MFA Press Release: Transcript of Keynote Address by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan at the 11th Japan-Singapore Symposium, International House of Japan, 26 April 2016

Thank you.

Your Excellency State Minister for Foreign Affairs Seiji Kihara

Ambassador Yoshiji Nogami, Ambassador Tommy Koh

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

1                  A very good morning to all of you. I am delighted to be here. It’s a privilege to be here. And let me begin by expressing our sympathies and condolences to the families affected by the recent earthquakes in Southern Japan. I told some of you yesterday that I can still fondly remember my visit to Kumamoto. I was there to sign the Minamata treaty. I remember visiting the castle, it’s a spectacular, majestic place. And to hear that it has been damaged by the earthquake, I can feel some of the pain which I’m sure the Japanese, and especially those living in the vicinity, feel for the loss of lives and for the damage to a historic structure. But you know, one of the enduring memories in my mind is of the Japanese spirit of resilience, of togetherness, of collective action.  I will always remember the sight of the Japanese victims of the earthquake in Tohoku - patiently queuing up, and not taking more than they need of the relief supplies, but making sure and looking out for one another. And I’m sure this spirit will prevail once again. On our part, as friends of Japan, we have made our offer to help in any way possible, and we stand ready, we stand by you.   

2                 Since the inaugural Japan-Singapore Symposium (JSS) - which I believe was held, the first one was in 1995, so that means it’s now 20 years - it has brought together leading figures, such as many of you in this room, opinion-shapers, people who understand what’s going on within Japan and Singapore, as well on an international stage, and to understand the complex interactions which occur between countries. The purpose of having this track is that you can be frank, you can be brutally honest with one another and say things which sometimes people in political office may have difficulty expressing so succinctly. So the point is, you play a crucial role in maintaining and growing this relationship. And Minister Kihara, I welcome your call just now for the JSS to be upgraded to an annual event, and I think since this is our 50th anniversary, this is as good a time as any to begin.

3                 50 years ago on this date – the 26^th of April – we established diplomatic ties between Singapore and Japan. And this is a significant milestone and I think it’s useful at this point to also take a look back and as well as to look forward to the next 50 years. Singapore and Japan enjoy excellent and multi-faceted ties. This is underpinned by regular high-level exchanges, strong and growing economic links, and a common strategic outlook.  But it is also important to remember how things started 50 years ago. Many Singaporeans remember Japan’s very impressive post-war reconstruction and your rapid economic growth from the 50s, 60s, all the way to where we are today.  Japan’s “economic miracle” has been admired by many.  And since our own independence in 1965, Japan has contributed greatly to Singapore’s development, from our early years of independence, our early attempts at industrialisation, and even up to where we are today.  Many Japanese companies set up presence in Singapore and made significant contributions.  You created jobs, transferred technology, you transferred know-how, you brought your networks, you brought your markets, you invested in our infrastructure.  Many Japanese companies made Singapore your regional headquarters, and I thought this quote from Mr Lee Kuan Yew was relevant. And he said, “The Japanese were thorough and careful before deciding to invest overseas, but once a decision was made, they went all out to ensure its success.” You see, the point is, you were thorough and careful before making a decision, but once you made a decision, you went all out.  And I think it was this spirit of the Japanese that Mr Lee Kuan Yew admired. And our two countries have been able to forge ahead and to deepen our economic cooperation.  And it is because Mr Lee and Singapore made a conscious decision to have a forward-looking relationship with Japan.  Our leaders decided to put our past behind us, so that successive generations, so that our children and grandchildren, could look forward to a brighter future together.   

4               This special relationship, this conscious decision, can be seen in the close relationships and ties that have existed between our leaders, from our founding Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his engagements with successive Prime Ministers and in fact with Their Majesties Emperor Hirohito and Empress Nagako in the past, and fast forward to today, to the close and - I can tell you - frank relationship which exists between Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Prime Minister Abe. We are appreciative that Prime Minister Abe took time off his busy schedule to personally attend Mr Lee’s State Funeral in March last year.  We are also grateful that the Japanese Government decided to confer the award, the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers, to the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew for his immense contributions to Singapore-Japan relations over many decades.  And I believe Mr Lee Hsien Loong himself would come to receive the award on [Mr Lee’s] behalf later on this year.

