Defence, trade hot topics for Australia-Singapore talks
Zac de Silva |
Australia is likely to seek stronger defence and trade ties with Singapore to help counter China’s growing influence, experts say ahead of a key meeting in Canberra.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will sit down with his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong at Parliament House on Wednesday, marking 60 years of ties between the two countries.
The leaders will likely discuss greater security co-operation and could strike a deal for greater Australian access to military facilities in Singapore, the Lowy Institute’s Southeast Asia program director Susannah Patton said.
“That would be very important for Australia in a strategic sense,” she told AAP.
“It would give us a greater ability to deploy into Southeast Asia from Australia, and we don’t have many access points in the region that we can do that from,” she said.
The talks will be the fourth time Mr Albanese and Mr Wong have met, and the former economist and public servant’s first official visit to Australia since taking office in 2024.
China’s growing appetite to throw its weight around in the Pacific, and the increasingly erratic behaviour of the US under Donald Trump, are also likely to be discussed, Australian Strategic Policy Institute resident senior fellow Raji Rajagopalan told AAP.
“Everyone is trying to manage relations with China on one hand and manage their relationship with the US, and don’t want to get caught in the middle,” she said.
“That’s been the dilemma for a lot of different countries.”
Singapore has close military ties with the US and continues significant levels of trade with China, but its official foreign policy stance is one of non-alignment.
Strengthening supply chains between Singapore and Australia would also be high on the agenda for the leaders’ meeting, Dr Rajagopalan suggested.
Gas is one of Australia’s biggest exports to Singapore, and resources minister Madeleine King said trade of the crucial fuel was also likely to be discussed.
“The Singaporeans do import a fair amount of gas out of the Queensland hub,” she told AAP.
“It’s an important part of our trading relationship with Singapore.”
AAP
