Remarks by Acting Minister-in-Charge of Muslim Affairs and Senior Minister of State for Defence Zaqy Mohamad at the Launch of the European Chamber of Commerce in Singapore’s[...]

Mr Jens Rübbert, President of the European Chamber of Commerce in Singapore (EuroCham),

Mr Philipp Dupuis, Head of the Economic and Trade Section of the European Union Delegation to Singapore,

Mr Anand Stanley, President and Head of Region, Airbus Asia-Pacific,

Esteemed Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

A very good afternoon.

Thank you to EuroCham for inviting me to the launch of your Strategic Security and Aerospace Committee. This Committee is timely as the boundaries of security continue to shift. Technology, industry and supply chains increasingly shape both our economic resilience and national security, making partnerships between government and businesses more important than ever.

A Shifting Strategic Landscape

For many years, globalisation was driven by efficiency. Supply chains were optimised for cost, technology flowed globally, and greater economic integration was expected to bring greater stability. Today, these assumptions are being tested.

Geopolitical and technological competition is sharpening. Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), advanced semiconductors and quantum are becoming increasingly strategic, while disruptions once viewed primarily as commercial issues now have direct implications for our security.

Singapore's response is not to retreat from an interconnected world, but to become more resilient within it. In a more contested environment, openness must increasingly be matched by resilience and trust. We will continue to build strong capabilities of our own while deepening trusted partnerships globally.

Rethinking What Is "Strategic"

This changing environment also requires us to rethink what we consider "strategic". The boundaries between commercial, dual-use and defence technologies are quickly becoming less distinct, as AI, autonomous systems, semiconductors, quantum, cyber and space technologies increasingly cut across commercial, research and defence ecosystems.

These ecosystems are becoming more interdependent. Defence increasingly draws on the speed, innovation and cutting-edge technologies developed commercially, while defence innovation can in turn generate wider applications.

This changes not only where strategic capabilities come from, but also who we need to work with. The strategic companies of tomorrow may not necessarily look like the traditional defence companies we know of today.

Implications for Singapore: Trusted Access and a Wider Web of Strategic Partners

For Singapore, as a small and open economy, we cannot build every capability needed to stay ahead of the security environment and its challenges by ourselves. Resilience to us does not mean self-sufficiency. We need to combine our own strengths with leading technologies, expertise, innovation ecosystems and reliable supply chains.

It is therefore not enough for us to ask what capabilities we need. We must also ask: who can we build them with? Who can we innovate with? And who can we rely on to sustain them?

In a more contested world, our strong web of trusted partnerships is a strategic advantage.

The Singapore-Europe Partnership and Why the New Committee Matters

Singapore and Europe already start from strong foundations. European partners have long been part of our defence journey - from Germany's Leopard 2SG Main Battle Tanks and our longstanding submarine partnerships with Sweden and Germany, to the Republic of Singapore Air Force's (RSAF) Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) and deeper cooperation in defence technology, engineering and sustainment.

Recent high-level defence engagements also reflect the strong momentum of our partnership. This year's Shangri-La Dialogue in May saw the strongest European representation to date, with a total of eight European Defence Ministers in attendance. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius also visited Singapore in March.

The next phase should broaden these relationships further into emerging and dual-use technologies, innovation and resilient supply chains. We are already taking steps in this direction. Our longstanding aerospace engineering relationship with Airbus is expanding into advanced space technologies and AI-enabled geospatial analytics. At the government level, we also strengthened supply-chain cooperation with France in 2024, Germany in March 2026, and Italy just recently in May 2026.

But government efforts alone are not enough. Innovation and resilience depend on a wider web of trusted partnerships across governments, industry and technology - each reinforcing the other.

This is why the launch of EuroCham's Strategic Security and Aerospace Committee is timely. The Committee can become another node to connect our established defence and aerospace relationships with the wider strategic-security ecosystem. We already see what such connections can achieve: Safran, Leonardo and MBDA are working with DSTA on counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) technologies.

The Committee can widen these connections by strengthening industry-government dialogue, connecting European and Singapore stakeholders, and creating further opportunities for Research and Development (R&D), innovation and capability development in areas such as critical technologies, supply-chain resilience and critical infrastructure.

Just as important are the people and their expertise. Stronger connections allow our companies, engineers, researchers and innovators to build the familiarity and trust to grow the next generation of Singapore-Europe strategic security partnerships.

Conclusion

The technologies and companies that shape our security may change, but the importance of trusted partnerships will not - and those partnerships, we hope, will endure for years and generations to come.

I look forward to the Committee strengthening partnerships that will help Singapore and Europe innovate together, build future-ready capabilities together, and become more resilient together.

I wish all of you an engaging and fruitful programme ahead, and congratulate EuroCham on the launch of this important new Committee.

Thank you.