Saudi Arabia and Singapore have forged a new bilateral partnership, aiming to enhance cooperation in various fields, including economic, defense, and people-to-people connections. On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of both nations formalized this commitment by signing a memorandum of understanding to create the Saudi-Singapore Strategic Partnership Council. This partnership was initially revealed during former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s visit to Saudi Arabia in October 2023.
This marks Singapore’s inaugural partnership of this kind with a country in the Middle East, while it is also Saudi Arabia’s first strategic collaboration in Southeast Asia.
The establishment of this partnership underscores the dedication of both nations to advancing their relations across a wide array of sectors, particularly in economic and developmental areas, as reported by SPA. The initiative aims to boost the volume of trade exchange, which reached $1 billion in 2024, thereby opening new avenues for collaboration between the two countries.
This development followed a meeting between Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah and Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Singapore.
Prince Faisal highlighted Singapore’s status as one of the globe’s premier financial hubs and expressed the Kingdom’s eagerness to continue its partnership with Singapore to achieve greater economic benefits.
