PRESS RELEASE : UK agrees new strategic partnership with Singapore [September 2023]

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 9 September 2023.

The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has signed a new strategic partnership with Singapore to grow the UK’s economy and enhance shared security.

The UK’s economy will be bolstered and our security strengthened under a new bilateral partnership with Singapore agreed by the Prime Minister today (Saturday 9th September).

The Prime Minister will meet Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in the margins of the G20 Summit in India to sign a new UK-Singapore Strategic Partnership. This agreement will set the direction of UK-Singapore relations for the next decade, upgrading the UK’s trade and investment relationship with one of Southeast Asia’s leading economies in recognition of our shared expertise and interests in areas like technology and clean energy.

Following the Strategic Partnership, the UK and Singapore will work to conclude a new and modern bilateral investment treaty – the first the UK has negotiated since we left the EU. This will give Singaporean companies more confidence to invest in the UK and vice-versa, creating jobs and growing our economies.

Singapore is one of the UK’s closest and most dynamic partners in the region, with our £21 billion trade relationship accounting for 40% of our total trade with Southeast Asia. Singaporean entities have a total of £226 billion invested in the UK. Last year the UK and Singapore signed a first-of-its-kind Digital Economy Agreement, to help businesses in both our countries seize new trade opportunities.

In addition to enhanced economic cooperation, the new UK-Singapore Strategic Partnership will strengthen security cooperation, science and technology innovation, and research and development. This includes collaboration to counter new and emerging threats in domains like cyber, through a first of its kind partnership between Singapore’s new Digital and Intelligence Service and the UK.

The Prime Minister said:

I am totally committed to delivering on my priorities to halve inflation, grow the economy while reducing government debt, cut NHS waiting lists and stop the boats. But none of these priorities can be achieved without working with our international partners.

As Prime Minister, I’ve put the interests of the British people front and centre of my international engagement. I am ensuring that diplomacy delivers.

You have already seen that through deals that will stop illegal migration, make our economy more secure and increase trade with our international partners.

This new agreement with Singapore will take us even further in delivering our priorities and ensure that, as we map the future of the world economy, we are doing so alongside our closest partners.

Since becoming Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has forged a number of new bilateral and multilateral partnerships which are already helping to deliver on the UK Government’s priorities.

This includes agreements with countries such as France, Albania and Turkey to stop illegal migration, the Hiroshima Accord with Japan and Atlantic Declaration with the United States which will strengthen our economy, and the AUKUS pact with Australia and the US to build a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.

Earlier this year, the UK also became the first new country to accede to the CPTPP Pacific trade agreement. We are in the process of negotiating further free trade agreements, including a deal with India which would be the first the country has signed with a European country.

And on Thursday, the Prime Minister announced that UK scientists will have access to the world’s largest research collaboration programme, Horizon Europe, after he secured a bespoke deal with the EU.

In his engagements at the G20 today, the Prime Minister will stress the need for leaders in attendance to drive action on the biggest challenges facing the world, including stabilising the global economy and strengthening global security.