Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen visited troops participating in Exercise Wallaby (XWB) and Exercise Trident (XTD) today at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area (SWBTA) in Queensland, Australia.

XWB resumed in full-scale this year, with more than 4,000 SAF personnel and over 300 platforms from the Singapore Army, the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) and the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF). As part of his visit, Dr Ng engaged SAF servicemen and women participating in XWB, saying it was a valuable opportunity to train in SWBTA at a scale and complexity not possible in Singapore.

Dr Ng also visited RSN's Landing Ship Tank (LST) RSS Endurance and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN)'s Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) HMAS Adelaide, within the SWBTA to engage with participants of XTD. On board the HMAS Adelaide, he interacted with SAF and Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel and engaged with SAF servicemen on the RSS Endurance. This year's XTD, a bilateral exercise between the SAF and the ADF, involves the inaugural participation of two of RSN's LST and the Royal Australian Navy's LHD, over 1,600 personnel from both nations, and features a combination of air, land and sea assets from the SAF.

During his visit, Dr Ng also flew on board the RSAF's CH-47F and had a good appreciation of the close integration among the air, land and sea components of XTD, and the progress of the joint development of SWBTA. Dr Ng welcomed the steady progress made in the development of training areas and advanced training facilities – one of the key initiatives under the Singapore-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The expected completion of the joint development of SWBTA is 2024. These developments will further enhance professional exchanges and cooperation between both armed forces and enable the SAF to train in an expanded SWBTA and a new Greenvale Training Area in Queensland.

Speaking at the end of his visit, Dr Ng highlighted the importance of the SAF's access to overseas training areas such as SWBTA. He said "These Exercises give us a precious opportunity to sharpen the SAF's capability. I spoke with some of our troops and they share that these are very realistic training situations, which is actually a morale booster - because you get to test your own capabilities, you get to see it put all together, so it's very, very valuable".

Dr Ng also talked about the importance of Singapore-Australia ties in the development of the SWBTA, as "…these early developments, as a result of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership has really boosted our confidence. A confidence not only in the capabilities of the SAF, and the training opportunities, but also the relationship with the Australians – we're building things together, we have shared perspectives, and because of that, I think we can explore further areas in which we can strengthen the military working ties. These opportunities are hard to get."

This year marks the 32nd year of the SAF's training at the SWBTA, and is testament to the close and longstanding defence relationship between Singapore and Australia. The SAF and the ADF share a long history of military cooperation, with extensive interactions that include bilateral and multilateral exercises, mutual visits, professional exchanges, and the cross-attendance of personnel for professional courses.