MFA Press Statement: Working Visit by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan to Washington DC and New York, United States of America, 4 to 8 June 2017

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan delivering remarks at the American Jewish Committee Global Forum, 5 June 2017 (Photo Credit: MFA)

                Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, who is currently visiting Washington DC, met with Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan on 6 June 2017.  During the meeting, Minister Balakrishnan and Deputy Secretary Sullivan reaffirmed the excellent state of Singapore-US relations, underpinned by strong economic and defence relations, as well as close people-to-people ties. Minister Balakrishnan and Deputy Secretary Sullivan also exchanged views on developments in the Asia-Pacific region.

                Minister Balakrishnan had separate meetings with a bipartisan group of Members of Congress on 5 and 6 June 2017.  Minister Balakrishnan met with Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Air Power Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy Senator Cory Gardner (R-Colorado), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy Senator Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts), Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Congressman Edward Royce (R-California), and Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific Congressman Theodore Yoho (R-Florida).  Minister also attended a reception for the members of the bipartisan Congressional Singapore Caucus led by Representatives Bradley Byrne (R-Alabama) and Dennis Heck (D-Washington).

                In his meetings on Capitol Hill, Minister Balakrishnan welcomed Congress’ efforts in supporting the US’ continued engagement of Asia and highlighted the strategic and economic importance of the region to the US.  The Members of Congress also affirmed Singapore’s close partnership with the US and discussed regional and international developments with Minister Balakrishnan.

                Minister Balakrishnan also spoke at the American Jewish Committee Global Forum World Leaders Plenary on 5 June 2017.  In his remarks, Minister Balakrishnan affirmed Singapore’s close ties and mutually beneficial relations with the US and Israel.  He also spoke about the importance of sustained US engagement of Southeast Asia and ASEAN given the region’s growing economic and strategic importance, as well as the benefits of stable Sino-US relations.  A transcript of Minister Balakrishnan’s remarks is enclosed.

                Minister Balakrishnan will meet Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy Dina Powell, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee John McCain (R-Arizona), and Co-Chair of the ASEAN Congressional Caucus Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) on 7 June 2017.  After Washington DC, Minister Balakrishnan will travel to New York, where he will attend the High-Level UN Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 (The Ocean Conference).

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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

SINGAPORE

6 JUNE 2017

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EDITED TRANSCRIPT OF REMARKS BY MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS DR VIVIAN BALAKRISHNAN AT THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE’S (AJC) GLOBAL FORUM WORLD LEADERS PLENARY, 5 JUNE 2017 AT 1835 HRS

AJC Asia Pacific Institute Director Shira Loewenberg: Your most recent visit was just last month for the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ meeting hosted by Secretary Tillerson and you’ve made this third trip especially for us, so thank you. (Applause) I think the fact that you have done so is really reflective of AJC’s warm relationship with Singapore. It reflects also our appreciation and recognition of the importance of your friendship with the United States, with Israel and your importance in a region of expanding importance in the world. There are many subjects that we need to cover tonight and we’d like to cover in limited time. I’d like to first, before we delve into the questions, offer you an opportunity to set the stage for us and let us know what’s on your mind.

Minister: Let me quickly first tell you how small Singapore is. I don’t know how many of you have been there, we’re about two-thirds the size of New York City, or one-twelfth the size of Cyprus. (Laughter). We have only been independent for 51 years but the story of Jews in Singapore actually goes back 200 years. For some reason, which I haven’t been able to figure out yet, the early Jewish families in Singapore 200 years ago all came from Baghdad. I haven’t figured out why. They were illustrious, hardworking, high-achieving – but I guess that’s standard, right? (Laughter) In fact, so much so that when the British started with self-government for Singapore in the 1950s, the first Chief Minister of Singapore was a Baghdadi Jew, David Saul Marshall (Applause). Not sure how many other countries can claim that, not many.

After we got full independence in 1965 and we needed to establish the Armed Forces, our founding Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew wrote to several countries.  Only one country replied. Guess who? Israel. (Applause) I share this story because again, it illustrates the point that a friend in need is a friend indeed, and that has been one key reason for this very close, intimate relationship that we’ve had with Israel all these years. Because when we were small, inconsequential and didn’t matter, you didn’t ignore us.

The other point is that over the years, obviously the relationship has grown. It had to be somewhat low-profile, because we live in an interesting, sometimes tough neighbourhood. Not as tough as Israel, (Laughter) but challenging enough. And the first visit to Singapore by a sitting Israeli Head of Government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, occurred just earlier this year, and in fact my Prime Minister had for the first time made a visit as Prime Minister, to Israel in April last year. And I thought I would share with you some personal reflections. It was a very moving, profound visit, for me. We started off from Jordan, went up to Mount Nebo, to just get some idea of what the Promised Land could have looked like.

