1.

I am very honoured to welcome Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Mr Tim Mathies

on and the Prime Minister s distinguished delegation to Singapore. The Prime Minis
ter last visited us four years ago as Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minist
er at that time. Since then, I have met her several times at international fora,
where I have benefited from comparing notes with her and working with her towar
ds shared goals. I am very happy to welcome Prime Minister Gillard back on her f
irst official visit as Prime Minister, and I hope that she liked the orchid that
was named after her this morning.
2.
Singapore and Australia enjoy a close and long-standing relationship. The
Prime Minister visited the Kranji War Memorial this morning, because Australian
troops lost their lives defending Singapore during the Second World War. Austral
ia was one of the first countries to recognise Singapore s independence in 1965. F
or that we will always be grateful. Since then, our relationship has remained cl
ose, underpinned by our shared strategic perspectives and wide-ranging cooperati
on.
3.
Our people-to-people ties are warm and strong. There is a deep reservoir o
f goodwill, for many reasons the war, the exchanges, the Colombo Plan programme,
the students who are still studying there. And I hope the Prime Minister experi
enced this goodwill personally during her schedule today. It is reflected in the
extensive contact between our populations: Australia gets more than 300,000 vis
itors from Singapore annually, while Singapore welcomes close to a million Austr
alian tourists. There are more than 20,000 Australians living and working in Sin
gapore and around 50,000 Singaporeans in Australia, including 10,000 students. I
met some of these students when I was in Perth for the Commonwealth Heads of Go
vernment Meeting last year. They were at home in a friendly country, amidst a ve
ry welcoming people.
4.
Defence cooperation is an important component of our relationship.The SAF
deeply appreciates the opportunity to train in Australia
in Rockhampton, Oakey,
Pearce and Tamworth. We are particularly grateful to the local communities for r
eceiving our soldiers and airmen so warmly. Where we can, we have tried to respo
nd to their generosity and to repay it. During the disastrous floods in Queensla
nd last year, SAF personnel in Rockhampton participated in local relief efforts.
We hope they made some useful contributions during your time of need. Australia
and Singapore are also members of the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA). T
he interactions between our armed forces at FPDA exercises have helped us in ope
rational deployments, including in the multinational stabilisation and reconstru
ction efforts in Afghanistan.
5.
In economic relations, Singapore is Australia's largest trade and investme
nt partner in ASEAN and its fifth largest overall trading partner. Singapore is
also the fifth largest investor in Australia. Thanks to the Singapore-Australia
Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), our economic ties are growing. The total stock of
Australian investments in Singapore more than doubled between 2005 and 2010, and
the number of Australians doing business in Singapore is growing about 10% a ye
ar. We should encourage this to continue.
Prime Minister
6.
One reason for our good relations is that we share similar strategic persp
ectives. Australia plays an important role in the region. We value Australia s eng
agement in the Asia-Pacific and your contributions to forums such as ASEAN, the
East Asia Summit and APEC. The White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century , whic
h you commissioned, is a timely study of Australia s future role in Asia. We hope
it reinforces Australia s commitment to a stronger regional architecture and conti
nued growth and prosperity in the region.
7.

Australia s broader international role is also well recognised. We share a c

ommitment to trade liberalisation and strong global institutions such as the WTO
, APEC, G20 and the IMF. In this regard, Singapore is happy to support Australia s
bid for a seat on the UN Security Council in the year 2013-2014.