Singapore’s Sim Ann and Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong to attend Commonwealth meetings in Antigua and Barbuda

Singapore’s Second Minister for Foreign Affairs and Second Minister for Home Affairs Sim Ann is scheduled to undertake an official working visit to St John’s, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, from 1 to 4 November 2026, to participate in a series of landmark Commonwealth high-level diplomatic gatherings. The two core ministerial events on her agenda are the Commonwealth Ministerial Meeting on Small States (CMMSS) to be held on 1 November 2026, followed by the Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting (CFAMM) the subsequent day. These two ministerial forums will serve as critical preparatory sessions leading up to the 2026 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), running from 3 to 4 November 2026, where Singapore will be represented by Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, who concurrently holds the portfolio of Minister for Energy, Trade and Industry (Trade). During the CMMSS, Minister Sim will join fellow ministerial representatives from Commonwealth small states to deliberate actionable strategies for scaling cross-national collaborative frameworks and unlocking targeted global investment flows, with a core focus on strengthening socio-economic, climate, and institutional resilience as well as advancing inclusive long-term sustainable development for small island and low-resource member states. At the CFAMM, Minister Sim will engage in in-depth peer exchanges with foreign affairs counterparts from across the 56-nation Commonwealth bloc to explore collective pathways for advancing the association’s shared foundational values and common strategic interests, deepening cross-sector cooperation across member states, and forging coordinated, unified responses to the mounting volatility and growing complexity of the current global geopolitical and economic landscape. Beyond the formal scheduled plenary sessions, Minister Sim will also leverage the sidelines of both ministerial meetings to conduct a series of targeted bilateral diplomatic engagements with her international counterparts, aimed at deepening existing bilateral ties and exploring new avenues of mutually beneficial cooperation between Singapore and other Commonwealth member nations.