Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong pledged to deepen bilateral cooperation in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as the trade-dependent city-state confronts intensifying tensions between Beijing and Washington.

Singapore looks forward to forging closer collaboration with China, Wong wrote on his X account Tuesday. “Amidst a more uncertain external environment, we are committed to working together to foster continued peace, stability and shared prosperity for the region,” he said.

The trip — Wong’s first to China since becoming prime minister just over a year ago — comes as the Southeast Asian country is navigating an increasingly fractured world. US-China tensions have soared over trade, technology restrictions and Taiwan, among other strategic issues.

Most recently, China has harshly criticized US strikes on Iran, while the Trump administration is nearing a July 9 deadline tied to its “reciprocal tariffs” regime on a broad range of nations.

While Singapore has long refused to pick sides between China and the US, similarly to many Southeast Asian nations its room for maneuver is narrowing as the superpower competition heats up.

Wong’s government already lowered its economic forecast for 2025 GDP growth to 0%-2% as the tariff war escalates, down from a previous estimate of 1%-3%.

During their meeting, Xi urged both countries to ensure that bilateral ties proceed in the right direction, without losing momentum, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency.

Calling on the two nations to support each other’s core interests and important concerns, Xi encouraged Singapore to deepen cooperation in fields like artificial intelligence.

Earlier this year, the city-state opened a probe into the possible role of Singapore-based entities’ in channeling Nvidia Corp. chips — critical to AI development — to China and potentially other countries facing technology restrictions by the US.