China & Singapore’s Deal To Establish Bilateral Defense Hotline

Following a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that the two nations signed on Thursday, Singapore, and China will work to establish a secure defense telephone link. 

According to the MOU, the defense establishments in both nations will work to establish a secure line for high-level communications between their respective defense leaders, according to a press release from Singapore’s Ministry of Defence (Mindef).

Such high-level open channels of communication are crucial for boosting understanding and trust among parties, it added.

Ng Eng Hen, the minister of defense for Singapore, and General Li Shangfu, the national defense minister of China, who is making his first trip to Singapore, were present when the MOU was signed.

General Li will attend the annual defense summit, the Shangri-La Dialogue, which is taking place from Friday to Sunday, while he is in town from Thursday through Sunday.

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Gen Li co-chaired the second Singapore-China Defence Ministers’ Dialogue (DMD) on Thursday morning as part of his visit.

The enhanced Agreement on Defence Exchanges and Security Cooperation, which was signed in 2019, includes both the DMD and the MOU as initiatives.

General Li will speak at the dialogue in Shanghai

On Sunday, General Li will also address the Shangri-La Dialogue’s plenary audience on China’s new security initiatives. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is in charge of organizing the event.

According to the IISS website, at the Shangri-La Dialogue, participants typically discuss the security challenges facing the region, hold bilateral discussions, and jointly come up with novel solutions.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will give the keynote speech for this year’s conference at the dialogue’s opening dinner on Friday.

Defence Secretaries Lloyd Austin of the United States and Oleksii Reznikov of Ukraine will both be speaking.

On Saturday, the first plenary session, titled “United States’ Leadership in the Indo-Pacific,” is where Mr. Austin is scheduled to speak.

On Saturday, a session titled “Managing Euro-Atlantic and Asia-Pacific Security” will feature Mr. Reznikov as one of five speakers.

On Saturday and Sunday of the dialogue, Dr. Ng will be the host of the ministerial round tables.