Ministry of Foreign Affairs Press Statement: Joint Press Statement on the Germany-Singapore Enhanced Partnership

The Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr Helmut Kohl, and the Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Goh Chok Tong, have today issued a Joint Declaration on the deepening of cooperation between the two countries and governments. This Declaration was agreed to by the heads of government on the fringes of the ASEM Summit in London in April this year on the initiative of Singapore.

2 Building on the fact that Singapore is Germany’s most important trading partner in Southeast Asia, just as Germany is Singapore’s most important trading partner in Europe, the aim of both countries is to give a new impetus to the already close cooperation in trade and investment, education, culture, protection of the environment, science, technology, transport and technical cooperation in third countries. This Partnership will more strongly utilise the existing bilateral institutions such as the German-Singapore Business Forum and the German-Singapore Environment Technology Agency (GSETA), the Agreement on Cultural and Scientific Cooperation, as well as the regular political consultations.

3 In order to further intensify economic relations, Germany and Singapore intend to make even better use of the opportunities for their companies to invest in the Southeast Asian region and Europe. Furthermore, the bilateral Air Services Agreement will be liberalised and a Shipping Agreement concluded. The German-Singapore Technical Cooperation Programme, especially as concerns vocational training, will be extended to other countries in both regions and the activities of the GSETA will be intensified. Joint research and development projects will be the focus of cooperation between our universities, alongside the exchange of scientists and students.

4 At the same time, it is the common view of Federal Chancellor Kohl and Prime Minister Goh that the direct dialogue between government representatives, parliamentarians, businessmen and other leading personalities in both countries should be intensified and sustained.

5 The two Heads of Government also intend the Joint Declaration to be a contribution to the deepening of the relations between Europe and Asia. Germany and Singapore are committed members of the European Union and ASEAN respectively and actively support the ASEM process. Within the framework of this Partnership, both countries will also work towards the liberalisation of trade and the strengthening of the multilateral trading system.

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