5               Over the past 50 years, the economic relationship has matured.  The Japan-Singapore Economic Partnership Agreement is the centre-piece of our economic relations.  The JSEPA was in fact Japan’s first-ever free trade agreement, and Singapore’s first with a major trading partner.  Since its entry into force in November 2002, which is now 14 years ago, the JSEPA has created many opportunities for businesses, it has promoted stability and predictability for business transactions, enhanced the mutual attractiveness of both markets. 

6                 And today, the JSEPA and the other economic cooperation continue to enable us to promote strong investment links.  Japan was Singapore’s 2^nd largest investor with a cumulative investment of about US$80 billion as at the end of 2014, while Singapore was also Japan’s 2^nd largest investor as of the end of 2015, with a cumulative investment of about US$18 billion.  Considering how small Singapore is, this is actually an impressive figure taken in our context. In the area of trade, Japan was Singapore’s 8^th largest trading partner in 2015, with bilateral trade reaching about US$35 billion.  Again, if you consider how small Singapore is, this is an impressive figure.

7                 Singapore and Japan also enjoy strong people-to-people links.  In 2015, we received close to 800,000 visitors from Japan.  In the same period, more than 300,000 Singaporeans visited Japan.  This is a 35% increase from the previous year.  If you bear in mind the fact that we only have 3.4 million citizens, what this means is that one in ten Singaporeans visited Japan just last year alone.  And therefore it should not surprise you that many Singaporeans count Japan as their top travel destination.  And to boost our tourism traffic further, the Japan National Tourism Organisation and the Singapore Tourism Board or STB have signed their first Memorandum of Cooperation in January this year. When I checked this, I wondered why after all these years, this is only the first cooperation agreement. I was told that as part of the SJ50 celebrations in Japan, STB together with the Japanese supermarket chains have launched a campaign to introduce Singapore’s food culture to the Japanese daily food scene. They have developed four popular Singapore dishes – prawn noodles, chicken rice, char kway teow and chicken curry. This is for those of you who miss Singapore. You can get these flavours now locally in Japan itself.

8                 Another example of our close people-to-people ties and Singaporeans’ affection for Japan was in the spontaneous outpouring of support  by Singaporeans following the 11 March Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011. This culminated in one of Singapore’s largest ever disaster relief contribution to a single country to date - and I believe about S$35.7 million, this is about 2.9 billion Japanese yen, was raised. In addition to the four completed rebuilding projects undertaken by the Singapore Red Cross, we have also committed to support six additional rehabilitation projects in the Tohoku region. These efforts have added a significant dimension to our warm and multi-faceted relationship. They symbolise the friendship and kizuna, or bonds, between the peoples of Singapore and Japan. I know Japan is well capable of rebuilding, reconstructing on its own but the fact that you have friends who spontaneously from their heart want to make a contribution speaks warmly for the people-to-people ties.

9                 So I think our two countries can be very proud of the progress and of the achievements we have made to date. But we should not take this for granted or rest on our laurels. The economic and even the security dimensions of our world have changed. Let’s take economic ties for example. Singapore and Japan now face a very different economic landscape from 2002 when we first signed the economic partnership agreement.  As both our countries undergo economic transformation, it will be important for both sides to examine how we can better leverage the economic partnership agreement as a means to contribute towards our respective economic strategies. We need a substantive conclusion of the 3^rd JSEPA Review which will further create opportunities for both Singapore and Japanese businesses and strengthen our trade and economic ties. We need not start from scratch but we can use the recently concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as the basis for further discussions. As Ambassador Tommy Koh mentioned just now, for both Japan and Singapore, we are trading nations. Trade is our lifeline and surely for the two of us, our own trade is of such paramount importance, we can show the way in proving and showing to the rest of the world the importance of economic integration and promoting free trade and we have to start with ourselves.

10               There is also room for us to work together in the air services sector, through the enhancement of our respective roles as aviation hubs in Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia by forging win-win partnerships. Further liberalisation of the Singapore Japan Air Services agreement will cement Singapore’s Changi Airport and Tokyo’s Narita and Haneda airports as the leading air hubs in our respective regions.  This will strengthen Japan’s connectivity with the ASEAN region and beyond. We will bolster our economic ties and further enhance tourism and people-to-people exchanges.  Such a venture, together with an upgrade of the economic partnership agreement, will allow us to commemorate significant milestones of the SJ50 in a substantive and befitting way.

