US, Singapore reaffirm their close defence relationship
US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Singapore's Minister of Defence Ng Eng Hen look through the window of a P8 aircraft above the Singapore Straits June 3, 2016. Photo: US Department of Defense/Handout via Reuters
SINGAPORE — The United States and Singapore on Friday (June 3) reaffirmed long-standing bilateral defence relations at a meeting between US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter and Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen.
At a breakfast hosted by Dr Ng, the two men discussed a broad range of security issues, including the transnational threat of terrorism, said the Ministry of Defence in a press release.
Mr Carter, who is in the Republic for the 15th Shangri-La Dialogue, also visited the Singapore Armed Forces Imagery Support Group (ISG), where he was briefed on the ISG’s operations and the deployment of an Imagery Analysis Team (IAT) to a coalition countering the threat of the Islamic State, also known as Isis.
Deployed since last September, the IAT, the coalition’s first imagery analysis capability based in the Combined Joint Task Force Headquarters in Kuwait, will be there throughout this year.
Mr Carter said he was grateful for the opportunity to visit the unit, which has made “a very significant contribution to the counter-Isis campaign”.
Following the visit, Dr Ng and Mr Carter flew over the Malacca Strait on a US Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft, which was first deployed here last December.
Dr Ng said the flight underscored the two countries’ shared belief in maritime security, adding that the waters around the region — the Malacca Strait and South China Sea — are critical to the region’s stability.
“Any instability in these critical sea lines of communication will have an enormous impact not only on the economies in Asean (the Association of South-east Asian Nations), but globally,” he said, adding that the Republic’s belief in the preservation of the “global commons” underscores its role in cooperating to ensure the security of such “critical waterways”.
Mr Carter pointed out that no country or geography in the world compares to Singapore on “the importance it has in the field of maritime security”.
Describing Singapore as a capable and principled security partner that “stands as we do for cooperation and inclusiveness”, he added: “Among the countries of the world that embody those principles, we have no better friend than Singapore and we are grateful for that”.
