MELBOURNE: Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will visit Melbourne from March 4 to 6, to attend the 9th Singapore-Australia Annual Leaders’ Meeting and the Asean-Australia Special Summit.
During the three-day trip, Lee will meet his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese at the leaders’ meeting, which was established under the Singapore-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership signed in 2015.
The bilateral meeting is an annual platform where prime ministers of both sides discuss cooperation and exchange views on regional and international developments.
The last leaders’ meeting was held in June 2023 in Singapore.
Lee will also attend the Asean-Australia summit, which marks 50 years of Asean-Australia dialogue relations in 2024.
Australia has a longstanding relationship with Asean, and is the bloc’s first and oldest dialogue partner, since 1974.
The special summit – first held in 2018 and in its second edition in 2024 – will reaffirm the substantive ties between Asean and Australia, said a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
During the summit, Asean and Australian leaders will also discuss ways to deepen and expand cooperation, especially regarding the green and digital economies.
In October 2021, Asean and Australia established a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, allowing for increased collaboration in areas that include energy transition and countering human trafficking.
“The leaders will exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual concern, and on how to continue working with Australia in building an open, inclusive and stable region,” said the PMO statement.
Both meetings will be held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The summit will also feature other events, such as a business forum and a climate and clean energy forum, where business leaders and industry stakeholders from Asean and Australia will be in attendance.
In 2023, Australia was Singapore’s 10th-largest trading partner, with total bilateral goods traded amounting to $29.6 billion.
And in 2022, according to the latest statistics available, Singapore was Australia’s seventh-largest bilateral trade partner. Singapore was also Australia’s fifth-largest foreign investor in 2022.
For the trip, Lee will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, as well as officials from the PMO and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will be Acting Prime Minister in Lee’s absence. - The Straits Times/ANN
