Mr Balakrishnan said his country is planning to roll out a “short-term” trade agreement after Brexit to allow the UK to continue to benefit from the EU-Singapore free trade agreement. After Brexit, the FTA would no longer be in effect as Britain will effectively have quit the European Union but the Singaporean minister confirmed the new deal would maintain current arrangements. Speaking to Channel News Asia, Mr Balakrishnan said: “What we’re working with your Government on at this point in time is to settle the terms for what we call a short-form agreement.

“This would allow us to pot the provisions of the EU-Singapore free trade agreement to the UK.

“Assuming everyone works feverishly over the next couple of weeks, it may be possible to have that ready so that when Brexit actually occurs – and that’s assuming it occurs on November 1 – even without a deal the Uk would have at least one free trade agreement in South-East Asia.”

The British Government has maintained they will proceed to leave the EU “with or without a deal” on October 31. A no deal Brexit scenario would see all current trade arrangements the UK has with the EU and through the EU cease to be in effect.

Mr Balakrishnan however said Singapore wanted to secure a deal with the UK because of the “shared belief” in free trade the island-city has with Britain.

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I said we’d do this because we both have a strong, fundamental belief in the value of free trade.

Vivian Balakrishnan

He added: “I said we’d do this because we both have a strong, fundamental belief in the value of free trade.”

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab jetted off to the Asia Pacific on Thursday to meet with partners in the region and discuss strengthening trade relations after Brexit.

Following meetings with counterparts from Singapore and Thailand among others, Mr Raab said: “We want strong friendship, a trading relationship with them as well but the United Kingdom will be a more autonomous, independent player in the world and that means we’ll make our own mark in the world and follow and pursue the things that are most important to us.

“Many of those things will be global and regional interests for the Asia Pacific region.”

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He continued: “This isn’t a zero-sum game, it’s not less Europe – we’ll continue to have our trading, security cooperation relationship with our European partners.

“But we will be freer to strengthen and build on the huge ties – commercial, trading, security – that we have with the countries of this region and that’s a really important component of a post-Brexit vision for the United Kingdom.

“One of the advantages of coming out of the EU is to be a more energetic power when it comes to trade – that’s a win-win for countries in this region and the United Kingdom because we can boost jobs on both sides.

“We also want to make sure we are a responsible global citizen and that means working with the countries in the region on security challenges and making sure we have regional stability.”

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The announcement from Singapore came as the White House confirmed President Donald Trump had started talks with Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the future commercial deal between the US and the UK.

A White House spokesman said: “The President reiterated his strong appreciation for the special relationship between the United States and United Kingdom and noted he is looking forward to meeting with the Prime Minister at the G7 Summit in Biarritz, France later this month.”

President Trump last week said a “very substantial” trade deal between the UK and the US was under discussion.

The two leaders have long held a close relationship, with the US President being one of the first to congratulate Mr Johnson when he was elected as leader of the Conservative Party.

After the results of the Tory leadership contest were revealed, Mr Trump told a rally: “We have a really good man who’s going to be the prime minister. They’re saying Britain Trump.

“They like me over there. That’s what they wanted. Boris is good, he’s going to do a good job.”

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