German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to visit S'pore from Oct. 27 to 28

Friedrich Merz, the Chancellor of Germany (head of government and equivalent to our prime minister), will be visiting Singapore for a two-day visit from Oct. 27 to 28, at the invitation of Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.

While in Singapore, he will meet with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, as well as PM Wong, and Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Merz will be hosted to lunch by SM Lee, and PM Wong will host an official dinner for him.

His visit, according to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release, "affirms the warm, longstanding, and multifaceted partnership between Singapore and Germany."

First visit

This is Merz's first visit to Singapore as Chancellor, and continues a sequence of every German chancellor visiting Singapore since Helmut Schmidt in 1978.

Merz and PM Wong met previously on the sidelines of 2025’s G20 summit in Johannesburg, when PM Wong spoke about 2025 being the 60th year of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

In 2024, PM Wong and then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz, issued a Joint Declaration to elevate Singapore-Germany relations to Strategic Partnership, which was said to chart “an ambitious and comprehensive agenda for the future.”

While in Singapore, Merz will also deliver the 49th Singapore Lecture, organised by the ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute, entitled “Germany and the Indo-Pacific: Partnership, Competitiveness, and Resilience in a Changing World " at a session chaired by Minister for Digital Development and Information, Josephine Teo.

Strong ties

Singapore and Germany share strong ties, especially in economic relations, where Germany is Singapore’s largest European Union trading partner in goods, and third largest EU trading partner in services.

Bilateral trade in goods has grown nearly 10 per cent to S$23.4 billion between 2019 and 2025 since the EU-Singapore FTA took effect in 2019; while more than 2,900 German companies operate in Singapore, a 40 per cent increase in five years.

The two countries also enjoy strong and substantive defence ties, cooperating and interacting frequently through high-level visits and dialogues, military-to-military exchanges, and defence technology collaboration.

Germany supports the Singapore Armed Forces' armour training and submarine crew training, and in 2022, then-PM Lee officiated the launch ceremony of two Singaporean submarines built in Germany.