Transcript of Minister's Doorstop with Singaporean Journalists after delivering Singapore's National Statement at the 73rd United Nations General Assembly, 29 Sep 2018

Straits Times (Nirmal Ghosh): Minister, perhaps you can start with US-ASEAN relations. We have the big meetings coming up in November, the US-ASEAN Summit as well as the East Asia Summit. What are the priority items on that agenda?

Minister: If you do not mind, I would like to take a step back and reflect on the week. It has been an incredibly busy week. I have been here now for six days and every day has been completely packed. I thought I would reflect on some of the key themes that came through.

The first was the anxiety on multilateralism. Second, trade. Third, cyber issues, both the impact of artificial intelligence and the threat from cyber security actually feature quite high in many of the discussions today. So let me first deal with the issue of multilateralism. If you listen to all the speeches, I think that word occurred in every single speech that was delivered. Particularly for small nations, there is increasing anxiety. Multilateralism is at the crossroads, it’s under tension. There is increasing anxiety over unilateralism. And over the anxiety that we are going back into a world where the strong impose their will and the only options for small states is to be proxy states. So that came across very strongly. I would say that unsurprisingly, the vast number of other countries speaking up obviously made a stout defense for multilateralism. And my speech reflects that by definition, Singapore being who we are - small, open, trade three times our GDP - we have to stand for multilateralism. So that’s one key theme.  

The other was on free trade. And again, given our circumstances, I invested considerable time, meeting within ASEAN and then having an ASEAN meeting with the Pacific Alliance, which includes Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia. I also had another meeting with Mercosur, which is Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. I am glad to report that in all these meetings, there is still strong consensus and political will to move forward on free trade agreements. So if we succeed, by the end of the year, we can make significant progress on the RCEP, which will be the world’s largest trading bloc. We can make significant progress with Mercosur and Pacific Alliance, which build us new trade links to South America, Latin America. This is an affirmation that we still believe in free trade and we are proceeding despite the apparent withdrawals of bigger countries who have perhaps more options. I also took pains to reaffirm our belief in the WTO, and that we do need a neutral arbiter of trade disputes which will arise from time to time. Relying on unilateral trade sanctions with all the ripple effects that will have on global supply chains, that we feel will be a negative for global trade, negative especially for small countries like us.

The other theme which I found this year featured quite prominently was cyber space. I had a very interesting round table discussion with Dr. Henry Kissinger and CEOs of various companies. Artificial intelligence is transforming the way we operate, the way we analyse data, the way decisions will be made, the way productions chains will be created; transforming supply chains. In fact, the greater anxiety is the impact of artificial intelligence on human beings, our decision-making, our moral sensitivities, how rational and moral choices will be made. I made the argument that we are in the midst of a new technological revolution. And in the early phase, it is absolutely critical to try to understand what is going on. I explained to them why we are restructuring our education system, teaching everyone in school computational thinking, as an example. I explained our investments in SkillsFuture, so that adults can re-tool, re-skill, and be ready for the challenges of the future. Basically, to be ready for the new jobs, and to have the skills in place. This forward leaning attitude is ultimately more viable, in fact, it is probably the only sensible response, rather than a lilliputian attempt to hold back the tide of progress, or to build walls and barriers.

Whilst making that argument, I also shared with them the advanced persistent threat that was launched against our healthcare database. This was a clear and present example of a cyber-threat affecting critical infrastructure with potentially life and death implications. The conversations at the UN are still evolving. But I made the point that we do need a set of global universally accepted norms and rules, and we need the institutions, by which the disputes, the arguments can be resolved. So Singapore took the position that we supported the United Nations reconvening a global group of government experts, to elaborate these rules and norms. This has to be a bottom-up process, not something that a few powers with the technological advantage can impose on the rest of us. This is another example of the global commons. Just as the United Nations had developed the Law of the Sea, and just as we agreed the Paris Agreement for climate change, these are two examples of the global commons. Cyberspace is another example of the global commons, and we need to have universally applied and agreed rules. That was on the cyberspace side of it.

We also had separately, discussions on the regional level. We had the ASEAN meeting. ASEAN also had meetings with United States. We also had a meeting last night with UN Secretary General and the President of General Assembly. Inevitably, local regional issues came up. Obviously one salient, sensitive issue was the situation in the Rakhine State. The key point that ASEAN made to Myanmar in this meeting, was that we stand ready to help and that one key next step, is that repatriation, the safe, voluntary, dignified return of refugees needs to occur, and needs to occur soon. And that ASEAN would work with Myanmar to facilitate this process. This is something which we will have to watch in the next few weeks, next few months, to what extent that can be achieved.

The United States Vice President Pence, will be coming to Singapore in November. We look forward to him arriving in Singapore, giving him further briefings on the economic opportunities in a thriving Southeast Asia. The need for infrastructure, the opportunities for American investments, not just at a government level, but indeed in the private sector level. And also, building on the fact, that actually the American private sector has invested in Southeast Asia over the last fifty years, in a very major way. There are more American investments in Southeast Asia cumulatively than the sum total of American investments in India, China and Japan combined. The point is that, United States has a head start, they should not fritter away that lead, and should continue to double-down on investments here, create jobs, create trade prospects. This is a region that remains open, and inclusive. So it has been a very busy one week with lots and lots of issues that we have had to handle both bilaterally, regionally, and at global level.

