As Singapore and the United Kingdom commemorate 60 years of diplomatic relations, the enduring strength of their defense partnership is gaining renewed significance. Amid an increasingly contested maritime environment and shifting geopolitical currents, the U.K.’s sustained military presence in the Indo-Pacific is converging with Singapore’s strategic vision for regional stability.
The June 2025 visit of the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales to Singapore symbolized the evolving defense relationship. As part of the U.K.-led multinational Operation Highmast deployment, the flagship hosted bilateral military dialogues, regional security panels and defense industry showcases.
“There is one reason, and only one reason why the U.K. and Singapore can continue to work on so many diverse areas in our relationship. That just boils down to one word: trust,” Singapore Defence Minister Chan Chun Sing stated at a reception aboard the carrier.
The U.K.’s eight-month Indo-Pacific deployment underscores the nation’s strategic tilt toward the region, a policy outlined in 2021 and reaffirmed in the recent Strategic Defence Review.
Singapore is a key regional partner for the U.K., particularly under the framework of the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) security accord, which was established in 1971 and also includes Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand. The Prince of Wales is set to join the FPDA exercise Bersama Lima, which means “Together Five” in the Malay language, in September — the first aircraft carrier to participate in the annual drills since 1997.
“Singapore’s importance to the Indo-Pacific region is clear,” given its proximity to critical trade routes between the Indian and Pacific oceans, Thomas Lim, a senior analyst at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, told FORUM.
The Singapore-U.K. alignment is underpinned by the nations’ commitment to international norms, including a Free and Open Indo-Pacific. “There’s a lot of common language used when comparing the U.K.’s Indo-Pacific strategy with Singapore’s rules-based order,” Lim said, citing shared positions on territorial integrity and information security.
Defense cooperation extends to interoperability and integration. For example, the British Defence Singapore Support Unit at Sembawang serves as a forward logistics hub for Royal Navy patrol vessels. “This continued permanent presence can also serve as fertilizer for further bilateral defense cooperation between the two countries on the military front,” Lim said.
The Singapore port visit during Operation Highmast also highlighted industrial cooperation and technological innovation as key elements of the bilateral partnership. More than 30 U.K. companies participated in the defense industry exhibition aboard the aircraft carrier, including technology, research, design and manufacturing firms.
The visit “reflects our commitment to developing our defense cooperation and interoperability as FPDA partners,” U.K. Minister of State for Defence Vernon Coaker said during the trade show, according to Singapore’s The Straits Times newspaper.
