Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has received a ceremonial welcome ahead of key talks seeking stronger defence and trade ties with Australia..
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese greeted Mr Wong at Parliament House on Wednesday where he was met with a ceremonial gun salute by Australian Defence Force troops, before the Singaporean leader signed signed the guest book.
Mr Wong arrived in Australia on Monday night for the annual meeting between the leaders, marking 60 years of ties between the two countries.
Australia is likely to seek stronger defence and trade ties with Singapore to help counter China’s growing influence, experts say ahead of a key meeting which will be the fourth time the leaders have met.
Mr Wong told ABC on Tuesday there were “huge consequences” of ending the world order that operated since the end of World War II, and that it is in Singapore and Australia’s best interest to prevent that from happening.
“That will be unstable and dangerous for all,” he said.
“Not just small countries like Singapore, but Australia and many other countries.
“I feel that while the major powers, of course, have a lot of say and influence in how these things pan out, the rest of the world — countries like Australia and Singapore — don’t have to be passive bystanders.”
Mr Albanese and Mr Wong will likely discuss greater security co-operation and could strike a deal for greater Australian access to military facilities in Singapore, the Lowy Institute’s Southeast Asia program director Susannah Patton said.
“That would be very important for Australia in a strategic sense,” she told AAP.
“It would give us a greater ability to deploy into Southeast Asia from Australia, and we don’t have many access points in the region that we can do that from.”
The talks come after Mr Albanese and Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape signed a landmark defence treaty on Monday, which will see as many as 10,000 Papua New Guineans serve with the Australian Defence Force.
China’s growing appetite to throw its weight around in the Pacific, and the increasingly erratic behaviour of the United States under President Donald Trump, are also likely to be discussed, Australian Strategic Policy Institute resident senior fellow Raji Rajagopalan told AAP.
“Everyone is trying to manage relations with China on one hand and manage their relationship with the US, and don’t want to get caught in the middle,” she said.
“That’s been the dilemma for a lot of different countries.”
Singapore has close military ties with the US and continues significant levels of trade with China, but its official foreign policy stance is one of non-alignment.
