BANGKOK – Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has described Singapore and Thailand relations to be in excellent shape and said both sides will develop a multi-year agenda for ASEAN, with Singapore set to chair the regional group in 2027, followed by Thailand in 2028.
He was speaking at a press conference in Bangkok with his Thai counterpart, Anutin Charnvirakul, at the Singapore-Thailand Leaders’ Retreat held on Sept 2 after an 11-year hiatus.
PM Wong said the two countries’ partnership has continued to evolve with their changing needs and priorities, citing food and energy security, emerging technologies and physical connectivity as the key areas in which both countries are deepening cooperation.
“Our bilateral relations are in excellent shape. And it is underpinned by a high degree of trust and rapport at the leadership level as well as strong institutional ties between our two countries,” he said.
PM Anutin, referring to the two countries’ collaboration, said: “I assure Prime Minister Wong that Thailand will be Singapore’s trusted partner.”
PM Wong said Singapore and Thailand are “like-minded partners with a shared interest in a strong and united ASEAN”, adding that both sides have agreed to work closely together to come up with a multi-year agenda for the 11-member regional grouping.
“This gives us a unique opportunity to work together across successive chairmanships – especially on initiatives that require sustained effort,” said PM Wong.
“By doing so, we can sustain the momentum of important initiatives, and make greater progress on issues that matter to our region,” he added.
One long-term project, for example, is the ASEAN Power Grid, which will facilitate cross-border electricity trade among the regional states and has received greater attention given heightened concerns about energy security given the Iran war.
At the retreat, the leaders welcomed the Lao PDR–Thailand–Malaysia–Singapore Power Integration Project, an important step to realising the ASEAN Power Grid. Its first phase enabled Singapore to import up to 100MW of renewable hydropower from Laos through Thailand and Malaysia.
In a statement on Sept 2, Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said PM Wong and PM Anutin agreed that Singapore and Thailand “should work closely together during their ASEAN chairmanships to advance the group’s priorities, strengthen regional integration, deepen cooperation with external partners and unlock new opportunities for the region”.
They also reaffirmed their shared interest in maintaining a rules-based international order.
First leaders’ retreat between both sides since 2015
The Singapore-Thailand Leaders’ Retreat, the highest-level bilateral platform between both countries, was last held in 2015 in Singapore between then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his then counterpart, Prayut Chan-o-cha.
The latest retreat is the first between PM Wong and PM Anutin, who had met in November 2025 when the Thai leader visited Singapore, and in May 2026 on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Cebu, Philippines.
On Sept 2, both leaders took stock of the initiatives since their last meeting and discussed developing more projects to benefit both populations.
In the area of food security, for instance, both sides discussed how to further boost supply chains by promoting collaboration between food producers and traders.
“This plays to the strengths of both countries – Thailand as a major food producer, and Singapore as a logistics and trading hub,” PM Wong said.
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