PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong will be in Australia from Oct 16 to Oct 18 for the seventh Singapore-Australia Leaders’ Meeting, the latest in an annual series under the bilateral Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

The annual meeting is a key platform for the prime ministers to discuss bilateral cooperation and exchange views on regional and global developments, said Singapore’s Prime Minister’s Ofice (PMO) in a statement on Saturday (Oct 15).

While in Canberra, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will host PM Lee to dinner at his official residence. The two leaders will have a delegation meeting, followed by a joint press conference.

On this trip, PM Lee will also visit Sydney, where he will meet senior business leaders and academics.

Signed in 2015, the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership has seen over 80 completed initiatives across its five pillars: economics and trade; defence and foreign affairs; science and innovation; people-to-people; and the digital economy.

One milestone was the Singapore-Australia Digital Economy Agreement – Singapore’s first agreement of the sort – which came into effect in December 2020. This April, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Australian Treasury also signed the Singapore-Australia FinTech Bridge Agreement to strengthen cooperation between both countries’ fintech ecosystems.

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Both countries have close economic ties, strengthened by the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement signed in 2003. In 2021, Australia was Singapore’s 10th largest trading partner, with total bilateral trade amounting to S$27.2 billion. Singapore is Australia’s fifth largest bilateral trade partner and its sixth largest foreign investor, accounting for A$121.4 billion (S$113 billion) or 2.9 per cent of Australia’s total cumulative foreign investment as of end-2021.

PM Lee last visited Australia in 2018 for the third Leaders’ Meeting, with the 2020 edition being held virtually. In 2021, then-Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison visited Singapore for the sixth meeting.

This trip will be PM Lee’s first in-person meeting with PM Albanese since the latter’s Labor government came into power in May. Earlier this year, Singapore’s Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen visited Australia in September to observe military exercises. From Australia, Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong made an official visit to Singapore in July, while Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles visited in June for the Shangri-La Dialogue.

On this trip, PM Lee will be accompanied by Mrs Lee; Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan; Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong; Members of Parliament Foo Mee Har and Saktiandi Supaat; and officials from the PMO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Trade and Industry.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong will be the acting Prime Minister in PM Lee’s absence.