We then went to the Jordan River, the Baptismal site, Al Maghtas, crossed the Allenby Bridge, went to Jerusalem, saw the Western Wall, went up to Temple Mount, Dome of the Rock, Al Aqsa Mosque, and the other parts of the Old City, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. You would be surprised, even for an Asian. I’m of mixed ancestry, Indian and Chinese.  It was a profoundly moving experience. But one point which kept reverberating in my mind as I was up the Temple Mount was how much blood must have been shed over millennia for that holy site. And it humbled me.

And the second thought which has been buzzing in my mind, is that if you think about the story of the Jewish people, and the enormous suffering that they have sustained, one key conclusion I made, which is perhaps even more relevant today, is that identity is unique. Yes we are all created in the image of God, but we all have unique identities. And one special magic of the Jewish people is that you’ve been able to keep your identity. Despite being a very small group, despite enormous trials and tribulations, you’ve kept your identity.

And the second point, is that if you look at your suffering and your survival, it’s a reminder that we need to have universal protection of minorities. If you fast forward to the world of today, you’ll see that for most of human history, we’ve lived and are surrounded by people who are related to us, who live like us, smelt like us, ate like us, pretty much the same as us. But now in this day and age, with the Internet and jet travel, suddenly all of us are now acutely aware that we are a minority. It applies particularly in Singapore, because although 75 percent of the population have ancestry from China, another 6, 7 percent from India, 15 percent from the Malay Archipelago, as far as religion is concerned, everyone is a minority. I can’t help reflecting that even today, I’m not sure if we are going to talk about terrorism, fundamentalism, and the rest of it, but in fact, one key story, one key lesson that the Jewish story has for the world, is the importance of protecting minorities, of respecting the need for a unique identity, and at the same time, having universal respect. If we can learn that right lesson, many of the challenges that we face can be solved.

Loewenberg: That is certainly something that holds not only in Asia but around the world.

Minister: I couldn’t help noticing that we started off the session with the Star Spangled Banner. Here we are in the AJC and you are all singing it.

Loewenberg: Well we are an American organisation…

Minister: Exactly. So the point is that we all have multiple identities and we should not be forced to choose one or the other, and that in the end is the problem with extremism. (Applause)

Loewenberg: I would like to pick up on your first point when you were speaking about the important visit to, the reciprocal visits of the Prime Ministers when Prime Minister Lee visited Israel, and then more recently in February, Prime Minister Netanyahu to Singapore.  It is a very significant visit. It was the first time for an Israeli Prime Minister to be in Singapore. Can you talk a little bit about the significance of that visit and some of the accomplishments from it and some of the sensitivities around it?

Minister: Well first the sensitivities. As I’ve said just now we have had a long relationship. And it’s been a relationship grounded on strategic trust. Clearly there has been training. I myself have had the privilege of receiving training from the Israeli advisors. In fact, in 1965, we used to call the Israeli advisors “Mexicans”. That was the code word. (Laughter) But then it comes back to my point about respecting minorities. So yes, it has been sensitive. It’s taken us several decades before we could have a sitting Prime Minister of Singapore and a sitting Prime Minister of Israel exchange visits. The significance is that, I believe, Asia has moved on and our neighbours are able to accept the fact that we have a special relationship and that it’s based on trust and it’s a constructive relationship. There are many things that we admire about Israel. Look at the start-up scene. Israel has only a population of about eight million but the start-ups, just in 2015 alone, were able to attract around US$2.6 billion in venture capital. To put things in context, Germany, which has 10 times the population of Israel, its start-ups were able to attract venture capital of US$2.9 billion. The point here is that Israel, for some reason, always manages to punch above its weight. And it’s no surprise that we’ve got investments in Israeli start-ups and, Israeli companies. I think there are nearly 300 that are based in Singapore, and they are really using the presence in Singapore as a portal, as an interface with Southeast Asia. So the point is that there has been over many decades, an exchange of ideas, personnel of talent, military, academic, start-ups, and entrepreneurs. This is something which we want to encourage and to continue to build. The other point is, because we live in a part of the world where there is a Muslim majority, we also hope that this will also eventually help build confidence, help build trust. Prime Minister Netanyahu indicated that Israel is also looking for an Arabic voice to engage and expand into actions on a larger stage, to get beyond the zero-sum games and the lack of trust.

Loewenberg: With Singapore, is it able?

Minister: Yes, into the rest of Asia. So that’s what we’re offering. You can come to Singapore you’d feel at home. The synagogues are there. Functionally, you can do everything that you want there. You can celebrate all the festivals including the Passover and the Yom Kippur. You are also integrated into a multi-cultural, multi-racial country.

