[SINGAPORE] Political leaders and senior officials from Singapore and Vietnam will meet on Tuesday (Aug 25) for an inaugural strategic dialogue to discuss issues ranging from governance and leadership development to the transformation of public services.
The Singapore-Vietnam Strategic Dialogue will be co-chaired by Singapore’s Coordinating Minister for Public Services Chan Chun Sing — who is also the minister-in-charge of the public service and minister for defence — and Vietnam’s Permanent Member of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee Secretariat Tran Cam Tu.
The dialogue is jointly organised by the Public Service Division of Singapore (PSD) and Vietnam’s foreign affairs ministry under the ambit of both countries’ Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, said PSD on Friday.
Bilateral ties were elevated to the highest level in March 2025 when To Lam, the current Vietnamese president, paid an official visit to Singapore.
He returned in May this year for a four-day state visit, and delivered the keynote address at defence summit Shangri-La Dialogue, the second time a Vietnamese leader has done so.
The theme of the strategic dialogue is “Towards a Resilient Future: Elevating Singapore-Vietnam Partnership for Technology and Capacity Building to New Heights”, on which the opening remarks by Chan and Tu will centre.
Discussions will include two sub-themes: developing future-ready talent, and building a new model for technology cooperation towards a shared innovation space.
At the dialogue, an agreement between both countries’ foreign affairs ministries on study visits by the CPV will be renewed.
A joint statement on the Singapore-Vietnam Technology Connectivity Strategy is also expected to be issued.
Tu will be visiting Singapore on Aug 24 and 25.
During the visit, he will separately call on President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong.
He will also meet Senior Minister, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Home Affairs K Shanmugam, and call on Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng.
Tu will be joined by:
- Head of the CPV Central Committee Organisation Commission and Politburo member Nguyen Duy Ngoc
- Head of the CPV Central Committee Policies and Strategies Commission and Politburo member Nguyen Thanh Nghi
- Head of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy and Politburo member Doan Minh Huan
- Foreign Affairs Minister and Politburo member Le Hoai Trung
- Minister of Science and Technology and Party Central Committee member Vu Hai Quan
The Singapore delegation is led by Chan, and will include:
- Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan
- Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo
- Senior Minister of State for Education and Sustainability and the Environment Janil Puthucheary
- Minister of State for Defence Desmond Choo
