German Parliamentary State Secretary for Defence Thomas Hitschler called on Senior Minister of State for Defence Zaqy Mohamad at the Ministry of Defence this morning. During their meeting, both sides reaffirmed the strong and substantive defence relations between Singapore and Germany and exchanged views on geopolitical and security developments. Mr Zaqy also expressed appreciation for Germany’s strong support for Singapore’s training requirements and military-to-military cooperation, including the bilateral collaboration on the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN)’s Invincible-class submarine programme.

Mr Hitschler is in Singapore for a working visit from 2 to 4 October 2024. As part of his visit, he received briefs on Total Defence and National Service by Nexus and the National Service Policy Department respectively. 

Mr Hitschler’s visit underscores the strong and substantive defence relations between Singapore and Germany, which continues to grow significantly across multiple domains. Both countries cooperate and interact widely through high-level visits and dialogues, military exchanges and training, cross-attendance of professional courses, and collaborate in areas of mutual interest, such as in defence technology and cyber. These interactions have reinforced professional ties between both defence establishments, underpinned by the signing of the 2018 enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement.