Readout of Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III's Meeting with Singapore Minister for Defense Ng Eng Hen

Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder provided the following readout:

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III met today with Singapore Minister of Defense Ng Eng Hen at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

During their meeting, the officials reaffirmed the longstanding defense partnership between the United States and Singapore, which is rooted in both countries' shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region and beyond.

They discussed opportunities to expand bilateral force posture cooperation to support deeper interoperability and address shared challenges. They also underscored the importance of ongoing efforts to expand joint training, and they committed to further enhance high-end training and interoperability.

The officials emphasized the strength of U.S.-Singapore collaboration on emerging technologies as demonstrated by the signing of a U.S.-Singapore Statement of Intent for Data, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence Cooperation by U.S. Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer Radha Iyengar Plumb and Singapore Deputy Secretary for Technology Yew Chee Leung.

Secretary Austin and Minister Ng reaffirmed their commitment to advancing the historic momentum in the U.S.-Singapore defense partnership.