Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who witnessed the exercise, told reporters that Singapore has to “take these exercises very seriously” in order to deal with a range of terrorist threats.
“There are activities in the region around us. We look further afield in the Middle East or other parts of the world – the groups remain there and we are on the radar,” he said.
“And sometimes, we also have homegrown self-radicalised individuals, misguided. We try very hard and we are lucky we catch them before they can do any harm. But one day, we may not be lucky.”
Mr Lee added that Singaporeans have to be “completely united as one people”.
“Because the threat of terrorism isn’t just the person who’s hurt, or the oil storage tank which is blown up, or the pipeline, but the fracture in our society, which takes a very, very long time to heal,” he said.
“And we must never let that fracture happen to us.”
Other political officeholders present included Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam, Minister of Defence Ng Eng Hen, Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean, Second Minister for Home Affairs Josephine Teo, and Senior Minister of State for Defence Zaqy Mohamad.
