Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan is on a working visit to Washington D.C. and met Secretary of State of the United States Antony J. Blinken.
Minister Balakrishnan and Secretary Blinken reaffirmed the excellent and longstanding ties between Singapore and the US on the 55th anniversary of bilateral relations this year. Both sides noted the robust cooperation across the defence, economic and security spheres, and welcomed the expansion of cooperation in areas such as cybersecurity, supply chain resilience, global growth and innovation, climate change and space.
Minister Balakrishnan and Secretary Blinken had substantive discussions on regional and international developments. Minister Balakrishnan welcomed the US’ commitment to deepen engagement with the region and ASEAN, and looked forward to Secretary Blinken making a visit to Singapore.
Minister Balakrishnan and Secretary Blinken signed a Memorandum of Understanding to renew the Singapore-US Third Country Training Programme (TCTP). This fourth cycle of the Singapore-US TCTP celebrates a decade of successful partnership between Singapore and the US. Since its establishment, the Singapore-US TCTP has trained more than 1,500 participants from Southeast Asia in over 57 programmes. Both sides have agreed to strengthen capacity building collaboration on climate change and environmental sustainability. The Singapore-US TCTP is a concrete example of the excellent cooperation between Singapore and the US towards advancing the development agenda of the region. A factsheet on the Singapore-US TCTP is at Annex.
Source: Government of Singapore