Luxembourg PM Praises Cooperation with Singapore During President Shanmugaratnam's State Visit

On Friday 28 March 2025, Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Luc Frieden and the President of the Republic of Singapore, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, held formal discussions at the Château de Senningen.

As part of his two-day visit to the Grand Duchy, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam met with Prime Minister Frieden at Senningen Castle for a one-on-one discussion, which was then followed by an official luncheon with Luxembourg’s Minister of Finance, Gilles Roth, and Minister of Justice, Elisabeth Margue, where discussions were held in relation to each country’s financial sector, free trade and bilateral cooperation.

During the following press conference, Prime Minister Frieden spoke of his historic friendship with President Shanmugaratnam and noted the occasions they had worked together when they both served as Minsters of Finance for their respective countries. He stated: “It's a great pleasure for me here to welcome an old friend. The President of the Republic of Singapore and I were Ministers of Finance for quite a while together, so we often had the opportunity to meet in Singapore, in Washington and elsewhere.” 

Touching on the relationship and similarities shared by the two countries, Prime Minister Frieden noted: “We share common values when it comes to making sure that international law is respected. We both want to have a free trade that complies with rules that make us prosperous, all of us prosperous, not one against the other. We believe in multilateralism.” 

Luxembourg’s Prime Minister also remarked on importance of smaller nations working together. He declared: “Meeting here and receiving here in Luxembourg, at the invitation of His Royal Highness the Grand Duke, the President of the Republic of Singapore is a testimony of how small nations need to work together to make sure not only that they are friends as nations but also that they can serve the common good around the world.”

In response, President Shanmugaratnam thanked Prime Minister Frieden for his warm welcome before commenting on the afternoon’s discussions. In relation to the meetings, he commented: “We were able to talk very frankly, very directly and we found each other's views and each other's networks extremely useful for that reason. We are natural partners.”

Touching on the subject of collaborative projects between the two countries, President Shanmugaratnam noted: “We are very keen to partner [with] SES, as well as Luxembourg more broadly, in developing space technology. There are some very exciting possibilities there.” In relation to collaborative efforts in tackling climate change, he added: “We've got to see how each of us, using our hubs and our rational perspective of the challenges that we face, can mobilise private capital, philanthropic capital and bring public capital into the picture where necessary to address a problem that is getting more serious by the year. Climate change isn't waiting for us, so we've got to move ahead.”

In closing, President Shanmugaratnam thanked Prime Minister Frieden and the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess for their warmth and hospitality. 

After the meeting, President Shanmugaratnam and his wife, Jane Ittogi Shanmugaratnam, visited the National Fire and Rescue Centre (CNIS) in Luxembourg-Gasperich, where they were met by the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess, as well as Luxembourg’s Minister for Home Affairs, Léon Gloden, the President of the CGDIS Board of Directors, Alain Becker, the Vice President of the CGDIS Board of Directors (and Mayor of Luxembourg City), Lydie Polfer, the Director General of CGDIS, Paul Schroeder, and the Commissioner of the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), Eric Yap.

The state visit concluded on Friday with the traditional departure ceremony in front of the Grand Ducal Palace, during which the presidential couple bid farewell to the and the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess, Luxembourgish authorities and delegations.

SM