Speech by Minister for Defence, Mr Chan Chun Sing, at the Overseas Service Medal Presentation Ceremony on 13 Jul 2026

A very good afternoon to all of you. I would like to start by thanking all our family members who are with us today. Thank you for your support for the servicemen and women who have been deployed overseas. And I want to thank you for your consistent support throughout the years for our men and women in uniform. Thank you very much. 

Today is a simple ceremony for us to recognise the contributions of our men and women who have served overseas. I would like to say a few things to remind us of the importance and the value that we place on these operations. 

For obvious reasons, we are unable to divulge all the operational details of where and when you were deployed. But for every mission that we send our people overseas, it is a very considered decision. We do not take it lightly, because every operation involves risk — to the SAF, to our personnel, and to their families. For us to make a considered decision to deploy overseas in support of our operational and strategic objectives, it must be carefully weighed. And I am happy to say that all of you have done us proud. Some of you were deployed for a couple of days. Some for weeks and months, and for some, even longer than a year. But regardless of the length or pace of the deployment, you have achieved three things for us. 

First, you have achieved the operational objectives that we set you upon. Second, just as important as the mission, you have allowed us to benchmark ourselves against the rest of the world. When others look at the SAF and make a judgement on whether we can perform the task, they look not just at how we train every day — they look at how we perform under real operational conditions. Third, and very importantly, we must continue to learn. We are never complacent that we are the best, or that we have achieved all that we set out to achieve. Every time we go on a mission, we bring back new networks and new knowledge to improve the SAF, so that we can keep getting better, every day. 

On that note, I thank you for setting the standards to accomplish the mission, for allowing us to benchmark ourselves in service of our diplomacy and deterrence purposes, and for helping us expand our networks in service of our nation and people. Once again, my deepest thanks to all our family members, the quiet heroes behind the scenes. Thank you. 

More Resources

39 SAF Personnel Honoured for their Contributions to Overseas Operations