PUBLISHED ONSeptember 17, 2026 12:15 AMUPDATEDSeptember 17, 2026 12:40 AMBYSean LerMinister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, who is on a two-day working visit to Qatar until Sept 17, will travel to Ottawa, Canada, for a two-day official visit from Sept 17 to 18.
Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said in a statement on Wednesday (Sept 16) evening that the visit comes at the invitation of his Canadian counterpart, Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand.
"Minister Balakrishnan’s visit builds on a series of high-level exchanges and demonstrates both countries’ commitment to deepening cooperation in areas of mutual interest such as emerging technologies, energy and food security, two-way investment, and supply chain resilience," MFA said.
While in Canada, Dr Balakrishnan will be hosted to lunch by Anand and will also meet Canada's Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon.
The Canadian minister is also the minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.
During his visit, Dr Balakrishnan will also meet Canadian academics, business leaders and government officials.
He will be accompanied by officials from MFA during the visit.
Canada was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic ties with Singapore after its independence in 1965.
Since then, ties between the two countries have developed across a wide range of areas, including trade and investment, security and defence, environmental sustainability, culture and arts, education, science and technology, and innovation.
The two countries are also strong supporters of the international rules-based order as well as free and open trade, and work closely in multilateral forums such as the Arctic Council, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
In 2024, bilateral merchandise trade totalled $3.7 billion, up from $3.2 billion in 2023.
Canada’s merchandise exports were $2.2 billion, while imports from Singapore totalled $1.5 billion, according to Canadian government data.
Dr Balakrishnan was in Qatar to co-chair the third iteration of the Qatar-Singapore Implementation Monitoring Mechanism (IMM) with Qatar's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi.
The IMM is a platform for the two countries to follow up on bilateral initiatives in the areas of information and communications technology, security, business, legal cooperation and sustainability. It was established under the Qatar-Singapore High-Level Joint Committee.
This was launched during Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad Al Thani's state visit to Singapore in 2017, with then-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and the Qatari Emir agreeing that the IMM would serve as a channel for ministries and agencies from the two countries to work more closely and effectively together.
In a statement on Thursday, MFA said the two co-chairs welcomed the good progress made since the second IMM in Singapore in August 2019 and encouraged the relevant agencies on both sides to accelerate their efforts to ensure a substantive slate of deliverables in areas such as energy resilience and sustainable development.
They also expressed serious concern over the Middle East situation, especially the renewed hostilities involving the US and Iran, and reiterated the importance of dialogue and diplomacy in achieving a peaceful and lasting resolution to the conflict.
This extends to the need to respect navigational rights and freedoms in accordance with international law, the co-chairs said in their joint statement.
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