Singapore’s welcome of future Aukus submarines underscores ‘friends-to-all’ policy

PM Lee said in Australia the city state would be willing to host a future visit by nuclear-powered submarines produced under the Aukus alliance

The remarks reiterate Singapore’s role as a ‘military access point’ for the US and Australia, and reflect the country’s more open stance to Aukus compared with others in Asean, observers say

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Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong speaks at a press conference in Australia on March 5. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:00am, 6 Mar 2024Updated: 10:48am, 6 Mar 2024

Comments by Singapore’s leader welcoming a future “visit” by Australian nuclear submarines may ruffle feathers in Beijing, but the island republic is also seen to be merely being consistent in its stance amid escalating tensions in the region, analysts said.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday said at the ongoing Asean-Australia Special Summit in Melbourne that “when the new Australian submarines are ready, we welcome them to visit Changi Naval Base”.

He was referring to the nuclear-powered submarines being produced under Aukus, a trilateral alliance between Australia, Britain and the United States established in 2021 in response to growing Chinese influence in the region.

Analysts told This Week in Asia that Singapore was simply recapitulating its long-standing role as “a military access point” for Australia and the US in Southeast Asia, and Lee’s latest comments marked its more open stance to Aukus compared with its neighbours.

“This will fit into a long-standing pattern of cooperation between Australia and Singapore, let alone Singapore and any range of other regional partners, including China,” according to analyst Tom Corben.

“Singapore also provides access to Chinese assets regularly,” said Corben, a foreign policy and defence research fellow at the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre.

The leaders of Asean, Australia and East Timor, and the bloc’s secretary general, pose for a photo in Melbourne. Photo: Asean-Australia Special Summit 2024 via AFP

Several members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) are engaged in territorial disputes in the South China Sea, a resource-rich waterway claimed nearly in full by Beijing. In particular, the Philippines has repeatedly accused China of committing aggressive acts inside the maritime boundaries of its exclusive economic zone and targeted its fishermen.