11               Another area Singapore and Japan could look at to enhance is to improve our joint provision of technical assistance to third countries through the Japan-Singapore Partnership Programme for the 21^st Century.  We call this JSPP21. Both Singapore and Japan love acronyms. Since 1994, we have jointly trained close to 6,000 government officials from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific.  And these have included various fields including trade promotion, climate change,  intellectual property rights, disaster management amongst others. And as Singapore and Japan celebrate SJ50, not only should we ensure the continued relevance and attractiveness of our training programmes, we should continue to seek new areas of cooperation in our third country training programmes. And I am glad to hear that both sides have launched new training courses this fiscal year in the fields of food security and productivity for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

12               As we look forward to another 50 years, our two countries should continue to seek mutually beneficial areas of collaboration that would bring benefit to all our people. So for example, given the similar challenges we face, such as our ageing population and our low birth rates, we should collaborate and learn from each other. And this is an area, actually it is a fundamental strategic challenge to both of us, because never before in human history have societies had such low fertility rates, such prolonged life expectancy, and such high proportions of ageing.  This is an unprecedented challenge and Japan is at the leading edge of this challenge.  As I explained to our friends last night at dinner, we watch Japan very carefully because we know that anything that happens in Japan is about 20 years ahead what would occur to the rest of Asia. So if you look, for example, at this tsunami of grey hair that is confronting us – I remember one comment that Mr Lee Kuan Yew shared with us in Cabinet – he said if there was one society that would be able to solve these twin challenges of low fertility and a greying population, it would have to be Japan. And knowing Japan, it would probably be able to leverage technology or new technology to do it. So for instance, very young babies and very old adults are actually very difficult to care for. The difference is that babies are cute and those of us who are old are not necessarily as cute. But here’s the rub of it – feeding, changing, nursing, dressing, walking – the needs are just as intensive, for the very young, and for the very old. And if we don’t have a younger generation to look after us, or we don’t have enough young people to look after us, we have a significant challenge. I have been watching Japanese robotic developments.  People laugh about Japanese robotic pets but actually there is a more serious message behind that. Because the day will come, we will need robots with appropriate human characteristics to feed us, dress us, change us, clean us, be extensions for companionship, to monitor us for safety.  So in the area of smart nation initiatives - I am also here in my capacity as Minister-In-Charge of Smart Nation in Singapore - we are looking carefully at Japanese technology in this area of human machine interactions and humanising it so that it solves real human challenges for the future.  So there are rich areas of cooperation, for research and development in the fields of medical research and artificial intelligence, in robotics, ageing, healthcare, homecare, and these are areas which Japan is already quite advanced in.  I think there will be further breakthroughs, and we in Singapore are watching that very carefully. And we would hope to be able to bring some of that technology out beyond Japan, test it in a larger Asian context, and ultimately perhaps collectively we can access global markets.  This is a new growth area, whether people appreciate it or not.

13               Now let me move on to the bigger landscape of Japan’s engagement with the region, and here’s where it gets a bit sensitive.  There is a major shift in the global balance of power, and that shift is taking place right at our doorstep, or I should say, right at our adjacent seas.  As a Pacific power, the United States will remain engaged in our region, notwithstanding the rhetoric of the Presidential elections.  But we also know that China’s rise is transforming the regional landscape.  The US-China relationship therefore becomes the key bilateral relationship for those of us in the region, and indeed for the world as a whole.  We all know that the US intends to maintain its presence, its security and its economic presence, in our part of the world.  We know that the US intends to deepen its longstanding economic and political ties in our region.  I believe that China understands the role that the US plays in the Asia Pacific, but China also has its own aspirations, and China’s influence is growing, and therefore some element of competition between the two is inevitable.  But confrontation is not inevitable.  Fundamentally, the US and China have developed strong mutual interdependence, and therefore, I believe this makes all right-thinking leaders on both sides want to achieve constructive and stable ties between the US and China.

14               But apart from the US and China, it is well worth remembering that Japan is also integral to the stability, prosperity and stability of Asia. Japan is the world’s third largest economy. Japan has been a focal point in Asia, which if you think about its historical context, has often served as a focal point which has incorporated Western and other industrial technologies and mind-sets, given it an Asian complexion, applied it successfully in an Asian context. So the point I’m making is that Japan is part of this equation. It has been and it will be and we hope that Japan will continue its strategic engagement with South East Asia and Asia as a whole. Like Japan, Singapore also supports the US’ continued presence because we believe that the American presence in our part of the world has been a benign presence which has underpinned regional peace and stability and enabled other countries, including Singapore, to prosper in the last 50 years. For decades, the US-Japan Security Alliance has anchored the US’ presence in its region and provided Japan with a necessary sense of security and this has been a cornerstone for regional peace and prosperity. We therefore welcome the efforts that will strengthen the US-Japan Alliance including Japan’s contributions to the alliance’s framework, as articulated by Prime Minister Abe in his “Proactive Contribution to Peace” policy. I met Prime Minister Abe yesterday and I reaffirmed that in fact Singapore was one of the earliest supporters of Prime Minister Abe’s “Proactive Contribution to Peace” policy. We are confident that within the framework of the US-Japan Alliance, this new Peace and Security Legislation will further enable Japan to play a greater role in enhancing peace and stability in the region.

