Speech by President Tony Tan at State Banquet in Honour of King Abdullah II of Jordan

Your Majesty King Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein

Your Royal Highness Prince Ghazi Bin Muhammad

Excellencies

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

        It is with great pleasure that I welcome Your Majesty and your distinguished delegation to Singapore. Your Majesty is no stranger to Singapore, having visited us many times since your ascension to the throne in 1999. We deeply value Your Majesty’s friendship. Your Majesty’s visit to Singapore is timely as our two countries celebrated 25 years of diplomatic relations last year. Though geographically far apart, Singapore and Jordan enjoy excellent relations based on key common interests. 

        As countries with relatively small populations and limited natural resources, Singapore and Jordan fully appreciate the importance of human capital development, which is the most precious of all resources. Your Majesty had the opportunity this afternoon to visit the Institute of Technical Education or ITE in short. The ITE reflects the Singapore Government’s commitment to provide our youths with the necessary skills to cope with the demands of a modern society and to fulfil their highest potential.

        Singapore is happy to share our experience in areas of relevance to your country and people. In this regard, we welcome more of your officials to come to Singapore to participate in a variety of our courses that are offered under the Singapore Cooperation Programme. And I am happy to note that earlier today the MOU on Cooperation in Human Resource Development under the framework of the Asia-Middle East Dialogue (AMED) was signed by our two Foreign Ministers. This MOU expands the scope of the training courses run under the AMED Regional Vocational Training Centre established in Marka, Jordan. Since 2007, this Centre has trained close to 100 participants and serves as a symbol of bilateral cooperation in the area of capacity-building. With Your Majesty’s strong patronage, I am confident that the Centre will continue to play an important role in the development of human resources, both for Jordan and the region.

        Our two countries share a common goal of promoting inter-faith dialogue and understanding. As a multi-racial and multi-religious society, Singapore strongly believes in the principles contained in the Amman Message, which was espoused by Your Majesty in 2004. It is important that countries such as ours should work together to promote tolerance among different religions, and encourage acceptance of and goodwill towards one another.  This is an area in which Your Majesty has demonstrated global leadership. Your Majesty knows full well the dangers which extremism and radicalism can bring to a society. As a leader in the Arab and Islamic world, we believe Jordan plays an important role in promoting the message of tolerance and acceptance.

        As countries with small domestic economies, Singapore and Jordan share a strong interest in promoting closer economic trade and investment links. We both aim to expand our economic links beyond our immediate neighbourhood to engage as many partners as possible. The Singapore-Jordan Free Trade Agreement was Singapore's first FTA with a Middle Eastern country. The FTA came into force in 2005. Since then, our bilateral trade has quadrupled from S$60.6 million in 2005 to S$242.7 million in 2013. I believe there is scope to do more bilaterally and we should continue to encourage our companies to explore business linkages. In this regard, I hope that the Business Forum held earlier today would open the door for more business collaborations.

Your Majesty

Ladies and Gentlemen

        Developments in the Middle East over the last few years have been unprecedented. The region will continue to face many challenges in the years ahead. In particular, the Syrian conflict has created a humanitarian and security crisis for the region. Our hearts go out to those affected by the conflict and we hope a political resolution can be found soon. In the midst of this turmoil, Your Majesty has demonstrated a steady and clear leadership, not just for Jordan but also for the entire region as a whole. As a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, Jordan will play an important role in ensuring international peace and maintaining security. Under Your Majesty’s wise leadership, I have no doubt that Jordan will excel in this role and you can count on Singapore’s support.  

        Your Majesty has previously said that Singapore and Jordan enjoy excellent bilateral ties and there is much to gain by learning from each other. I share the same sentiments and I look forward to a further strengthening of our bilateral ties in the years ahead. 

        Thank you very much.