Background

On 20 Oct 2019, Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen and Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense General Wei Fenghe signed the enhanced Agreement on Defence Exchanges and Security Cooperation (ADESC). First signed by then-Permanent Secretary for Defence Mr Chiang Chie Foo and then-People's Liberation Army Deputy Chief of General Staff Lieutenant General Ma Xiaotian on 7 January 2008, the ADESC served to formalise ongoing defence cooperation between the two countries and provide a framework for developing the bilateral defence partnership.

The signing of the enhanced ADESC by both Defence Ministers reaffirms the warm and close friendship between both countries, and is a reflection of the significant progress made in the bilateral defence relationship over the past decade and both countries' commitment to strengthen the bilateral defence and security relationship.

Key Areas of Cooperation and Exchanges

In addition to formalising the ongoing activities between the two defence establishments, the enhanced ADESC includes the following new areas of cooperation and exchanges:

1. Establishment of a regular Singapore-China Ministerial-level Dialogue and continued high-level cross-attendance at multilateral conferences and dialogues, such as Singapore's Shangri-La Dialogue and the Beijing Xiangshan Forum;

2. Commitment to regularise and scale up bilateral exercises and interactions across the Army, Navy and Air Force;
3. Establishment of a Visiting Forces Agreement for troops participating in bilateral exercises;

4. Establishment of mutual logistics support arrangement with China;

5. Conduct of academic exchanges among military academies and think-tanks; and

6. Establishment of a bilateral hotline.

Beyond bilateral cooperation, Singapore and China also reaffirmed both countries' commitment to cooperating closely on multilateral platforms in the enhanced ADESC, including the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) Plus and the Experts' Working Group exercises, the ASEAN-China Maritime Exercise, and Exercise Coordinated Response.