PM Lawrence Wong at the Joint Press Conference with President of the Republic of Korea Lee Jae Myung (Nov 2025)

Your Excellency Lee Jae Myung,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you, President Lee, for the warm welcome extended to me and my delegation.

This is my first Official Visit to Korea as Prime Minister, and it is taking place at an auspicious moment. We have just concluded two days of fruitful discussions at the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, and I congratulate President Lee on Korea’s able and successful Chairmanship this year.

This visit is also significant as Korea and Singapore celebrate 50 years of diplomatic ties.

When our countries established ties in 1975, the global economy was still recovering from deep turbulence. Yet both Korea and Singapore pressed on and we emerged as “Asian Tigers”. We transformed our economies – each charting our own path, but always working together for mutual benefit.

Today, our partnership is stronger than ever. The Korea-Singapore FTA (KSFTA) was Korea’s first FTA with an Asian country and it laid a strong foundation for our economic ties to flourish.

We are now among each other’s top ten trading partners.

Investment flows are growing substantially – in the last five years, Singapore’s investments in Korea have doubled; Korea’s investments in Singapore have grown by over 70%.

We are breaking new ground in emerging domains like the digital economy. And Singapore welcomes Korea’s accession last year to the Digital Economic Partnership Agreement – becoming the first new member since the Agreement’s conclusion.

And our people-to-people ties are also thriving with more Singaporeans and Koreans visiting, studying and working in our respective countries. In fact, I just had a reception last night with overseas Singaporeans here and they all enjoy their time here, working, studying and many also learning the Korean language.

President Lee and I just now reaffirmed the excellent state of our relationship, and the vast potential for us to do more together. That is why we are elevating our relations to a Strategic Partnership today. I will add on to what President Lee said just now to highlight five areas of cooperation.

First, we are strengthening public sector cooperation.

We will collaborate more closely in defence, security and defence technology including areas like cybersecurity to keep our people safe and our nations secure.

Through new agreements on civil service exchanges, healthcare and forensic science cooperation, we will learn from one another to improve the quality and delivery of public services.

Second, we will continue to deepen our economic ties and connectivity, building on the Korea-Singapore FTA and various trade and digital frameworks, to unlock new opportunities for our businesses and our peoples.

Third, we will work together for green and more sustainable growth. We will establish a Green and Digital Shipping Corridor to enhance the efficiency, resilience and sustainability of supply chains.

And, we will also collaborate on next-generation energy solutions like ammonia, hydrogen, and civil nuclear energy technologies.

These efforts will not only contribute to our national green agendas, but also serve as models for broader regional cooperation.

Fourth, we will harness our complementary strengths in research, innovation and technology. Our MOU on Digital Cooperation will pave the way for joint projects in cutting-edge fields, like AI. We will also collaborate on AI safety and governance, to build trust in the technology, and ensure it benefits our peoples and societies.

Finally, we will broaden and deepen people-to-people exchanges – in education, arts, culture and sports. These will deepen mutual understanding and friendship between our two peoples.

As Strategic Partners, President Lee and I agreed that we will work together to promote regional peace, stability, and prosperity, and to reinforce the multilateral rules-based trading system, from which we have both benefited.

That is why we are jointly launching a project under the Singapore Cooperation Programme and the ASEAN-Korea Cooperation Fund, to support ASEAN’s digital transformation.

Singapore also looks forward to launching negotiations to upgrade the ASEAN-Korea FTA early next year. We are the country coordinator for ASEAN-Korea economic relations and we are committed to delivering a meaningful and forward-looking upgrade that strengthens our shared prosperity.

Conclusion

In this uncertain and rapidly changing world, partnerships between like-minded countries like Korea and Singapore have become ever more vital. I look forward to working closely with President Lee on the many initiatives we have discussed today. I am confident that through our Strategic Partnership, we will continue to deliver concrete benefits to our peoples and also contribute to a more stable and prosperous region.

Thank you very much.