Executive Summary

Exercise Cooperation represents a strategic bilateral military engagement between Singapore and China, now in its seventh iteration since 2009. The December 2025 exercise marks a significant milestone with its relocation to Safti City, Singapore’s first high-rise urban training facility, signaling an evolution in training complexity and technological integration. This case study examines the exercise’s strategic implications, outlook, and broader impact on regional security dynamics.

Exercise Overview:

• This is the seventh iteration of Exercise Cooperation, which was inaugurated in 2009
• The focus is on urban counter-terrorism operations
• It’s being held at Safti City for the first time

About Safti City:

• Singapore’s first high-rise urban training facility, launched in March 2025
• Equipped with smart instrumentation for real-time feedback
• Supports training for various operations including counter-terrorism

Participants:

• 90 personnel from Singapore’s 3rd Singapore Division and 1st Commando Battalion
• 90 personnel from China’s PLA Southern Theatre Command Army’s 74th Army Group

Training Activities: The exercise includes:

• Battalion-level field training
• Tactical drills
• Small-arms live firing
• Use of drones for basic reconnaissance and patrol
• Cohesion activities

Significance: According to the officials, the exercise aims to strengthen professional exchanges, enhance people-to-people ties, build mutual trust between the forces, and allow personnel to refine skills and improve operational competencies.

This reflects the ongoing defense cooperation between Singapore and China, which includes regular high-level engagements, mutual visits, academic exchanges, and cross-attendance of courses.

Background and Context

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) initiated Exercise Cooperation in 2009 as part of a broader framework of defense diplomacy. The exercise involves 90 personnel each from SAF’s 3rd Singapore Division and 1st Commando Battalion, and PLA’s Southern Theatre Command Army’s 74th Army Group. The 2025 iteration focuses on urban counter-terrorism operations, reflecting contemporary security challenges facing both nations.

The exercise’s relocation to Safti City represents a technological leap forward. Launched in March 2025, this high-rise urban training facility features smart instrumentation providing real-time feedback, enabling more sophisticated training scenarios that mirror modern urban warfare environments.

Strategic Analysis

Singapore’s Perspective

Singapore’s participation serves multiple strategic objectives. First, it maintains balanced defense relationships in a region where major powers compete for influence. By engaging with China militarily while simultaneously conducting exercises with the United States, Australia, and other partners, Singapore demonstrates its commitment to strategic autonomy and multilateral engagement.

Second, the exercise provides valuable training opportunities in urban counter-terrorism, a critical capability for a densely populated city-state. The use of Safti City allows SAF personnel to train in realistic urban environments with cutting-edge technology, enhancing operational readiness for domestic security threats.

Third, the engagement contributes to regional stability by building transparency and trust with a major regional power. Military-to-military contacts reduce the risk of miscalculation and create channels for communication during potential crises.

China’s Perspective

For China, Exercise Cooperation advances several strategic goals. The PLA gains experience in urban operations and exposure to Singapore’s advanced training facilities and methodologies. As China’s military modernizes and increasingly focuses on joint operations and professional military education, partnerships with sophisticated armed forces like Singapore’s provide valuable learning opportunities.

The exercise also serves China’s broader diplomatic objectives in Southeast Asia. By demonstrating peaceful military cooperation with a key ASEAN member state, China counters narratives about Chinese military assertiveness and builds goodwill in the region. Singapore’s strategic location and regional influence make it a valuable partner for enhancing China’s diplomatic standing.

Additionally, the engagement provides the PLA with insights into operating in urban environments similar to those it might encounter in various contingency scenarios, particularly as urbanization continues to shape the operating environment across Asia.

Outlook and Future Trajectory

Short-Term Outlook (1-3 Years)

The exercise is likely to continue on its current trajectory with gradual enhancements in scope and complexity. Future iterations may incorporate more advanced technologies including artificial intelligence, enhanced drone capabilities, and cyber components. The success of training at Safti City suggests that future exercises will increasingly leverage this facility’s capabilities.

Participation numbers may expand modestly, potentially including specialized units or incorporating additional training modules focused on emerging threats such as hybrid warfare or complex coordinated attacks. The bilateral framework is likely to remain stable, with annual or biennial iterations continuing as scheduled.

Medium-Term Outlook (3-7 Years)

The exercise may evolve to include observer participation from other nations, transitioning from a purely bilateral to a limited multilateral format. This would align with broader trends in defense diplomacy and could enhance the exercise’s value as a confidence-building measure in the region.

Technological integration will likely deepen, with greater emphasis on joint operations involving unmanned systems, cyber defense elements, and intelligence sharing protocols. Training scenarios may become more complex, incorporating multi-domain operations that reflect the evolving character of modern warfare.

