Singapore and the People’s Republic of China have agreed to establish a top-level military hotline to help the two nations defuse any tensions that might arise. It’s a strategy Beijing has pursued with several regional powers that cooperate militarily with the United States as Washington seeks to isolate China and turn its regional friends into US allies.
The deal was signed by Singaporean Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen and Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu, the latter of whom is in the city-state for the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum.
The memorandum of understanding was signed just a month after the two nations held joint military exercises and four years after they agreed to upgrade their defense and security ties.
"Under the MOU, both defense establishments will work towards establishing a secure defense telephone link for high-level communications between our defense leaders," Singapore's defense ministry said in a statement. "Such high-level open lines of communication are important for strengthening mutual understanding and trust."
The agreement comes just weeks after Li finalized a similar effort with Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada. The two defense chiefs spoke over the new Beijing-Tokyo hotline for about 20 minutes to discuss defense and bilateral relations. Last December, China opened a hotline with the Philippines as well, focused on South China Sea relations.
A Hanoi-Beijing link was also established in 2021 to help avoid naval encounters in the South China Sea from spiraling out of control.
Since 2018, the US has pursued a policy of "great power competition" with Russia and China, which calls for isolating both states in order to prevent their continued development into world powers that might supplant Washington and its postwar system for dominating developing nations. Consequently, the US has sought to pull Chinese regional partners away from Beijing by convincing them that China is a threat that only military confrontation can deter.
By contrast, China has sought dialogue and mutually beneficial trade arrangements as a way to defuse tensions and sort out problems. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure megaproject has partnered with numerous nations, and hotlines like those set up with Singapore create avenues for communication. A code of conduct for the South China Sea is also in the works, to establish "rules of the road" for the contested waterway.