Loewenberg: As you know, AJC delegations have visited Singapore in the last decade and we hope to visit again very soon. I’d like to turn a little bit to the US-Singapore relationship. Your colleague, Ambassador-at-Large Kausikan, has said that in Asia, trade is strategy.

Minister: Yes.

Loewenberg: And not so long ago, the United States pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was a great blow to Singapore. It was a blow to many other countries who were signatories, including Japan and Vietnam, whose leaders put a lot of political capital in signing on to that agreement. AJC supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership.  We believed that it was favourable to the United States. As importantly, or more importantly, it demonstrated American leadership and commitment in the region. The United States has pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. I think we would appreciate hearing your perspective on what that means, and what the future holds.

Minister: Let me give you a very frank response. It’s a great disappointment. First let me speak as Singapore. We’ve actually had a Free Trade Agreement with the United States since 2004. In this period of time, the United States’ exports to Singapore – as far as services are concerned – doubled; goods – increased by  at least 70 per cent. When my Prime Minister spoke to President Trump, we took pains to remind President Trump that the United States runs a big surplus against Singapore. But we are not complaining. The reason we are not complaining is because we believe in free trade and economic integration; creating interdependence; collaboration; and win-win outcomes.  This is the way to go to secure peace and prosperity.

I say this as a country where trade is three-and-a-half times our GDP. So for us, this is not a debating point or a posture on stage. Trade is our lifeblood. Yes, we were key advocates and believers in the TPP, not because it gave us any – I mean the benefits to Singapore would have been marginal because we already have a bilateral FTA, and as I have said, it has been doing well. But we believe in TPP with key American participation, because it signalled American engagement with the Asia-Pacific. Many of you in this audience must be businessmen, you would know that there are numerous opportunities in Asia and even in Southeast Asia. When Vice-President Mike Pence went to Jakarta two months ago, he made a speech. He said that more than a hundred billion dollars’ worth of US exports, goods and services go to Southeast Asia; Southeast Asia supports about half a million US jobs. American investment in Southeast Asia runs at about US$270 billion.  The amazing thing is that America has more investments in Southeast Asia than it has combined in India, China and Japan. I mean I was shocked. There is actually more in Southeast Asia than you have invested in India, China and Japan. The point is, there are lots of opportunities out there, and for America not to take full advantage of that to enter into a multilateral, win-win regional trading agreement.  To me, it’s a real pity. You’re missing out on opportunities. But actually beyond just the dollars and cents, we believe this is of strategic importance. In fact, the strategy is more important than economics and certainly more important than military direction. Because again if you think about it, there’s no reason for the 7^th Fleet unless you have got something to defend. And we have passed the age of colonisation. What we are now is at the age of globalisation. The real benefit of globalisation is when you reach the age of interdependence and it is in our mutual interest to invest in each other, have good relations, build up trust, build up collaboration. So we think it’s a great pity because it’s a missed opportunity to build an inclusive, fair and open architecture, which we believe would have secured peace and prosperity for both America and Asia.

Loewenberg:  The US is not a signatory [to the Trans-Pacific Partnership].  So people say that it creates an opening for China and people say that it is a retreat of the United States, it is not demonstrating their intention in the region. What are the steps…

Minister: Well, the first step is not to look at this as a zero-sum game or as a pure contest between the United States and China, because separately the ASEAN countries are negotiating with China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand for another large regional free trade agreement called the RCEP, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. We love acronyms in Asia.

Loewenberg: Chinese initiative?

Minister: No, it’s an ASEAN initiative.  And what it does is that ASEAN already has free trade agreements with these six partners, and we are putting it together into one large mother free trade agreement. It will include probably about 45 percent of the world’s population, one-third of the world’s GDP. It will not be as ambitious as the TPP but in terms of scope, it’s even wider than the TPP.  But Singapore has participated actively in both because we try to avoid zero-sum games. What we are really after is to put these two pieces together, the TPP and the RCEP, and construct a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific.  Again, it comes back to our fundamental belief – creating interdependence, mutual investments as a recipe for peace and prosperity.  It’s a pity that the United States has pulled out but the remaining members of the TPP are exploring ways to continue, to go ahead, to ratify. And if everyone can agree to proceed without reopening of the text, we will happily sign on to the TPP-11. But we will still hope that at some point, the United States will come back.

Loewenberg:  AJC travels regularly to Asia. Since I have been the Director of the Asia Pacific Institute, we’ve had many delegations to many countries in Asia, and consistently, the subject of the US commitment to the region has come up.  And to be fair, this was formerly under the Obama Administration and more recently during the Presidential Election and with President-elect Trump. During the election, there were bombastic statements that were made, there were statements distancing ourselves from our traditional allies. With the new administration, there has been some distancing and some reassurances that have been given by President Trump as well as visits by Secretary Mattis, by Secretary Tillerson. Singapore’s reading of this - are you confident in the US maintaining a robust presence and interest in your region?

