Minister for Defence’s Working Visit to the United Kingdom

Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen met United Kingdom (UK) Secretary of State for Defence John Healey as part of a working visit to the UK from 23 to 25 Oct 2024. Dr Ng and Mr Healey reaffirmed the positive trajectory of defence cooperation and discussed ways to expand collaboration across different defence domains, under the ambit of the Strategic Partnership between Singapore and UK. They also exchanged views on key geopolitical developments in Europe and the Asia-Pacific. Dr Ng also expressed his appreciation for UK's longstanding support for the Five Power Defence Arrangement, and their contributions to the ADMM-Plus Experts' Working Group observership programme.

As part of his visit, Dr Ng spoke at a roundtable discussion on "European-Asia Pacific Security Cooperation in an Era of Instability" organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, which was attended by government officials, academic researchers, the diplomatic corps and business executives.

Dr Ng's visit to the UK underscores the warm and long-standing bilateral defence relations between Singapore and the UK, underpinned by the 2018 Memorandum of Understanding on Defence Cooperation. Both SAF and UK Armed Forces interact across a wide range of activities including military exercises and exchanges, dialogues and cross-attendance of courses.