Singapore-Thailand defense partnership crucial to Indo-Pacific security

Tom Abke

Formed over decades and evolving with the security environment in the Indo-Pacific, the defense partnership between Singapore and Thailand is among the region’s most robust and far-reaching, including joint efforts to secure the vital shipping lanes of the Malacca and Singapore straits, and regular military exercises.

“It’s with only a handful of key foreign counterparts that the SAF [Singapore Armed Forces] have maintained joint training itineraries involving warfighting components,” Dr. Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, told FORUM. “Thailand is one good example, as manifested in conventional warfare exercises including missile live-firing. This relationship thus adds a further element of deterrence to Singapore’s defense posture.”

During the Cold War, the bilateral partnership served as a “bulwark” against the spread of communism in the region, Koh said. In recent years, it has sought to deter and defend against persistent threats such as piracy and robbery in the straits and to strengthen defense interoperability in preparation for potential conflict in the South China Sea and elsewhere in the region.

The mid-January 2024 visit of Adm. Adoong Pan-iam, commander in chief of the Royal Thai Navy, to Singapore highlighted the growing ties between the nations’ navies. Such engagements, along with “high-level visits, professional exchanges, courses, and bilateral exercises such as Exercise Singsiam … have enhanced the professionalism and mutual understanding between the personnel of both navies,” the Singapore Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) stated.

Singsiam is a bilateral naval exercise held biannually since 1981. Its most recent iteration in March 2022 included a frigate from each navy, along with other vessels and helicopters, conducting maritime security and live-fire missile drills in the Malacca Strait and the Andaman Sea.

The Singapore and Royal Thai armies in December 2023 conducted the 23rd iteration of the annual Exercise Kocha Singa, which featured live-fire drills at Singapore’s Multi-Mission Range Complex and a combined battalion-level field training exercise at the Murai Urban Training Facility, also in Singapore.

The annual Cope Tiger exercise, meanwhile, features the air forces of both countries together with the United States Air Force. The 27th iteration, held in March 2023, involved more than 2,000 personnel and about 70 assets including fighter jets, combat helicopters, uncrewed aerial vehicles and ground-based air defense systems. The exercise prepares forces to plan and execute large-scale air combat operations for air defense and strike missions, officials said.

The Singapore and Thai armed forces also participate with Indonesian and Malaysian personnel in the Malacca Straits Patrol. The initiative to secure the Malacca and Singapore straits includes air and maritime patrols, and intelligence sharing, according to MINDEF.

“It’s imperative to maintain this traditional partnership,” Koh said of Singapore-Thailand defense engagements, which he characterized as “the anchor of regional defense diplomacy … especially since they drive more substantial initiatives in terms of scope and depth — in particular, military-to-military interoperability, which is something not so easily obtained in wider-scale multilateral initiatives.”

Tom Abke is a FORUM correspondent reporting from Singapore.