l’Ambassade de France à Singapour célèbre la Fête Nationale Française [en]

Dr Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information, and Health
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Chers compatriotes,
Dear Singaporean friends,

It is a great honor and pleasure for my wife Veronica and I to welcome you tonight for the celebration of our National day.

On 14 July 1789, King Louis XVI famously wrote in his diary : “nothing.” As if he had nothing to report on the very same day that would become a founding moment of our political history. As if the Storming of the Bastille, which would lead to his eventual downfall, and replace monarchy with the sovereignty of the people, was but an irrelevant piece of news. Louis XVI did not realize the magnitude of the events of the day.

Nowadays, our world has become so uncertain, plagued with wars, pandemics and deterioration of the environment that we need to catch up constantly with new disruptions not to become the Louis XVI of tomorrow. We are still dealing with the consequences of Covid 19 and, as happy as I am that we can be safely gathering today, our efforts to prepare for future crises are still very much needed.

Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is another of these geopolitical disruptions that threatens our global order and stability. First because Russia’s attack is a blatant violation of core principles of international law. Second because it acts as a catalyst for a polarizing world and arms race. Third because it affects the global economy and food security.

France and the European Union have taken a firm position. We have reaffirmed our commitment to restore Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. While giving a chance to diplomacy, we have provided both military and humanitarian support to Ukraine, and adopted stringent sanctions against Russia and we will continue to do so. The French Presidency of the Council of the European Union played an important role in designing this collective response during the 1st semester 2022.

Singapore also immediately recognized the gravity of the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which shakes the very foundations of the Charter of the United Nations. I would like to commend the strong stand Singapore took by adopting unprecedented sanctions.

The French Presidency advanced other priorities, including our collective engagement in the Indo-Pacific. I would like to mention the Ministerial Forum for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific last February, which Minister Vivian Balakrishnan attended.

The European Union and its partners of ASEAN and the wider Indo-Pacific have converging strategies to promote multilateralism and cooperation in the face of great powers competition. The Forum identified concrete actions to translate this approach in the fields of security and defence, connectivity and digital economy, as well as global challenges. The coordinated presence of European Navies in the Indo-Pacific, the Joint Declaration on Privacy and the Protection of Personal Data are such concrete actions.

The continued priority given to France’ active presence in the Indo-Pacific was also manifested by the participation of Mr Sébastien Lecornu, the French Minister of the Armed Forces, to the Shangri-La Dialogue a month ago, only a couple of weeks after his nomination. He confirmed our level of engagement in the region and reiterated our candidacy to the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus, thus recognising the centrality of ASEAN.

During the Shangri-La Dialogue, our two countries signed a Mutual Logistics Support Arrangement which will further reinforce the interoperability between our armed forces. Joint exercises between our Navies and Air Forces will continue to reinforce this partnership, and our Air Force will later this year carry out a sovereignty mission in the Pacific through mission Pégase 22, with a stop in Singapore.

Regarding homeland security, we renewed last May our Strategic Cooperation Plan to work together in developing innovative solutions for our police forces and in fighting transnational crime as well as terrorism.

Our bilateral partnership is multifaceted, as highlighted by the Digital and Green Partnership which was signed by Minister Iswaran and Minister Riester in March this year. This framework agreement covers a wide area of sectors such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data flows and smart transport. It will tap also on the momentum created by the Joint Committee on Science and Innovation that has led to new areas of collaboration in energy and sustainability ; health, agrifood tech and space. On these issues, we can build on the strong presence in Singapore of top French research institutions such as CNRS and its flagship programme on AI called DesCartes ; on our vibrant business community ; and on a shared commitment to work together at the bilateral and multilateral levels for a human-centric governance of new technologies.

Minister Iswaran was in Paris last week to discuss the implementation of the Digital and Green Partnership. We are already engaged in collaborations in the maritime sector and on decarbonising aviation. We have also been working with the Monetary Authority of Singapore on green finance, which is a key driver for the green transition. I was therefore very pleased to welcome today M. Villeroy de Galhau, the governor of Banque de France for the inauguration of its office in Singapore. It was the opportunity for the Governor to engage further with the Chairman and the Managing director of Monetary Authority of Singapore, Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Mr. Ravi Menon.
In other words, the implementation of the Digital and Green Partnership, which is a shared priority, is advancing quickly.

