Stamford Raffles founded colonial Singapore in 1819 as a trading post of the British East India Company. After the company's collapsein 1858, the islands were ceded to the British Raj as a crown colony. During the Second World War, Singapore was occupied by Japan. It gained independence from the UK in 1963 by federating with other former British territories to form Malaysia, but separated two years later over ideological differences, becoming a sovereign nation in 1965. After early years of turbulence and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation developed rapidly as an Asian Tiger economy, based on external trade and its workforce.

Singapore is a global commerce, finance and transport hub. It has been recognized as the most "technology-ready" nation (WEF), top International-meetings city (UIA), city with "best investment potential" (BERI), world's smartest city,^[8] world's safest country,^[9][10] third-most competitive country, third-largest foreign exchange market, third-largest financial centre, third-largest oil refining and trading centre and the second-busiest container port. The country has also been identified as a tax haven. In 2018, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) ranked Singapore for the fifth year in a row as the most expensive city to live in the world.^[11] Singapore is the only country in Asia with an AAA credit rating from all of the world's major rating agencies, and one of the only few countries worldwide. Furthermore, its port and Changi Airport have held the titles of "Best Maritime Port" and "Best Airport" respectively for consecutive years.

Singapore ranks 5th on the UN Human Development Index and the 3rd highest GDP per capita. It is ranked highly in education, healthcare, life expectancy, quality of life, personal safety and housing. As of 1 July 2018, Singaporean citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 188 countries and territories, ranking the Singapore passport joint second in the world with Germany, but after Japan, for lack of visa restrictions on the Henley & Partners Passport Index.^[12] Although income inequality is high, 90% of homes are owner-occupied. 39% of Singapore's 5.6 million residents are not citizens. There are four official languages: English (common and first language), Malay, Mandarin Chinese and Tamil; almost all Singaporeans are bilingual.

Singapore is a unitary multiparty parliamentary republic with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government. The People's Action Party has won every election since self-government began in 1959. The dominance of the PAP, coupled with a low level of press freedom and restrictions on civil liberties and political rights, has led to Singapore being classified by the Economist Intelligence Unit as a flawed democracy. As one of the five founding members of ASEAN, Singapore is also the host of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Secretariat and a member of the East Asia Summit, Non-Aligned Movement and the Commonwealth of Nations.

Indonesia's republican form of government includes an elected parliament and president. Indonesia has 34 provinces, of which five have special status. Its capital is Jakarta, which is the second most populous urban area in the world. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and the eastern part of Malaysia. Other neighbouring countries include Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia, Palau, and India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support a high level of biodiversity.^[15] The country has abundant natural resources like oil and natural gas, tin, copper and gold. Agriculture mainly produces rice, palm oil, tea, coffee, cacao, medicinal plants, spices and rubber.^[16] Indonesia's major trading partners are China, United States, Japan, Singapore and India