The U.S. and Singaporean governments have signed three agreements to expand cooperation in cybersecurity in the areas of defense, finance and homeland security as part of Vice President Kamala Harris’ to Southeast Asia this week.
A fact sheet issued by Harris on Monday said a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that was signed by the Defense Department and Singapore’s Ministry of Defense “will support broad defense cooperation to advance cybersecurity information sharing, exchange of threat indicators, combined cyber training and exercises, and other forms of military-to-military cooperation on cyber issues.”
An MoU signed between the Treasury Department and the Monetary Authority of Singapore expands formalizes and strengthens a three-year-old cyber threat information sharing arrangement between the two agencies. The agreement also expands cooperation through the sharing of regulations and guidance, incidents and threat intelligence, staff training and study visits, and cross-border exercises to enhance competency.
“The United States and Singapore have a longstanding bilateral partnership,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. “In our interconnected world, Treasury and MAS share common goals of maintaining strength and stability, as well as operational and cyber resilience in each country’s economy and financial system. The cybersecurity cooperation agreement will serve to improve the cyber resilience of both countries’ financial systems.”
The third MoU was signed between the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA). A joint statement by CISA and CSA said the agreement strengthens existing cooperation in the areas of information sharing and exercises, and expands into new areas such as critical technologies, and research and development.
“This expanded MoU is a testament of our shared vision to work together towards a stable, secure, resilient and interoperable cyberspace,” David Koh, chief executive of CSA, said in a statement.
Harris is visiting Singapore to reinforce the U.S. partnership with the city-state, including in the area of defense cooperation. In addition to the cybersecurity agreements, the two governments expanded cooperation and launched partnerships in the areas of climate change, smart cities, resilient supply chains, trade and economic growth, health security, and international norms of behavior for space exploration.