Vietnam-Singapore ties: a cooperation model in ASEAN

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and State President To Lam on May 30 met with Lee Hsien Loong, Senior Minister, senior advisor to the People's Action Party, and former Prime Minister of Singapore.

The meeting took place on the occasion of the top Vietnamese leader’s state visit to Singapore. Also attending the event was Teo Chee Hean, Chairman of Temasek Holdings, Senior Advisor at the Singapore Prime Minister’s Office and former Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore.

Lee Hsien Loong praised the Vietnamese leader’s keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue as reflecting a vision and a strong sense of responsibility toward regional challenges, helping foster new thinking on crisis management.

General Secretary and President Lam congratulated Singapore on its remarkable development achievements, noting that the city-state has maintained its position as a leading regional and global hub for finance, technology and innovation while demonstrating adaptability amid shifts in the international environment.

He also expressed appreciation for the significant contributions of late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and Lee Hsien Loong to Singapore’s nation-building and development, as well as to strengthening the longstanding friendship and cooperation between the two countries over the past decades. Those efforts, he said, have helped make Vietnam-Singapore ties one of ASEAN’s most dynamic and effective cooperation models.

Expressing satisfaction with the positive, substantive and effective progress across all areas of cooperation since Vietnam and Singapore established their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2025, the two sides exchanged views on ways to further deepen bilateral ties in the next phase of development.

General Secretary and President Lam called on Singapore to continue supporting Vietnam in fields such as cadre training, sharing experience in administrative reform, enhancing the capacity and effectiveness of the state apparatus, and refining policies and regulatory frameworks for emerging sectors.

Lee Hsien Loong welcomed the establishment of a strategic dialogue mechanism between Singapore’s People's Action Party and the Communist Party of Vietnam, affirming that, in his capacity as a senior advisor to the People's Action Party, he would continue to support stronger party-to-party ties and the implementation of key bilateral cooperation initiatives.

The two sides agreed that, amid an increasingly complex and volatile global environment, Vietnam and Singapore should further strengthen coordination, for the development of each country, as well as for peace, stability and cooperation in Southeast Asia./.