June 4th 2004
SINGAPORE held talks yesterday with French defence officials who are in town for the third
Shangri-La Dialogue - an international defence and security conference that begins this evening.
The Ministry of Defence (Mindef) said yesterday that it had held the third France-Singapore Defence Policy Dialogue with its French counterparts to exchange views on security issues of mutual interest.
They were chaired jointly by the permanent secretary to the Ministry of Defence, Mr Peter Ho, and France's director for strategic affairs, Mr Marc Perrin de Brichambaut.
Mr Brichambaut, who will be here till Sunday, also called on Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean.
Mindef said the annual policy talks allow France and Singapore to discuss bilateral defence cooperation as well as defence and security issues.
'The defence relationship between Singapore and France is an extensive one,' it said.
'It includes regular exchanges of visits, professional interactions in bilateral and multilateral exercises, and defence technology cooperation.'
Cooperation between the two countries has resulted in France hosting a Republic of Singapore Air Force advanced jet training squadron in Cazaux, and an agreement by the Defence Science and Technology Agency and the National University of Singapore to run a defence research laboratory in Paris with France's leading aerospace research agency, Onera, and the French university Supelec.