The geopolitical context will significantly influence the exercise’s trajectory. Heightened US-China tensions could place pressure on Singapore to recalibrate its defense engagements, while a more stable regional environment might enable expanded cooperation.

Long-Term Outlook (7-15 Years)

The exercise’s long-term future depends heavily on the broader strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific. Several scenarios are possible. In a cooperative scenario where major powers find stable accommodation, Exercise Cooperation could expand into a regional security mechanism involving multiple Southeast Asian nations and major powers, contributing to a multilateral security architecture.

In a more competitive environment, the exercise might face constraints as nations are pressured to choose sides or limit engagement with perceived rival powers. Singapore’s commitment to strategic autonomy would be tested, and the exercise might need to be carefully calibrated to avoid perception of alignment with any single major power.

Regardless of the geopolitical environment, the substantive focus will likely shift toward emerging security challenges including climate-related disasters, pandemics, and technological threats, potentially transforming the exercise from a counter-terrorism focus to a broader humanitarian assistance and disaster relief orientation.

Solutions and Recommendations

For Singapore

Maintaining Strategic Balance: Singapore should continue leveraging Exercise Cooperation as one component of a diversified defense engagement strategy. This includes maintaining and expanding exercises with the United States, India, Australia, and other partners to demonstrate genuine non-alignment and prevent misperceptions about strategic orientation.

Transparency and Communication: Singapore should maintain clear public communication about the exercise’s objectives, emphasizing its focus on practical skills development and regional stability rather than alignment with any major power’s strategic agenda. Regular briefings to ASEAN partners can help maintain regional confidence in Singapore’s neutral approach.

Capability Development: Singapore should maximize learning opportunities from the exercise to enhance its own counter-terrorism and urban warfare capabilities. This includes documenting best practices, conducting thorough after-action reviews, and integrating lessons learned into broader SAF training programs.

Gradual Expansion: Singapore could explore opportunities to include observer participation from other ASEAN members in future iterations, transforming the exercise into a broader regional capacity-building initiative that strengthens ASEAN’s collective security capabilities.

For China

Confidence-Building Focus: China should emphasize the confidence-building and transparency aspects of the exercise rather than its operational benefits. Public messaging should highlight the contribution to regional peace and stability, countering perceptions of military assertiveness.

Professional Military Education: China should leverage the exercise to enhance PLA professionalization and exposure to international military norms and practices. Exchange programs, academic components, and structured professional development opportunities could be integrated into future iterations.

Regional Integration: China should explore opportunities to connect Exercise Cooperation with broader regional security initiatives, potentially linking it to ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus mechanisms or other multilateral frameworks. This would demonstrate China’s commitment to working within existing regional architectures rather than creating parallel structures.

For Regional Stakeholders

ASEAN Centrality: ASEAN should seek to incorporate bilateral exercises like this into broader regional security frameworks, ensuring that such engagements contribute to ASEAN-centered multilateralism rather than fragmenting regional security cooperation.

Observer Mechanisms: Regional nations should consider requesting observer status in future iterations, using these opportunities to build their own capabilities and understanding while contributing to regional transparency and confidence-building.

Complementary Exercises: Other regional nations should develop their own bilateral and multilateral exercises, creating a web of security relationships that promotes stability through engagement rather than exclusive alliances.

Long-Term Solutions

Institutional Framework Development

To maximize the strategic value of Exercise Cooperation and similar engagements, participants should consider developing more robust institutional frameworks. This could include establishing a permanent bilateral working group on defense cooperation that extends beyond individual exercises to encompass broader strategic dialogue, capability development planning, and crisis communication protocols.

A formalized framework would provide continuity across personnel rotations, enable long-term planning, and create mechanisms for expanding cooperation into new areas such as defense technology, military education, and strategic research. Such institutionalization would signal genuine commitment to the relationship while providing structure that can weather political fluctuations.

Technology and Innovation Partnerships

Both nations should explore opportunities to expand cooperation into defense technology and innovation. This could include joint research on urban warfare technologies, collaborative development of training systems, and information sharing on emerging threats. Singapore’s technological sophistication and China’s scale and resources could create synergies that benefit both partners while contributing to regional security capabilities.

Such partnerships should be carefully structured to respect intellectual property, maintain appropriate technology safeguards, and ensure that cooperation enhances rather than compromises national security. The focus should be on dual-use technologies and capabilities that have clear defensive applications and regional security benefits.

Regional Capacity Building

The most sustainable long-term solution involves transforming bilateral exercises into regional capacity-building mechanisms. This could be achieved through several approaches. First, inviting observers from other Southeast Asian nations would enable knowledge transfer and build regional counter-terrorism capabilities. Second, developing a rotating host nation concept would distribute benefits across the region while deepening security cooperation. Third, creating training programs that allow military personnel from across Southeast Asia to attend courses at facilities like Safti City would build human capital and professional networks.

