Germany and Singapore enjoy excellent bilateral relations, which are underlined by high-level political visits (state visit by the Federal President to Singapore in June 2022, and visit by the Foreign Minister of Singapore to Berlin in April 2022). Even during the pandemic, many meetings continued to be held, mostly in a virtual format. There is a large degree of consensus between the two countries on important foreign policy issues (including multilateralism, global free trade, climate protection, maritime security and counter-terrorism). A German-Singaporean declaration seeking to intensify cooperation in various fields was signed by the two Heads of Government already in 2005.

Germany and Singapore are important to each other as trade partners. During the pandemic, the volume of bilateral trade declined from 13.1 billion euro in 2019 to 11.0 billion euro in 2020. According to preliminary calculations, it has already picked up again in 2021, to 11.4 billion euro. Around 2100 German companies are registered in the country. Investment promotion agencies in Germany (including Germany Trade & Invest and the Singapore Business Forum) and in Singapore (including the Economic Development Board and Enterprise Singapore) ensure that there is intensive exchange in both directions. Singapore hosts a large number of trade fairs, many of which include large stands by German companies. Collaboration on technologies of the future has a particularly high profile.

A bilateral cultural agreement has been in place since 1990. Singapore is home to a branch of the Goethe-Institut and a German Academic Exchange Service Information Point. The first overseas campus of a German university – the Technical University of Munich (TUM) – was set up in Singapore in 2002, while Fraunhofer Singapore, the first Asian affiliate of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, opened in 2017. The German European School Singapore – the largest German school abroad in Asia – is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2021/2022.