Australia and Singapore are in discussions to boost bilateral defence ties, including enhanced reciprocal access to naval and airbases, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Wednesday.
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Under the deal, Australia will be able to deploy more of its forces in Asia and “will mean stronger facilitation for Australia to participate in Asia”, Wong said during a joint press conference in Canberra, adding that the details are still being worked out.
“We see Australia as a resident power in Asia and your continued presence in this part of the world contributes to stability” and security for all the countries in Asia, he said.
Speaking alongside Wong, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the two discussed the emergency outage of telecoms provider Optus, owned by Singapore Telecommunications. The disruption to the so-called triple zero services nationwide was linked to the death of four people in Australia.
Wong said he had offered his condolences and backed strong follow-up action to ensure such an occurrence is not repeated.
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“I raised the issue and we had a discussion. I thank Prime Minister Wong for the condolences he offered to the families and his support for strong follow-up action,” Albanese said.