Christopher Luxon heads to Singapore to formalise crucial trade relationship

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, and two of his most trusted and senior ministers landed in Singapore on Sunday night for a two-day sprint to strengthen a relationship New Zealand's fuel security is so dependent on.

Two-way trade between the nations is significant at $11 billion annually and Singapore is the second-largest source of investment to New Zealand.

The two countries trade on widely different commodities, making the relationship all the more complementary.

Singapore is a fuel, pharmaceutical, construction and tech mecca, while New Zealand's appeal to the affluent southeast Asian city-state is what we grow - food supply.

The close friendship between the two nations led to a new agreement in October - a comprehensive strategic partnership (CSP) - designed to deepen co-operation across six pillars.

In addition to the CSP, the two prime ministers shook hands on a first-of-its-kind agreement on essential supplies, ensuring trade would keep moving in times of crisis.

Little did the two leaders know how crucial that would become just four months later, when the United States and Israel launched their missile strike on Iran.

While prime ministers Christopher Luxon and Lawrence Wong will officially put ink to paper on the deal on Monday, the commitment to keep essential supplies moving has already been formally in action throughout the fuel crisis.

That's provided New Zealand with confidence that fuel would continue to be available from Singapore and, likewise, food supplies would keep flowing back the other way.

Joining Luxon on the trip is Trade Minister Todd McClay, and his lead minister on finance, economic growth and the fuel crisis, Nicola Willis.

Before the trip, Luxon told RNZ the essential supplies treaty was already up and running, and for good reason.

"Who would have thought, in October, we'd desperately need it four months later," he said. "I want to go see the refineries, I want to see the system myself and be reassured around the information we're getting on a daily basis."

In addition to the fuel check-up and the signing of the agreement, Luxon said the purpose of this visit was to take 29 senior business leaders and broaden the relationship, which he said was "necessary in a more volatile and certainly multipolar world".

Luxon told RNZ both countries were "very bold", and he expected there would be further work together on issues like upholding international rules and freedom of navigation - both critical to small trading-dependent nations.

The prime minister continues to speak almost daily with world leaders, as the Middle East situation and Strait of Hormuz blockades continue.

At the end of last week alone, Luxon spoke with his counterpart in Pakistan, which is leading negotiations between the US and Tehran, as well as the Sultan of Oman and the president of the United Arab Emirates.

Willis' presence on this trip is even shorter than Luxon's - she'll be on the ground for just 24 hours, as she races home to resume work on her budget, due in just a few weeks.

Fuel security and economic growth opportunities are the motivation for her extracting herself from her office at such a busy time.

Before the trip, Willis told RNZ she was keen to drive more "export growth into Singapore, more business opportunities for our businesses, so they can create more jobs and higher incomes in New Zealand".

The inaugural leadership forum taking place on Monday, which brings senior business and government leaders from both countries together, will be key for Willis to meet some of the "movers and shakers" in Singapore.

In addition, she'll hold meetings with some of the world's biggest fuel companies operating out of Singapore.

"Singapore is the largest refinery, blending, storage and trading hub for fuel in Southeast Asia," she told RNZ. "That is where the leaders in fuel thinking reside, where their businesses are based, and it's just an extraordinary opportunity to tap into their insights and intelligence."

Willis said you couldn't overestimate how important face-to-face meetings with the most powerful fuel players would be.

"In the future, I can just pick up the phone, which is different from having officials formally dispatched. It provides more insight and it's a closer relationship."

The trip will include a visit to Jurong Island - the home of Singapore's refining and fuel importing structures.

Willis' fuel mission on this short flyover is to "get another affirmation that Singapore will not be placing any export controls on fuel into New Zealand, that they will honour that agreement to ensure that we will not face restrictions of that sort".

While everything they'd said to date confirmed that already, she said hearing it face-to-face added another layer and created a chance to ask how Singapore was thinking ahead.

"How are Singaporean-based fuel companies planning for a scenario of ongoing disruption of oil coming out of the Middle East, and what is their confidence or ability to adjust to a world in which less oil is coming out of the Middle East?"

Willis told RNZ the conversations she'd had to date indicated they were already thinking hard about that new world, and she hoped to seek some insight and reassurance on what that looked like.

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