Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen was conferred the title of Officer in the Order of Légion d'Honneur (Legion of Honour) by the President of France Emmanuel Macron. French Minister for the Armed Forces Florence Parly presented the award earlier today (Singapore time) at an investiture ceremony held at the Ministry of the Armed Forces. The Legion of Honour is the highest decoration in France, and honours outstanding service by civilians or military personnel, French or foreigner. Past Singaporean recipients include former Chiefs of Defence Force and Service Chiefs.

Prior to the investiture, Dr Ng reviewed a French Honour Guard and met with Ms Parly. Both ministers reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening bilateral defence cooperation and discussed security developments of mutual interest. 

As part of his two-day programme to Paris, Dr Ng also visited the French aeronautics, space and defence research laboratory, ONERA, where he toured the facility and was briefed on the existing collaboration between the Singapore's Ministry of Defence and ONERA.

Dr Ng's visit underscores the strong and broad-based defence relationship between Singapore and France. Both armed forces and defence establishments have regular high-level interactions, which include policy dialogues, professional exchanges, joint military exercises, and cross-attendance of courses. The Republic of Singapore Air Force's Advanced Jet Training has also been conducted in Cazaux, France since 1998. Additionally, Singapore and France also have a range of bilateral defence technology interactions and exchanges, including the Singapore and France Advanced Research Initiative (SAFARI) meetings. These wide-ranging interactions have strengthened the friendship and mutual understanding between both countries.