Joint Press Release by General Chang Wanquan, State Councillor and Minister of National Defence, People's Republic of China and Dr Ng Eng Hen, Minister for Defence, Republic of Singapore

General Chang Wanquan, State Councillor and Minister of National Defence, People's Republic of China and Dr Ng Eng Hen, Minister for Defence, Republic of Singapore held talks on 14 November, 2014. Dr Ng is in China for an official visit, during which Dr Ng also witnessed the conduct of the third joint training exercise between the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), codenamed Exercise Cooperation 2014, visited the PLA Navy's North Sea Fleet, and delivered a speech at the PLA National Defence University.

During their meeting, Minister Chang and Minister Ng reaffirmed the two sides' commitment to strengthen bilateral defence cooperation through a Four-Point Consensus. First, both sides will strengthen the healthy and steady development of their defence relationship based on mutual respect and accommodating each others' security concerns for mutual trust. Second, both sides will enhance dialogue and mutual understanding through the conduct of regular high-level meetings and strategic consultation. Third, both sides will promote confidence building and mutual trust by strengthening practical cooperation, such as joint training exercises. Fourth, both sides will deepen people-to-people ties and friendship by increasing working-level exchanges and dialogues between both militaries.

To enhance military-to-military exchanges, the conduct of joint training exercises codenamed Exercise Cooperation between the PLA Army and the Republic of Singapore Army, will be expanded in subject, scope, and frequency gradually. Further, exchanges between the PLAN and the RSN will be expanded to involve exchanges in specialized fields and joint training. Both sides will engage at the working level in communication and consultation on counter-terrorism cooperation, as well as in establishing new touch points, such as information sharing in areas of mutual interest.

Both sides agreed to enhance communication and coordination, extend mutual support in regional security affairs, and play a positive role in fostering dialogue and practical cooperation amongst regional countries. Both sides expressed confidence that the bilateral defence relationship between China and Singapore would continue to grow, underpinned by mutual benefit and win-win result, with an aim of promoting regional peace and stability.

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