15               At the same time, it is important for countries in Northeast Asia to seek reconciliation and to move on. In this regard, we welcome the recent Japan and Republic of Korea agreement on the comfort women issue as well as the resumption of summit meetings between Prime Minister Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping.  Constructive, peaceful and cooperative relations between Japan and its immediate neighbours, China, Republic of Korea, and even the DPRK, will benefit the entire region. 

16               Singapore’s support for Japan’s engagement with the region, including ASEAN, is premised on our common strategic outlook and our mutual desire for peace and prosperity.  Our shared perspective is that it has been the regional peace in the Asia-Pacific over the last 50 years that has given all our countries the space and the opportunities to prosper. 

17               In this regard, Japan and other regional stakeholders need to work together with ASEAN to advance regional peace, stability and prosperity, and to uphold and protect a rules-based regional and international order – this part is worth emphasizing, a rules-based regional and international order.  The recent developments in the South China Sea have again raised concerns and sometimes tensions.  Singapore’s position on the South China Sea is clear and consistent.  As a non-claimant state, we do not take sides on the merits of the individual competing territorial claims. But we support the peaceful resolution of disputes, in accordance with international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS.  And of course, Professor Tommy Koh had a key role to play in UNCLOS. Like every state, for both Singapore and for Japan, every state whose trade passes through the South China Sea, or whose ships or aircraft use the South China Sea, both Singapore and Japan have an interest in upholding the right of freedom of navigation and over-flight.  We also support the full and effective implementation of the Declaration of Conduct in the South China Sea and the expeditious establishment of a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.  As a small country, Singapore has to believe that legal and diplomatic processes in accordance with universally accepted principles of international law, is the best arbiter of disputes between sovereign states because otherwise, you will have to accept the use or the threat of the use of force and we as a small state cannot accept that “might is right”.

18               So in our capacity as ASEAN-China Country Coordinator - this is a hot seat which we have to occupy for three years – Singapore is committed to working very closely with our ASEAN Member States and with China towards an expeditious conclusion of the Code of Conduct as well as any practical confidence-building measure that can reduce the risks of accidents at sea.  It was in this spirit that I recently suggested to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that ASEAN and China could work together towards an enhanced Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea - this is CUES for short, another acronym C-U-E-S - to prevent miscalculations on the ground and at sea and to perhaps also establish a 24/7 hotline for maritime emergency between the foreign ministries in order to maintain an open line of communication at all times. 

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

19               Before I end, I just want to make one further point to come back to what I said yesterday again.  That as we look back on the last 50 years, we are also celebrating the vision of one man - the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who decided 50 years ago that we had turned the page and we would close a painful chapter of history, and that we should look forward to the future.  And because of his forward-oriented, constructive approach, Japan played a very significant role in the industrialisation and in the development of Singapore and in turn, Singapore has been one of the staunchest and most reliable partners for Japan’s integration into Asia.  We have an excellent relationship based on trust and mutual respect. In fact, we hope that Japan’s relationships with all other Asian countries will be just as strong as that between Japan and Singapore.  If this can be achieved through the exercise of political will and imagination, then Asia as a whole, will become more peaceful, more prosperous, and more integrated. 

20               So as we look forward to the next 50 years of our bilateral relations, what binds Japan and Singapore is our ability to look forward, to continuously evolve and strengthen our relationship, not only on the  bilateral front but also working together towards the common pursuit of peace, stability and prosperity for our region.  So we can look back with pride at the last 50 years, with pride on the progress of the Japan-Singapore relationship, but we can also look forward with confidence to the next 50 years.  I believe that all of you attending this Symposium will be able to continue this frank exchange of views and I am sure you will bring our relationship to an even higher plane in the years to come.  So I wish all of you a good discussion and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you have done for the relationship between Japan and Singapore. Thank you all very much.

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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

SINGAPORE

26 APRIL 2016