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The Istana
Speeches

Toast Speech by President Tharman at State Banquet for Australian Governor-General Sam Mostyn AC

4 August 2025

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TOAST SPEECH BY PRESIDENT THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM AT THE STATE BANQUET

IN HONOUR OF GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF

THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

THE HONOURABLE SAM MOSTYN AC

ON 4 AUGUST 2025 AT ST. REGIS HOTEL

Your Excellency The Honourable Sam Mostyn AC

Distinguished guests

Ladies and gentlemen

  1.     I am delighted to host Governor-General Mostyn on her State Visit, which marks both Singapore’s 60th year of independence and the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Singapore and Australia.

  2.     Australia was among the very first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Singapore. But our ties go back further – and especially to the Second World War, when Australian soldiers stood alongside Allied forces in the defence of Malaya and Singapore. Many Australians made the ultimate sacrifice, succumbing either in battle or while in captivity as prisoners of war. Their courage is etched in the Kranji War Memorial and the Changi Chapel and Museum – solemn reminders of their bravery, and of the human price that was paid for peace to eventually be achieved.

  3.     Out of that shared history has grown a resilient partnership. We cooperate in increasing depth, and across an unusually broad span of endeavours. A critical pillar of that partnership remains in defence. Australia has provided strong and consistent support for the Singapore Armed Forces’ (SAF) training on Australian soil.

    1.     This year marks the 35th anniversary of Exercise Wallaby – the SAF’s largest overseas training exercise. Numerous Singaporean men, and increasingly women, have undergone training in Australia during their formative years. We are deeply appreciative of the warm hospitality that the local communities have extended to them.

  4.     We are deepening our relations in education, culture, and sport too.  

    1.     Australian athletes continue to inspire, reaching the top of the global stage in numbers well out of proportion to its population of 27 million.

    2.     Governor-General Mostyn came just in time to see the Australian team’s final showing at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore yesterday. Australian athletes bagged a haul of 28 medals including 13 golds, and with Kaylee McKeown and the men’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay team breaking championship records.

    3.     Our cultural ties are running deeper as well.

 a.    Earlier this year, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra made its Australian debut, covering Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.

b.    And in commemoration of our 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations, a travelling exhibition, Tails from the Coasts: Nature Stories of Singapore, featuring the William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings from the National Museum of Singapore is currently on display at the Australian Museum in Sydney. I was pleased to learn that Governor-General Mostyn had recently visited the exhibition.

c.    Australian artists like Julia Gutman and Alex Seton have long had a presence in Singapore – whether through galleries like Sullivan+Strumpf, or in landmark exhibitions such as Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia that bring the rich traditions of Australian indigenous art to our shores.

d.    These exchanges describe the bonds between our countries that are lived, felt, and continually renewed – on the playing field, on the concert stage, or in the quiet contemplation of art.

  1.     But the most extensive bonds are found in the friendships and everyday interactions between our peoples. 

    1.     Over 60,000 people of Singaporean heritage live in Australia today, while more than 20,000 Australians have made Singapore their second home. In the past year alone, over 360,000 Singaporeans visited Australia and over a million Australians came to Singapore.

    2.     When borders closed and families were separated during the COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore and Australia worked closely to bring our citizens home, and engaged in vaccine swaps to support each other’s efforts to overcome the COVID-19.

  2.     That pandemic may be behind us, but we are navigating a world that is now radically more uncertain, more exposed to shocks, and at growing risk of damage from the climate crisis and renewed global health threats.

  3.     Amid this global turbulence, Singapore and Australia have chosen to look ahead, and to lead together.  

    1.     We were the first to sign bilateral agreements on the digital economy and green economy, respectively – pioneering new and constructive ways of cooperation for the future.

    2.     This year, a decade into our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP), we will be taking our relations to the next phase – expanding cooperation even further in defence, supply chain resilience, the green economy, renewable energy, and cyber and critical technologies among other areas.

  4.     At the same time, Singapore welcomes Australia’s continued and deepening engagement in our region, in particular with ASEAN.

    1.     Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040 is an important and timely initiative. It charts a path toward greater trade and investment between Australia and the region, and aligns closely with ASEAN’s priorities, especially in advancing the green and digital economies.

    2.     Singapore will remain a committed partner – and pathfinder – in Australia’s engagement of Southeast Asia. We particularly value the example set by Australia’s US$50 million investment through the Southeast Asia Investment Financing Facility into the Green Investments Partnership, under Singapore’s Financing Asia’s Transition Partnership, or FAST-P initiative. It is a concrete demonstration of how we must work with markets to finance and scale up clean energy solutions across Southeast Asia.

  5.     More broadly, we are working closely to uphold an open, rules-based trading system globally.

    1.     Both Singapore and Australia are driving international efforts to shape the trade rules of tomorrow. For instance, along with Japan, we are co-convenors of the WTO Joint Statement Initiative on E-Commerce to establish the first global digital trade rules.

    2.     It reflects not only our shared commitment to multilateralism, but our readiness to lead in adapting it for the future economy.

Your Excellency,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

  1.                   The ties between Singapore and Australia have truly stood the test of time. We are not just close partners by obligation. We are partners by choice, bound by a firm friendship and mutual belief in a stable, prosperous, and sustainable region. I am confident that in the years ahead, we will continue to learn from each other, support each other’s aspirations, help uplift the region, and work together to broker cooperative solutions internationally.  

  2.                   In closing, let me now invite you to join me in a toast:

    •        To His Majesty King Charles III, the King of Australia;

    •       To the good health and success of Your Excellency The Honourable Sam Mostyn AC, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia; and

    •       To the enduring friendship between Singapore and Australia, and our two peoples.

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