Such regionalization would require careful management to ensure that smaller nations are not overwhelmed by major power dynamics, and that ASEAN centrality is respected. However, it offers the potential to transform bilateral engagement into genuine regional public goods that enhance collective security.

Crisis Management Mechanisms

Exercise Cooperation should be complemented by robust crisis management and communication mechanisms. This includes establishing direct communication channels between defense ministries that can be activated during emergencies, developing protocols for information sharing during crises, and creating consultation mechanisms for addressing security concerns before they escalate.

Regular strategic dialogues at senior levels should accompany tactical-level exercises, ensuring that military cooperation is embedded in broader political understanding. These dialogues should address not only bilateral concerns but also regional security challenges, creating space for coordination on issues of mutual interest while acknowledging areas of disagreement.

Adaptive Planning Frameworks

Given the uncertainty of the regional security environment, both nations should develop adaptive planning frameworks that allow Exercise Cooperation to evolve in response to changing circumstances. This includes scenario planning for various geopolitical futures, flexible mechanisms for adjusting exercise scope and participation, and regular strategic reviews to assess the exercise’s continued relevance and value.

Such frameworks should incorporate feedback from multiple stakeholders including military participants, defense planners, diplomats, and regional partners. Regular assessments should evaluate whether the exercise is meeting its objectives and identify opportunities for improvement or adjustment.

Impact Assessment

Military and Operational Impact

The direct military impact of Exercise Cooperation is significant for both participants. SAF personnel gain exposure to PLA tactics, techniques, and procedures, while PLA forces benefit from Singapore’s advanced training facilities and professional military education approach. The emphasis on urban counter-terrorism operations builds capabilities that are directly relevant to both nations’ security environments.

The use of Safti City’s smart instrumentation provides quantitative feedback that enables more effective training and performance assessment. Real-time data on tactical decisions, shooting accuracy, movement patterns, and coordination enables rapid improvement and identifies areas requiring additional focus. This technological approach to military training represents a model that could be adopted more broadly across the region.

The exercise also builds interoperability, though this should not be overstated given the limited scope and duration of engagement. More importantly, it creates familiarity with each other’s military culture, decision-making processes, and operational approaches, which could be valuable in future multilateral operations or crisis situations requiring coordination.

Strategic and Diplomatic Impact

The strategic impact extends far beyond military capabilities. Exercise Cooperation demonstrates Singapore’s successful navigation of great power competition through active engagement with multiple partners. By maintaining robust military relationships with both China and the United States, Singapore models a form of strategic autonomy that other small states may seek to emulate.

For regional stability, the exercise contributes to transparency and confidence-building. Military-to-military engagement creates personal relationships and understanding that can reduce miscalculation risks. In a region where territorial disputes and strategic competition create tensions, such engagement provides channels for dialogue and cooperation that can moderate competitive dynamics.

The exercise also has broader diplomatic implications for China’s relationship with Southeast Asia. Successful cooperation with Singapore, a developed nation with strong Western ties, demonstrates China’s ability to build security partnerships beyond traditional alignments. This counters narratives of Chinese isolation or regional concerns about Chinese intentions, supporting China’s broader diplomatic objectives in the region.

Regional Security Architecture Impact

Exercise Cooperation’s impact on regional security architecture is more ambiguous. On one hand, bilateral exercises between major powers and regional states can strengthen the overall framework of security cooperation, contributing to a network of relationships that enhances stability. On the other hand, excessive bilateralism could potentially undermine ASEAN-centered multilateralism if not carefully managed.

The exercise’s evolution will significantly influence its regional impact. If it remains purely bilateral and limited in scope, its contribution to regional architecture will be modest. However, if it evolves to include regional participation or links to broader multilateral frameworks, it could become a building block for more comprehensive regional security cooperation.

The key challenge is ensuring that bilateral engagement complements rather than substitutes for multilateral frameworks. This requires active effort to connect bilateral exercises to ASEAN mechanisms, share lessons learned with regional partners, and ensure that such engagements contribute to collective security rather than creating exclusive partnerships.

Economic and Technological Impact

While Exercise Cooperation is primarily a military engagement, it has economic and technological spillover effects. Singapore’s defense industry benefits from relationships built through military exercises, potentially leading to defense procurement opportunities or technology partnerships. The demonstration of Safti City’s capabilities could generate interest from other nations seeking to develop similar facilities, creating export opportunities for Singapore’s defense technology sector.

For China, engagement with Singapore’s technologically advanced military provides insights into emerging capabilities and training methodologies that can inform PLA modernization efforts. The professional exchanges and academic components of broader defense cooperation facilitate knowledge transfer that extends beyond specific tactical skills to broader organizational and strategic thinking.

