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The Istana
Speeches

Speech By President Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the State Banquet hosted by His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah on Thursday, 25 January 2024 at the Istana Nurul Iman

25 January 2024

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Your Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah,

Your Majesty Raja lsteri Pengiran Anak Hajah Saleha,

Your Royal Highnesses,

Your Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen 

  1. Selamat Malam dan Salam Sejahtera.

  2. Thank you, Your Majesty, for inviting me to undertake a State Visit to Brunei Darussalam, and for the gracious hospitality that Your Majesty and Raja lsteri have extended to my wife and me, as well as to my delegation.

  3. I appreciate Your Majesty’s warm words of welcome, as well as your reflections on the distinctive relationship between Brunei Darussalam and Singapore that began with the close personal ties between the late Seri Begawan and Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

  4. It is a privilege for me to be back in the “Abode of Peace,” on my fourth visit in the two decades although it has been some years since my last visit here. The developments in Brunei Darussalam have been remarkable.

  5. Just this afternoon, I travelled across Brunei bay on the Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Bridge, the longest of its kind in Southeast Asia, spanning more than 26 kilometres. It is both an engineering feat and testimony to the progress the country has achieved under Your Majesty’s esteemed leadership.

  6. As Brunei celebrates forty years of independence in less than a month’s time (i.e., 23 February 2024), allow me to congratulate Your Majesty, and Your Majesty’s people, on your many capabilities developed and achievements made in reaching this momentous milestone.

Your Majesty,

  1. It is not incidental that my first State Visit as President is to Brunei.

My predecessor Mdm Halimah Yacob similarly made her first State Visit here. More than our countries’ proximity to each other, there is a deeper reason than geography.

  1. Singapore and Brunei have a long-standing special relationship. We could say it is defined by two important dimensions.

  2. The first is that it is a symbiotic relationship. Having myself been engaged for many years with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, I can confirm that the Currency Interchangeability Agreement, which His Majesty referred to, is both unusual internationally and mutually beneficial.

  3. I was also reminded of our symbiotic friendship when I visited the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) personnel training in Brunei this afternoon.

Speaking to our NS men and women undergoing their officer cadet training here, I was not surprised that they found the training to be physically demanding, given their challenge of navigating Temburong’s primary forest. But they were also unanimous in feeling that the challenge made their training here all the more valuable. 

  1. We are deeply grateful to Brunei for allowing successive batches of SAF soldiers to train here. The SAF is also happy that it can train alongside the Royal Brunei Armed Forces (RBAF) in military exercises over air, land, and sea. Not only has our defence cooperation enhanced the professionalism of our servicemen, it has also strengthened our militaries’ interoperability.

  2. The second dimension in our special relationship is a sense of kinship that exists between our governments and our peoples.

  3. Less than two weeks ago, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean, and Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan attended the Royal Wedding of Prince ‘Abdul Mateen and Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Anak Isteri Anisha Rosnah here at the Istana Nurul Iman.

  4. Last month, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong co-led the 9th Young Leaders’ Programme (YLP) with His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah. DPM Wong was accompanied by a few younger office holders for this important platform for building up relationships between both sides.

  5. Likewise, my delegation includes a number of younger ministers and Members of Parliament.

  6. Together with the numerous visits by our Ministers and Senior Officials every year, such regular exchanges are invaluable to promote lasting bonds of friendship and mutual understanding.

  7. Similarly, the Singaporeans living here in Brunei whom I met at a community function yesterday told me of the close affinity they felt with their Bruneian relatives, friends and business contacts. Many of them have lived, worked and studied here for an extended period and feel at home in Brunei.

  8. We should sustain and deepen these people-to-people relationships.

  9. His Majesty and I agreed this morning that we should mark the 40th anniversary of our bilateral relations in 2024 with exchanges of visits and joint activities.  We hope these will bring Bruneians and Singaporeans from all walks of life even closer together.

  10. This mutual commitment to deepening people-to-people ties amongst our future generations was supported by two of the MOUs signed during His Majesty’s State Visit to Singapore in 2022.

  11. One is the establishment of the Brunei Darussalam-Singapore Youth Education Scholarship (BS-YES) programme. So far, Singapore has welcomed two cohorts of Secondary One Bruneian students, and I am glad that our Education Ministries are looking into the possibility of expanding the programme so that more students can benefit from it. 

  12. Another MOU on civil service cooperation has paved the way for eight Bruneian civil servants to be on year-long attachments in various Singapore agencies currently.  I hope they will not only find their stints meaningful, but also have lifelong memories of their time spent in Singapore, and friendships which they can call upon in the future.

  13. Indeed, our bilateral cooperation is expanding into new and emerging areas. In the discussion between His Majesty and I this morning, we encouraged both sides to accelerate efforts to explore innovative and mutually beneficial projects such as in the green economy. These include renewable energy, where Brunei has the potential to develop significant scale, well beyond its own domestic needs, which can be integrated within an ASEAN energy grid. There is also scope to explore if we can pool emissions for a viable carbon capture and storage industry in Brunei, which could be at the forefront of such efforts in Asia. 

  14. The ministers and officials on both sides are also actively looking into collaboration in the aquaculture industries, which show significant promise in Brunei, and the development of coldchain logistics for the purpose.

  15. Digital finance is another emerging area of bilateral cooperation. Brunei will soon be launching its instant payment system domestically. There will be clear benefits to consumers and businesses on all sides when we integrate this with Singapore’s PayNow and similar systems in the rest of ASEAN.

Your Majesty,

  1. As small nation-states whose core interests are best served by an open and rules-based international economic order, we seek a high-level of ambition in our cooperation.

  2. Our two countries can work together closely to elevate broader regional and global cooperation in emerging areas such as climate change, renewable energy, and digital connectivity.

Your Majesty,

  1. Singapore cherishes its special relationship with Brunei. We are committed to building on the solid foundation that was laid by the late Seri Begawan and Mr Lee Kuan Yew. We are now raising our strategic partnership to an even higher level. But underpinning it all, must be the trust between us, and particularly between future generations of Bruneians and Singaporeans.

  2. I wish to close by thanking Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ministers, senior officials and our Bruneian friends present this evening. Without your contributions, friendship, and support, our bilateral relationship would not have flourished over the last forty years.

  3. Let me express my deepest appreciation, in particular, for the wise and visionary leadership of Your Majesty, which has been pivotal in sustaining and strengthening the special relationship.

  4. My wife and I wish Your Majesty and the Raja Isteri continued good health, joy, and bliss. We look forward to welcoming Your Majesties to Singapore soon, and to spending more precious time with Your Majesties in the years ahead.

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