The Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS) hosted a roundtable by Mr Julian Hill MP, Chair of the Australia-Singapore Parliamentary Friendship Network, on 1 November 2023. Mr Hill is also on Australia’s Joint Standing Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.

Mr Hill had a roundtable discussion with RSIS scholars and experts including Mr Adrian Tan, Deputy Director, IDSS, and Executive Coordinator, Policy Research Office; Mr Benjamin Ang, Head, Centre of Excellence for National Security; Dr Li Mingjiang, Associate Professor and Provost’s Chair in International Relations; Dr David Han, Research Fellow, Malaysia Programme; Dr Sinderpal Singh, Senior Fellow and Assistant Director IDSS; Dr Sarah Teo, Assistant Professor; and Mr Muhammad Faizal, Research Fellow from the Regional Security Architecture Programme.

They exchanged views on a broad range of regional security issues concerning the Asia-Pacific. These issues include the strengths and challenges that the ASEAN-led regional architecture face, new minilaterals and ASEAN Centrality, major power competition, weaponisation of economic interdependence, geopolitical impact of resource competition, trend of domestic issues driving foreign policy, and the global impact of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Although Australia and Singapore may have different strategic outlooks, both countries share common strategic interests given their multicultural societies, geographic position near central Asia-Pacific, and heavy reliance on maritime trade.  This visit affirms the strong relations between Australia and Singapore including in security and defence cooperation.