Singapore's Defense Minister is hosted by the DoD for security talks

 Singapore's Defense Minister is hosted by the DoD for security talks

Ng Eng Hen, the defense minister of Singapore, was received by Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III at the Pentagon today to talk about issues related to mutual security.

The leaders' most recent encounter took place in November in Jakarta, Indonesia at the Defense Ministers encounter Plus of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. They also got together in June for the Shangri-La Dialogue, also known as the Asia Security Summit organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"Our teams have been dedication to expand our defense cooperation for years," Austin said. "In September, Acting the Assistant Secretary Sasha Baker visited Singapore to maintain our work to improve our force-to-arms cooperation and enhance excellent air-to-air training."

In order to promote cooperative military projects and talk about regional security concerns, Baker co-chaired the Strategic Security Policy Dialogue with Singapore's Permanent Secretary (Defence), Chan Heng Kee, during that visit in September. Apart from examining current bilateral military endeavors, such as force-to-arms cooperation and advanced air-to-air training, the two also investigated novel prospects for cooperation concerning subjects like cyber security, emerging technologies, and marine domain awareness.

According to Austin, the two nations took part in the first US-Singapore Critical Emerging Technology Dialogue, which got underway in Washington in October.

The security of supply agreement was just completed by Singapore's permanent secretary for military development, Melvin Ong, and Secretary of military for Acquisition and Sustainment William A. LaPlante yesterday. According to Austin, this is a critical step in bolstering supply chain resilience.

"These achievements demonstrate the strength of our relationship, along with underscore Singapore's distinctive standing as a major security cooperation partner of the United States," Austin said. According to him, Singapore continues to be one of the US's most important military allies.

"I am truly grateful for it and all you have done for peace and security within the Indo-Pacific," Austin said.

In order to improve military-to-military collaboration, the US and Singapore often collaborate on bilateral exercises including Pacific Griffin, Commando Sling, and Tiger Balm.