NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 19: AMB. Bilahari Kausikan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore, speaks at the 2017 Concordia Annual Summit at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York on September 19, 2017.
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While some may describe tensions between the United States and China as a “new Cold War,” Singapore’s former permanent representative to the United Nations, Bilahari Kouskan, said the term was “misleading” and that the current situation was only related to the United States. “Superficial similarity”.
Speaking at an outlook event organized by private bank VP Bank on Wednesday, Kauskan explained that the Cold War, which ended in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, was a competition between two systems organized on completely different principles.
But due to the complexity of modern supply chains, this is not the case today. Kauskan said that the United States and China are both part of a single global system, and “their competition is conducted within a single system.”
“The United States and China are connected to each other and to the rest of us through a historic new phenomenon, a supply chain whose complexity, density, and scope are unprecedented in world history. What will shape the 21st century? Interdependence distinguishes itself from earlier periods of independence,” he said.
Therefore, he believed that complete disagreement was impossible. Kauskan said that while there may be some separation in areas such as high-tech and finance, the ecosystems will not be completely separated.
“In fact, as far as I know, no business leader really believes this will happen,” he quipped.
Kauskan said the U.S. and Chinese governments are “uneasy” about the fact that the two countries remain inevitably dependent on each other. Furthermore, he believes that efforts by both sides to mitigate this interdependence will not be as successful as they hope.
“You can’t kill your opponent without killing yourself. You can’t even hurt your opponent without hurting yourself,” he said.
“All-round foreign policy”
Given this environment, other countries have adopted a different approach, what Kauskan calls a “full range of foreign policy.”
“When we say we don’t want to choose, it doesn’t mean we’re trying to be passive, or trying to be neutral, or trying to be equidistant. What we mean is that we really want to choose based on our will.” interest, there is no need to have all our ducks in a row neatly in one direction or another,” he explains.
Taking Singapore as an example, former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Kaoskan pointed out that Singapore has clearly chosen the direction of the United States in the field of national defense and security.
The city-state is the only country in Southeast Asia to acquire fifth-generation F-35 fighter jets, and most of its imported military equipment comes from the United States or its traditional allies, such as Germany’s Leopard 2 main battle tanks and French-Italian tanks. system.
RSAF detachments are also stationed in the United States for training, and U.S. Navy ships are deployed to Singapore on a rotating basis.
But Kausikan said that while Singapore is aligned with the United States on issues in the defense and security areas, that may not be the case on other issues.
during an interview May and The EconomistThe then Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said that Singapore was neither pro-American nor pro-China, but “pro-Singapore”. Wong is now Prime Minister of Singapore.
Kauskan also added, “As far as economic relations are concerned, we are completely mixed. (We) play with whoever wants to play with us, as long as our stuff is there,” he added, drawing the attention of attendees The laugher.
Asked how countries could respond to this environment, the former diplomat offered three principles.
He said that countries first need to be aware of their own interests, then make a very calm assessment of international relations, and most importantly, be flexible and agile enough to seize opportunities or get out of harm’s way.
