether to adopt civil nuclear energy, the 123 Agreement creates possibility, it creates a framework to develop safe, secure, modern civil nuclear power. And of course we're doing a lot of work, Vivian, as you know, in pioneering small modular reactors. I think that increasingly will be at the forefront of nuclear power in the years ahead. But we're now - we now have a foundation in which, depending on the decision Singapore makes, we can pursue things together. It also complements a broader clean energy partnership that we've developed. We have the U.S.-Singapore Climate Partnership, which was launched during Vice President Harris's visit here. We have the Green Shipping Challenge, where Singapore and our ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach are reducing emissions together. And, of course, the ASEAN Power Grid, something we talked about just a couple of days ago, supporting renewable energy across the Southeast Asian countries.

So all of this taken together translates into two things. It translates into a partnership that's making a difference for people in both of our countries, in Singapore and the United States, but also a partnership that's making a difference in the lives of people throughout the region and even beyond, around the world. This signing, this visit makes the partnership even broader, even deeper, even more effective than it was yesterday, and I'm grateful to the prime minister, and grateful to my friend the foreign minister for all the collaboration we have. We get together like this on one day and it's important, but it's really the 364 days that follow that make all the difference, and we have remarkable teams that are working those 364 days to make all of what we're doing real and have an impact. So I thank you for that as well.

Thank you. (Applause.)

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