Channel NewsAsia (Nick Harper): So I wanted to ask about North Korea which you mentioned during your General Assembly address, the representative from North Korea this morning said that they wouldn’t denuclearise until there was more trust coming from Washington.

I just wanted to hear your thoughts on his comments. What do you feel the next steps should be as the Americans are remaining very strong on sanctions must be kept in place?

Minister: Well, two points. One is that you do need strategic trust. Without a reservoir of trust and good faith, it is very hard to imagine progress or a breakthrough. But this is something that can only be done by the two parties. We are not party to that dispute. The rest of the world wishes them all the very best, but they do need to embark on at least some confidence building measures. They need sufficient trust so that they can make the leap of faith. I think what happened in Singapore in June is just the first step of what is going to be a very long and difficult journey.

ST: Are there any worries or concerns about the ramifications of the US-led sanctions offensive against Iran?

Minister: Well that did come up in discussions this week, I would say there is concern. We’ll have to watch how things unfold when the implementation actually bites. It’s too early to say and again as a small state that is not party to the dispute, obviously we hope that some agreement and again it comes back to the issue of trust and confidence building. But let’s not underestimate the enormous challenges involved in this.

But if you listen to President Trump’s speech, I think he sets out a certain coherent world view from Washington. We’ll have to see how this is translated in action. Because if you use North Korea as an example, this administration is capable of making very rapid, radical changes if it deems that is necessary, so we’ll have to wait and see. For the rest of the world we believe in multilateralism, we believe in the UN, we will comply with the UNSC resolutions. We hope cool heads will prevail.

CNA: I wanted to ask continuing that theme of multilateralism, your push, so many other countries push for multilateralism. When it comes to trade, we’ve got potentially the RCEP just around the corner with free trade at its bedrock, what threat do you feel protectionist policies pose to an idea like the RCEP?

Minister: Well, actually I made the point in my speech That trade policy, foreign policy begins at home. Meaning you have to focus on your own domestic preparations. For instance, if you believe that the world is transiting into a new platform technologically, you’ve got to prepare your own people for this - education, retraining. Because if you do not prepare domestically, then the argument against free trade becomes more compelling.

So my point is that, in fact, we all need to do our homework first. Uplift our capabilities, enhance the competitiveness of our economies, then at the same time proceed to liberalise and to have free trade because that is the only way that you’ll be able to truly harvest the benefits of free trade and at the same time deal with the legitimate anxieties of the domestic front. People all over the world want good jobs and they want to know that their children will have potentially even better jobs. So my point is that you can’t advocate for free trade without also focusing on your domestic preparation for uplifting your economy and your society. So that’s really a challenge, we’ve got to do this simultaneously.

ST: Just a quick follow up to the earlier theme of North Korea, there is some speculation that the will to implement the UNSC sanctions will be somewhat eroded because of the detente between the North and the South. Do you think there is still commitment in the global community?

Minister: Well I can’t speak for other countries. For Singapore, we will fully comply with the resolutions passed by the UNSC. That’s what a rules-based approach must be. But like I said, sanctions alone do not solve the problem. There needs to be dialogue, there needs to be confidence building, we need to have trust, and then at that point substantive mutual concessions or arrangements need to be made. So let’s not be hasty and more importantly we’re not party to that, so let’s wait and see.

CNA: I just want to talk about Myanmar as well. You mentioned before that it is very important for Singapore and ASEAN, the safe return of the refugees. That coupled with the UN Human Rights council’s vote this week to launch investigations to look into potential genocide charges for some of the top officials, how hopeful are you that both of those things can be achieved?

Minister: Well from an ASEAN perspective, we supported the appointment of the Independent Commission of Enquiry (established by the Government of Myanmar on 30 July 2018) and as I said just now we expect this enquiry to be conducted impartially, expeditiously, independently and hold people who are responsible fully accountable. That’s on the accountability side of it.

That’s not all. Right now there a million people suffering.  It is a humanitarian disaster and unacceptable in this day and age. These people need help and you need to make sure humanitarian assistance reaches them. We are also grateful to Bangladesh for hosting them in the interim. But the next step has to be repatriation, since there was an agreement signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh in November last year.

It is now September.

At some point in order to remain credible you have to see some movement, at least an initial wave of refugees on a voluntary basis. You need to see that they are able to move back in a dignified, safe manner. So that’s really the next step and it’s an important confidence building step, but we also have to be cognisant that the long term solution is a political solution.

Myanmar has to create a society where there is security, peace, justice, fairness and better prospects for everyone. Without that underlying foundation, we’re not going to solve a problem that has been around for two and half centuries. So we will do our best, but Myanmar has to exercise its responsibility. ASEAN stands ready to help.

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