PUBLISHED ONNovember 28, 2025 9:00 AMBYKoh Xing YingWith more than a thousand ships in Singapore's waters daily, and maritime trade accounting for about 7 per cent of gross domestic product, keeping sea lines open is critical to the Republic's prosperity, said Coordinating Minister for National Security K Shanmugam on Friday (Nov 28).
"The environment is congested and it is challenging. You look at the number of ships that fall into our waters — more than 1,000 ships calling and transiting," he said.
"One of the ways in which (we) can be attacked is through an attack on ships in our waterways, or an attack from the sea on Singapore itself," added Shanmugam, who is also Minister for Home Affairs.
He was speaking to reporters on board the navy's Independence-class littoral mission vessel RSS Justice after observing Exercise Highcrest, an annual inter-agency exercise — held from Nov 24 to 28.
This year's exercise featured a fire at sea and a hijacked vessel. It involved more than 240 personnel from the navy, the Police Coast Guard, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, Singapore Customs and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).
Also observing the exercise on Nov 28 were Minister for Defence Chan Chun Sing and Minister of State for Defence Desmond Choo.
The annual exercise this year also featured the SCDF evacuating simulated casualties from the bridge of a ship to the deck of a rescue vessel.
"Exercising this component gives us confidence that our maritime security agencies are able to conduct the entire range of operations, from interception of the vessel to the evacuation of casualties," said Jackson Pang, director of the Singapore Maritime Crisis Centre's National Maritime Operations Group.
Neo Jia Qi, head of operations at SCDF's Marine Division, said, "The exercise scenario today provides a good platform for us to fine-tune our joint coordination when responding to maritime incidents."
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xingying.koh@asiaone.com
