SINGAPORE – The Republic’s relationship with the United Kingdom is one of certainty as “the world around us loses their heads”, said permanent secretary for defence development Melvyn Ong.

Amid the geopolitical uncertainties and the disruptions in the world, it is important to try to find this in relationships, said Mr Ong at the opening of a defence industry trade show on board the UK aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales.

Mr Ong, a former defence chief, said: “The certainty in our relationship with the UK is one such thing that we continue to rely on, and the fact that we’re able to stand here, as the world around us loses their heads, is testimony to abiding friendship and abiding relationships and abiding trust.”

Some 30 UK businesses were gathered in the cavernous hangar of the 284m-long vessel – the flagship of a multinational UK-led strike group

The group is on an eight-month deployment to ensure the stability of the Indo-Pacific called Operation Highmast, which departed from Britain in April, with the ships sailing from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Also speaking at the opening, the British Minister of State for Defence, Lord Vernon Coaker, said the carrier’s hangar makes an ideal setting to showcase some of the UK’s and Singapore’s world-leading technology and the innovation of their defence companies.