The exercise also contributes to human capital development in both nations. Personnel who participate gain international experience, cross-cultural competence, and professional networks that enhance their long-term career development. These personal connections can facilitate future cooperation and create constituencies for continued engagement.

Social and People-to-People Impact

The emphasis on people-to-people ties and relationship-building represents a valuable but often underappreciated impact. Military exchanges create personal connections that transcend official relationships, building understanding and empathy between personnel from different national backgrounds. These relationships can endure throughout careers, creating informal networks that facilitate cooperation and communication.

Cohesion activities during the exercise provide opportunities for cultural exchange and mutual learning beyond strictly military contexts. Understanding each other’s societies, values, and perspectives reduces stereotyping and builds appreciation for different approaches to common challenges. In a region where historical grievances and cultural differences can complicate relations, such people-to-people engagement contributes to long-term stability.

The exercise also has domestic political impacts in both nations. In Singapore, it demonstrates the government’s commitment to balanced engagement and strategic autonomy, reinforcing public confidence in national security policy. In China, successful international military cooperation supports narratives of China as a responsible major power engaged constructively with the international community.

Challenges and Risk Mitigation

Geopolitical Pressures

The primary challenge facing Exercise Cooperation is the intensifying strategic competition between the United States and China. Singapore faces pressure to demonstrate alignment with one side or the other, while China may face domestic criticism for cooperating with a nation that has strong security ties with the United States. Managing these pressures requires clear communication, careful calibration of exercise scope, and consistent emphasis on the defensive, capacity-building nature of cooperation.

Risk mitigation strategies include maintaining transparency about exercise activities, ensuring that operational cooperation does not imply strategic alignment, and actively diversifying security partnerships to prevent perception of exclusive relationships. Both nations should resist pressure to use the exercise as a signaling mechanism in broader strategic competition, maintaining focus on its practical military benefits.

Regional Perceptions

Some regional nations may view Exercise Cooperation with concern, particularly if they perceive it as indicating Singapore’s tilt toward China or China’s expanding military presence in Southeast Asia. Managing these perceptions requires active outreach to ASEAN partners, transparency about exercise objectives, and opportunities for regional participation or observation.

Singapore should emphasize that Exercise Cooperation is one component of a comprehensive defense engagement strategy that includes robust partnerships with multiple nations. Highlighting the defensive, counter-terrorism focus and avoiding any activities that could be perceived as directed against third parties helps maintain regional confidence.

Capability Leakage

Both nations face risks of sensitive capabilities or tactics being exposed through the exercise. While some exposure is inevitable and indeed represents part of the exercise’s confidence-building value, both sides must carefully manage what capabilities are demonstrated and what information is shared. Clear protocols for classification of information, careful selection of training scenarios, and thorough security reviews help mitigate these risks.

The solution lies in focusing cooperation on areas where genuine mutual benefit exists without compromising sensitive national capabilities. Urban counter-terrorism operations provide such an area, where both nations face similar threats and can benefit from shared best practices without exposing core warfighting capabilities that might be relevant in other scenarios.

Domestic Political Constraints

Both nations face potential domestic political opposition to military cooperation. In Singapore, critics may argue that cooperation with China conflicts with Singapore’s traditional security relationships. In China, cooperation with a nation aligned with the United States may face nationalist criticism. Managing these domestic political dynamics requires clear public communication about the exercise’s rationale and benefits.

Leaders should emphasize the practical security benefits, the contribution to regional stability, and the consistency with each nation’s broader strategic approach. Building public understanding of the exercise’s limited scope and defensive nature helps maintain domestic political support.

Conclusion

Exercise Cooperation represents a significant element of Singapore-China defense relations and contributes to broader regional security dynamics. Its success over seven iterations demonstrates the value of sustained military engagement between nations with different strategic orientations but shared interests in capability development and regional stability.

The exercise’s future trajectory will be shaped by the broader strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific. In a favorable scenario, it could evolve into a regional capacity-building mechanism that strengthens ASEAN’s collective security capabilities. In a more challenging environment, careful management will be required to preserve its value while navigating competitive pressures.

For both Singapore and China, the exercise provides tangible military benefits while serving broader diplomatic objectives. For the region, it represents a model of how military engagement can contribute to transparency and confidence-building, though its ultimate contribution to regional security architecture depends on whether it complements or competes with multilateral frameworks.

The long-term solution lies in embedding bilateral engagement within broader regional security cooperation, ensuring transparency and inclusivity, and maintaining focus on practical capability development rather than strategic signaling. If managed effectively, Exercise Cooperation can continue contributing to regional peace and stability while enhancing both nations’ counter-terrorism capabilities and professional military development.