Toast Speech by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the State Banquet hosted by the Grand Duke of Luxembourg at the Grand-Ducal Palace on 27 March 2025

Your Royal Highnesses the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess,

Your Royal Highnesses the Hereditary Grand Duke and Hereditary Grand Duchess,

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

1.   My spouse and I would like to convey our deepest appreciation for the warm welcome, meaningful engagements and generous hospitality that their Royal Highnesses the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess have arranged for us. Speaking personally for a moment, I am very happy to be back in Luxembourg, in fact after too long a break. I last visited almost 25 years ago, when I was running Singapore’s central bank and financial regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

2.     My State Visit comes at an opportune time, as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Singapore and Luxembourg. It is also particularly important that we are not only reaffirming our longstanding friendship, but exploring and building new areas of cooperation at a time when amity and cooperation between nations is weakening.

3.     In the course of the day, I have had candid and useful discussions with the Grand Duke, as well as with the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Claude Wiseler, and Deputy Prime Minister Xavier Bettel. I look forward to fruitful discussions with Prime Minister Luc Frieden tomorrow.

Your Royal Highnesses,

4.     While we are halfway across the world from each other, Singapore and Luxembourg share much in common. We are both multicultural societies, determined to preserve and enhance the value we derive from diversity. We are both small states located at the crossroads of our respective regions, surrounded by larger neighbours. Without sizeable domestic markets, we both thrive by being relevant and adding value within regional and global networks of nations. And we both know that we can only do so by continually developing the abilities of our people, and being hubs for scientific, technological and cultural innovation.

5.     But equally, we both share a commitment to a rules-based international order. In an environment that is becoming less orderly, this commitment matters more than ever. We both know it in our bones that we must do all we can, with our partners, to keep alive a system where nations are able to cooperate to avert dangers and to advance their mutual interests. And we both know that we must show through our structured contributions that even as small nations, we must have a seat at the table where important global decisions are being made.

6.     Singapore and Luxembourg have indeed worked well together in international fora to amplify the voices of small states. We thank Luxembourg for its contributions at the Forum of Small States at the UN and the Global Governance Group (3G), which Singapore established in 2009. Together, we can and must build and renew consensus between states large and small, to solve the collective challenges that all of us ultimately face.

7.     Our bilateral ties are healthy and robust, particularly given our roles as strategic gateways to our respective regions, and the pools of expertise that we have each developed within our hubs. 

8.     Close to 500 Luxembourg companies, including for example Cargolux, Europe’s largest cargo airline, have a presence in Singapore. 

9.     I am confident too that in strengthening our partnership, Singapore and Luxembourg can continue to spur the growth of economic links between Europe and Asia. There is in particular significant long-term potential in Europe’s ties with ASEAN, which is expected to become the fourth largest economy in the world by 2030.

10. My State Visit is also an opportunity to exchange ideas on evolving opportunities in finance. Prime Minister Frieden and I have had several exchanges in the past, on these matters when we were both Finance Ministers.

11. Singapore and Luxembourg are particularly well positioned to mobilise the finance needed to ensure a timely transition to a net zero world. The scale of finance required – the trillions of dollars required globally and in particular to ensure a sustainable growth in the emerging and developing world, may appear daunting. However, it helps to recognise two realities.

12. First, the world does not face a choice of whether to invest to tackle climate change, and the related global challenges of preserving stable ecosystems for water and biodiversity. The choice is not over ‘whether’ but ‘when’ we invest in these global commons. And the choice of ‘when’ we invest has enormous implications for how much we eventually need to invest. Put simply, we either invest and take actions now to enable an orderly transition to a net zero world, or we defer actions and are eventually forced to spend far more to deal with a disorderly transition, or worse still, to spend in adapting to uncontrolled climate change. That is the only choice we face. Helping everyone understand this choice, and ensuring a fair and equitable transition, is a central task within our societies and in international cooperation.

13. There is also a second reality that is particularly relevant to Singapore and Luxembourg, as financial hubs. We know that public finances alone will not be enough to fund the transition to net zero. But both our countries play a special role therefore in mobilising private capital for investments in sustainability, in our respective regions and together with our partners globally. Singapore’s Financing Asia’s Transition Partnership (FAST-P) aims to harness and bring together public and private sector capital to accelerate Asia’s net zero transition, including the early retirement of coal-fired power plants. Similarly, the Luxembourg-EIB Climate Finance Platform invests in companies in emerging countries that are involved in climate change mitigation and adaptation projects.

14. I look forward to discussing these and other initiatives during the financial roundtable tomorrow with Your Royal Highness the Grand Duke, Finance Minister Roth and Luxembourg’s financial sector leaders.

15. Our two countries also share similar approaches to developing capabilities in other emerging areas. Luxembourg excels in several dimensions of the digital economy and innovation. Your technology incubator, Technoport, has supported over 150 companies by providing the infrastructure and a framework for technology sharing between companies and public research institutions.

16. Similarly, a deep-tech incubator launched by Singapore’s National Research Foundation with the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, nurtures 100 ventures annually by facilitating technology sharing, and matching them to venture capital. As we develop our innovation ecosystems, we can learn from one another and explore cooperation in nurturing the next generation of technology-driven enterprises.

17. Importantly too, we are working together in the space sector, as His Royal Highness the Grand Duke has also highlighted. In 2023, the Singapore Office for Space Technology and Industry (OSTIn) signed a MOU with the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) to facilitate joint research, capacity building, industry promotion and coordination on global space policy. Tomorrow, I will visit SES, Luxembourg’s communications satellite company, and SES and the young Singaporean company SpeQtral will sign an MOU that will be the first commercial bilateral collaboration of its kind globally, in the space sector. It is a significant opportunity for Singapore to work with Europe’s first private satellite operator whose network has global reach, broadcasting to over a billion television viewers and serving seven out of the top 10 global telecom companies.

18. Singapore has in fact seen growing momentum among companies creating quantum solutions for satellite communications. We should continue to tap on our complementary strengths in space to develop useful applications, including in the ecological field.

Your Royal Highnesses,

19. Just this afternoon, we visited the Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg and enjoyed a set of exhibits that truly stay in the mind. They included a fascinating exhibition of works by Lisa Oppenheim that honours Luxembourg-born photographer Edward Steichen and his pioneering work. We also witnessed a creative and thoughtful slice of Singapore’s colonial past in the exhibition ‘Time & the Tiger’ by Singapore’s Ho Tzu Nyen. I do hope we see further such collaboration between curators and artists in Luxembourg and Singapore in the future.

Your Royal Highnesses,

20. As we commemorate fifty years of friendship, let us not only cherish our past successes, but build on our strengths to create new avenues of cooperation. On behalf of my delegation, Jane and I would once again like to thank Your Royal Highnesses for your warmth and hospitality. We look forward to welcoming Your Royal Highnesses to Singapore in the future.

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

21. May I invite you now to join me in a toast:

    1.   To the good health of Your Royal Highnesses the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess; Your Royal Highnesses the Hereditary Grand Duke and the Hereditary Grand Duchess;

    2.     I add off script: to the second birthday of your dear grandson, Francois,

    3.     To the continued peace and prosperity of Luxembourg;

    4.     To the enduring cooperation and spirit of joint innovation between Singapore and Luxembourg; and

    5.     To the openness that we both bring to the world.

22. Cheers.