Germany`s Approach to the Cooperation with Singapore in the Sphere of Security and Defence in the Early 2020-s

The article explores the dynamics and results of German-Singaporean dialogue in political and military spheres. The city-state has a great value to Germany as a partner, but the potential had remained largely unclaimed. The article shows the reasons of such situation during the bipolar period and in the 1990s — 2010s. The situation changed in the early 2020s when Germany has started to ensure strategic penetration into the Indo-Pacific region. Unlike the example of the majority of Western democracies in the region (first of all, the USA, Australia and Japan) Singapore has had more balanced position to the containment of China. This approach was close to the cautious one of Germany itself. Common for both sides was interest to fit the interstate dialogue into the EU — ASEAN cooperation. The article explores the features of the contacts on the highest and high (foreign ministers and their deputies) levels, the content of joint statements and negotiation agenda. Since 2021–2022 rather large military exports from Germany (key components were the tanks and submarines) has been supplemented by the troops` cooperation. In 2021 the frigate “Bayern” visited Singapore, and in 2022 it became the temporary base for a group of Luftwaffe aircrafts as part of the Rapid Pacific mission. The article shows the influence of the usage of tanks Leopard 2 in the Ukraine over Singapore`s interest to military-technical cooperation with Germany. In the conclusion general patterns of the dialogue in the sphere of security and defence are presented.