Singapore is central to this story, acting as the platform through which UK businesses reach the rest of Asean, and helping UK experts in paperless trade, digital identity and secure data-sharing access Asean’s Digital Economy Framework Agreement and growing digital economy. Events in the South China Sea, through which a third of global trade passes, affect households in Britain just as in Singapore. This is why Asean matters to the UK, and why Singapore’s support for the UK’s partnership with the bloc has been so important. They celebrated the UK joining the Asean Regional Forum, which is the Indo-Pacific’s top multilateral security platform. Our message is simple: The UK is committed to Asean for the long term, and Singapore is central to that commitment.