S’pore renews training programmes for Pacific island officials

“Our experience in South-east Asia has shown the value of ASEAN centrality: By building a strong regional core, we can engage major powers while retaining our agency, retaining strategic choice and options, and shaping our own regional agenda,” Balakrishnan said.

The Foreign Minister said it is more crucial than ever that ASEAN and the Pacific region work together to advance shared priorities in areas such as climate change, connectivity and sustainable development, as well as economic and strategic relevance.

The Republic looks forward to bringing the two groupings closer when Singapore takes on the ASEAN chairmanship in 2027, Balakrishnan added.

Emphasising the need to continually invest in people and local institutions, he noted that nearly 10,000 Pacific officials have participated in the Singapore Cooperation Programme (SCP) and related programmes since 1992.

The two renewed packages come under the SCP, which is the Republic’s primary platform for offering technical assistance and human resource training to other countries.

Singapore launched SPARKS in 2023, when it attended the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting as a dialogue partner for the first time.

It introduced SIDS of Change a year later, at the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States.

MFA said the two packages reaffirm Singapore’s commitment to supporting Pacific capacity building in priority areas identified in the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.

Singapore has conducted more than 90 customised programmes and study visits tailored for Pacific island states.

At the dialogue in Palau, Balakrishnan said that while Singapore and the Pacific island nations are small, size does not dictate a country’s fate, nor should it limit one’s agency.

Countries gain agency when their people and institutions are strong, their regions are cohesive, and when international rules and law are respected, he added.

“We cannot choose the world we live in, but we can strengthen our internal resilience nationally, we can extend our hands to partnerships across our boundaries, and we must insist that we have collective agency,” said Balakrishnan.