It will also benefit from a renewed investment in innovation in France, underpinned by a strategy to come out of the economic crisis stronger. I am proud to say that France has been named in 2021, for the third year in a row, the most attractive country in Europe for foreign investors, with an increase in industrial investments of 49%.

There are many factors to this attractiveness, from fiscal policy to investment in research and innovation. One of them is also legal security. This is the reason why the French Embassy and the Singapore Academy of Law organised in May the second Asia-Europe Law and Business Symposium. And I am pleased to announce that it will become an yearly event, to promote a greater awareness of civil and common law systems and their complementarity for doing business.

In an uncertain world, the collaborations in culture and education are essential to develop mutual understanding and foster dialogue between our countries. The vOilah France-Singapore Festival is an exciting moment every year, and we were proud to make its 2021 edition the first net-zero festival in Singapore.

The success of Voilah ! has been achieved in recent years thanks to the support of a hundred partners to which I am sincerely grateful.

In conjunction with the intergovernmental cultural agreement between our two countries, a bilateral artist-in-residency programme will be announced next week so that more co-creations, co-curations and co-productions, could emerge in the near future.

I am also particularly looking forward to the opening of an Ecole 42 at SUTD in Singapore and a NUS Overseas College in France. The resumption of international travel facilitates the mobility of students and researchers. The France Excellence scholarship programme, which now includes three components –master, summer school and internship- has been very well received among Singaporean students.

Les élus des Français de l’étranger, la chambre de commerce et les conseillers du commerce extérieur, les entreprises, la FrenchTech, les établissements d’enseignement supérieur et les organismes de recherche, le French Lab, les établissements culturels et éducatifs tels que l’Alliance française, l’International French School Singapore et les petites écoles françaises sont, au-delà de l’ambassade, des acteurs essentiels de la relation entre nos deux pays. Je veux saluer à cet égard l’implication de tous dans le renforcement de notre partenariat. Je tiens aussi à remercier, pour leur engagement citoyen, tous ceux qui se sont impliqués dans l’organisation réussie des élections présidentielle et législatives. Enfin j’adresse mes remerciements à nos sponsors grâce auxquels nous pouvons profiter ce soir de ce moment de convivialité entre amis français, singapouriens et d’ailleurs.

Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is today my last celebration of Bastille Day in Singapore. After more than 5 years in my current position, I wanted to share with you that it has been a great privilege serving here in Singapore. These have been very exciting years, challenging sometimes, but extremely rewarding. I think that we succeeded to accomplish a lot together : we have set ambitious strategic guidelines, built tools for cooperation, opened up new areas of collaboration. Our strategic partnership has crossed important thresholds and more than ever represents a key pillar of our Indopacific strategy. This has been possible only thanks to the unwavering commitment of all our Singaporean partners, public and private. Please let me also express my deep gratitude to the French community for its precious support in so many endeavours and last but not least to my team at the French embassy for its dedication and professionalism.

It seems that, unlike Louis XVI, I had a lot to say today. I am indeed fully confident, as we commemorate the 10th anniversary of our strategic partnership, that the relationship between our two countries has a bright future ahead, that it will continue to expand based on our shared successes, our joint approach on global challenges, the dynamism of the French community and the vibrant ecosystem of Singapore.

On this day of celebration of liberty, equality and fraternity enshrined in our constitution by the French Revolution, I would like to conclude with a quote from Michelet, the great historian of the French Revolution, that may resonate in our troubled times : “c’est une grande gloire pour nos vieilles communes de France d’avoir trouvé les premières le vrai nom de la patrie. Dans leur simplicité pleine de sens et de profondeur, elles l’appelaient l’Amitié ». « It is a great honour for our old villages in France that they were the first to invent the real name for homeland. In their meaningful and profound simplicity, they called it friendship”.

Long live the friendship between France and Singapore !

Vive la République ! Vive la France !