EU-Indo Pacific Digital Partnership Conference 2025

28th October 2025 at National University of Singapore

It is a great pleasure to address you today at the EU-Indo-Pacific Digital Partnership Conference 2025, organised by the INPACE support initiative. Let me first thank the National University of Singapore for hosting this event, and congratulate all the INPACE team, starting with Professor Sam Ge Shuzhi, Principal Investigator at NUS and Associated Partner of INPACE, for your dynamism, energy and commitment, making this gathering a reality. 

I understand that this is the third international event organised by INPACE, following the Symposium organised in the Republic of Korea in October 2024, and the EU Digital Week in Japan organised in April this year. While your action is very relevant under the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. it has recently taken an enhanced relevance with the publication of the International Digital Strategy for the European Union in June 2025. Let me come back on these two foundational frameworks:

1. The EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific: Published in 2021, the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific is a guiding framework that has been shaping EU’s engagement in the Indo-Pacific region.

It promotes effective rules-based multilateralism and connectivity with the EU, in order to reinforce stability, security and shared prosperity. Of the seven key priorities on is about Digital Governance and Partnerships for a human-centric, inclusive digital transformation.

A Digital Partnership with Singapore was established in 2023, adding to those signed the year before with Korea and Japan, stemming from this Strategy. The EU-India Trade and Technology Council offers also a forum of cooperation on digital matters. 

Going further, the EU-Singapore Digital Trade Agreement signed in May this year, the first such self-standing agreement for the EU, enhances legal certainty for businesses, and ensures a safer online environment. This agreement encapsulates the EU’s approach for digital and data rules that puts people and their rights at the centre.

The Digital Partnerships are a key element of the EU’s digital diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific Region.

2. The International Digital Strategy

We can agree that the geopolitical landscape has recently become more challenging than ever before, impacting the approach to critical technologies which are fundamental for the future of humanity, reshaping economies and societies worldwide.

In this environment, we in the EU want to be seen as a stable and reliable partner, deeply committed to digital cooperation with our allies and partners.

This is why the International Digital strategy for the European Union, published in June this year, wants to go further with the digital partnerships, to enhance cooperation in policy, research and innovation, as well as industrial collaboration. This will be applied in key areas such as emerging technologies, digital infrastructure, or cybersecurity. We will follow three lines of action:

1. We will deepen our existing digital partnerships;

2. We will broaden, establish new Digital Partnerships and expand digital trade agreements; 

3. And We will connect the partnerships to operate as a network.

Deepening partnerships involves reinforcing existing ties and establish a resilient framework for cooperation. Broadeing means looking beyond traditional alliances and forging new relationships. And connecting entails enabling knowledge exchange and enhancing interoperability across borders, ensuring that digital advances are shared an mutually beneficial.

Results in Singapore

Here in Singapore, our digital partnership is already thriving, we have had numerous fruitful exchanges in the recent past. Just to name a few:

• Only last week, a strong Team Europe was present at Singapore International Cyber Week, giving the opportunity of bilateral exchanges, and more, as: 

• We participated in the global cybersecurity labelling initiative; 

• We organised a gathering of alumni from the EU-Tallinn Cyber Diplomacy Summer School, and from United Nations-Singapore Cyber Fellowship programme for a substantial and interactive exchange of ideas.

• The same week, an official Delegation from the European Commission in charge of online platforms policy visited Singapore, after their participation to the ASEAN-UNESCO Forum on the Governance of Digital Platforms in Bangkok. Here, they had the opportunity to exchange with Singaporean officials on respective approaches and future areas of collaboration digital public infrastructure supporting online safety and fight against financial scams.

• Last month, a Singaporean Delegation headed by Minister of State for Digital Development and Information Ms  Rahayu Mahzam visited the European Commission to discuss online safety. 

• In May this year, the EU AI Office participated to the Singapore Conference on AI, presenting the EU General-Purpose AI Code of Practice. In November last year, an Administrative Arrangement on collaboration on the safety of AI was signed on the occasion of the visit to Singapore of former Executive Vice President of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age Margrethe Vestager.

I could cite many more interactions, be it on AI skills, on data centre energy efficiency, on semi-conductors, on innovation on digital technologies with rich specific exchanges curated every year for EU startups at SWITCH - the Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology – for the last three years. 

Role of R&I in Digital Partnerships

Coming back to this conference, let me assure you that we value your initiative, bringing together scholars and researchers, inviting industry, officials and policy makers, to reflect on how to make the most of the Digital Partnerships, and explore concrete avenues of research collaboration in specific technical fields of emerging digital technologies.

The EU-Singapore Digital Partnership document refers to research collaboration in many domains, from AI technologies, their trustworthiness and transparency, to semiconductors, communications and Internet of Things, privacy enhancing technologies or research data. 

Collaborative research is a key component of the Digital Partnerships: it helps developing standards, interoperability, connectivity, and sharing dividends of the digital transformation.

It also resonates with the EU’s Global Approach to Research and Innovation adopted in 2021, a European strategy for international cooperation. 

As an expression of its commitment to international openness, the EU offers now to countries located anywhere in the world, which share European values and with a strong science, technology and innovation profile, to be associated to Horizon Europe, the European collaborative research Framework programme.

In the Indo-Pacific, South Korea, New Zealand and Canada have since joined Horizon Europe as Associated countries; official negotiations are on-going with Japan, and preliminary have been held with Singapore and Australia. All these activities and results show a shared intention to enhance cooperation in research and innovation.

Conclusion

Dear conference participants, Your exchanges and reflection take place in the policy context that I have just described. I have no doubt that you will make the most of these opportunities to develop contacts and networks, get to know each other better, debate extensively, exchange ideas and identify avenues of concrete cooperation. 

I invite you also to build upon the conclusions you already drew from your previous conferences in South Korea and Japan, and develop further ideas and recommendations for thriving and productive digital partnerships. 

You will identify whether the existing policy frameworks enable your avenues of cooperation, or if you need further adjustment and support policies. In that sense the result of your debates will also be very much helpful to nurture our policy dialogue. 

Your participation and involvement are key to the success of the Digital Partnerships, and we look very much forward to the conclusions of your debates.

Our political leaders will take stock of the advancement of the EU-Singapore Digital Partnership later this year, and possibly refresh the priority cooperation areas, considering the achievements so far, the evolution of priorities and the feedback from stakeholders. Your gathering is therefore very timely for us. 

With this, I wish you an engaging and stimulating conference.