SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): What matters is not how much countries spend on defence, but how the money is used, said Defence Minister Chan Chun Sing, noting that there is no straight line between defence expenditure and capabilities.
Speaking to reporters on May 31 at the close of the 23rd Shangri-La Dialogue, Chan said that what matters is how innovative the ideas are and how much “bang for the buck” one can get for the same or less expenditure.
Countries must pull their own weight to be credible and relevant partners, but as nations raise their defence spending and build more capabilities, they must also spend time and effort reassuring one another, he stressed.
“The more powerful we are, the more effort we need to spend to reassure others, because ultimately, in the defence sector, people look at not just capabilities – people look at intentions,” he said.
Countries spend different amounts and use their expenditure differently, Chan noted.
“Some countries spend a lot, but they do not get commensurate capability.”
Instead, it is important to spend consistently to build “real capabilities”, particularly in human capital, he added.
“It takes years to train a pilot, a sailor and so forth. It takes even more years for us to build up the scientific community (and) the technological capabilities, in order to translate some of those spending into real capabilities,” he said.
The issue of defence spending was a theme of the dialogue for the second year running.
In a speech on May 30, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the US has pledged to prioritise working with “model allies” that have risen to its call for a more equitable sharing of the global security burden.
He lauded the response of Indo-Pacific partners to the US’ expectation that they spend 3.5 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defence.
At the 2025 edition of the annual defence summit, Hegseth asked US allies in the region to raise spending to 5 per cent of GDP.
Over the last few years, Singapore’s defence spending has hovered around 3 per cent of GDP. Chan said previously that the Singapore Armed Forces has the public and political support to spend up to 6 per cent of GDP.
Some countries do not get capabilities that scale with spending because adopting a “feast-or-famine” strategy means they do not stretch their defence dollar, the minister added.
This was one challenge discussed by defence chiefs from various countries at meetings during the dialogue.
At the meetings, which included two ministerial roundtables, leaders discussed how to convince the public to spend consistently, rather than only “when the trouble starts”, Chan said.
“By then, most of the time, if not all the time, it is too late.”
The minister also answered questions on the security of critical underwater infrastructure, which was the focus of a new framework announced on May 30. Such infrastructure includes energy and telecommunications cables.
These systems are critical arteries, allowing for the transfer of energy and internet traffic, for instance.
If they are disrupted, he said that Singapore could be cut off digitally from the world.
“Can you imagine (if) Singapore is unable to access our essential supplies? This would have very serious implications for our lives and our livelihoods.”
On May 30, Singapore and 16 other countries launched the Guiding Principles for Underwater Infrastructure Defence Exchanges (GUIDE) to protect such systems.
The non-legally binding and non-financially binding voluntary agreement will facilitate information sharing to support early warning for security incidents.
Chan said the idea was mooted a year ago at the previous edition of the dialogue.
As nations question what sort of action the international community can take when bad actors try to disrupt subsea infrastructure, he said the framework acts as a protective mechanism and deterrent.
“We want to make sure that all these basic components of what makes life normal continue to be normal,” he said.
“Otherwise, we might soon find ourselves in quite a different position.”
Asked whether the absence of Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun for two years in a row diminishes the dialogue’s value, Chan said China would have its own considerations in terms of who it sends here.
Noting that the level of Chinese participation varies year by year, he added that the representatives who attended the 2026 dialogue “have made their presence felt in many of the plenary sessions”.
The Chinese delegation was headed by Major-General Meng Xiangqing, a professor at the People’s Liberation Army National Defense University.
The dialogue was held at the Shangri-La hotel in Singapore from May 29 to 31. -- The Straits Times/ANN
