Australia will be Singapore’s comprehensive strategic partner which would enable bilateral cooperation in the economy, foreign affairs and defense to expand further.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott will make his first official visit to Singapore from June 28- 29 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic ties.

The two PMs are scheduled to sign the Singapore-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) during the visit.

“The CSP will take bilateral relations between Singapore and Australia to the next level and strengthen political, economic, defence, and people-to-people ties between both countries”, said the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Singapore and Australia will also sign several Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) on terrorism fight, goods and service standards as well as culture and arts.

Australia was the first nation to establish diplomatic relations with Singapore in 1965 and currently is the Southeast Asian nation’s 11th largest trade partner with two-way trade reaching 25.5 billion SGD (nearly 18.9 billion USD) last year.

Singapore’s direct investment in Australia in 2013 hit 43.2 billion SGD, making Australia the 3rd most favourite destination of Singaporean investors.-VNA