Minister: Let me take a step back and if you look at the period from the end of the Second World War until today. We have had 70 years where you saw the Berlin Wall fall, you saw the clear benefits of free markets, open economies, global integration, so much so that in 1989 or in the early 90s, Francis Fukuyama declared it “the end of history”, which of course was hubris. But the point is that these 70 years have actually been a golden age, not absolute peace but certainly for Asia, we have had peace, we have had prosperity. If you look at what’s happened in China and in India, hundreds of millions of people have been lifted from abject poverty, and because we are interdependent, it really doesn’t make sense for major conflict to occur.

Having said that, I think the problem for those of us who are advocates of free trade is that we have not paid enough attention to the asymmetrical impact it has on the different segments of society. That means there are some people at a local level who are at risk of being left behind, who are not equipped, trained or qualified to harvest the fruits of this brave new integrated world. Here is where we need to get the balance between domestic policies to make sure that no one is left behind, and get that balance with open and free trade on an international level. What we are seeing right now is there is a mood in many societies of anxiety, of fear, of envy. Middle class wages have stagnated. Many middle class white collar jobs are disappearing, not because of trade but actually because of technology, and because politicians and our responses have not been sufficiently convincing and reassuring to the local populations. There has been a revolt, a retreat from globalisation. Our anxiety is that we will end up with the worst of both worlds. We will reject free trade and economic integration with all the benefits that they bring to peace and prosperity. At the same time, it is easy to express anger, much harder to restructure the economies, retool your people, provide new skills, and change your education system. In fact, the Industrial Revolution took 250 years but the education as we know it only really transformed in the late 1800s, from 1865 to the early 1900s. 

So we changed our education systems to meet the challenge of the Industrial Revolution. We now have a Digital Revolution and I think we have not transformed our education systems radically and quickly enough. If you take another example from the end of the Second World War, there were two key things. The US and the G.I. Bill, which provided education to all the returning veterans, and that led to a golden age because they were given new skills, and they were able to harvest the fruits of the post-Second World War, and that’s why you saw the middle class emerge. The other key thing that happened after the Second World War was the Marshall Plan. In fact, it’s ironic that the so-called losers of the war – Japan and Germany - and a lot of Europe, were key beneficiaries of this Marshall Plan. The point here for both the G.I. Bill and the Marshall Plan was uplifting people and giving them skills, qualifications which were relevant and met the challenges of the time. We believe that we are at such a moment, an inflection. There is a new revolution, there are new requirements for education, skills, and training. If we make the right choices and prepare our people and make sure safety nets are in place, and we don’t give up on free markets, open economies and economic integration, then perhaps we will see a new global village.

But it’s very hard to stand in a political rally and win votes on this kind of arguments. But in Singapore, that is what we are focused on. Strong domestic focus is on economic restructuring. Trying to decide where the new jobs are, what kind of start-ups will have a chance, what new technologies. We are investing heavily in infrastructure, connectivity, and broadband, because Singapore is so small, it’s easy for me to guarantee that we’ll have the best infrastructure in the world. We are reworking our education system so that it deals not only with kids preparing for pre-employment, but dealing with adults who need to get a second job, or a third job, because it’s likely that all of us will have multiple  jobs in the future.

Loewenberg: Minister, we are running out of time and still I have a long list of things that I wish that I could cover with you. But I would be remiss if I did not ask a question about China before we leave. Your predecessor Foreign Minister Shanmugam was on this stage, and he spent a great deal of time talking about China and the attention that needs to be paid to China. Could you comment on that and perhaps make some concluding remarks about China, the China-US relationship and how it fits in with Singapore and ASEAN?

Minister: What do the Chinese people and the Jewish people have in common? An identity which transcends thousands of years. In fact, a thousand years ago, if you ask which civilisation had paper, the printing press, gun powder, the sextant, ocean-going fleets, it was China.  China missed out on the Industrial Revolution. Because of that, it went through some two centuries of humiliation. It’s not going to make that same mistake again. So, what does China want? China wants to be number one again. When China was strong and united in human history, it usually generated about 30 percent of global GDP. So there’s no question about China’s ambition and China’s capacity. That’s what it is aiming for. The key challenge now is that for the last 70 years, we have been used to a unipolar world – one tent-pole called the United States of America. The key question now is what do you do with China. And not far behind China, most people don’t realise that the population of India is going to exceed that of China within the next few years. And then what’s going to happen to Europe? My sense is that we are actually moving into a multipolar world, and the question then is how do we secure the peace in a multipolar world? Which is why I come back to this issue about trying to learn the prime lesson of the story of the Jewish people. An incredibly blessed and talented people, but almost always in history, a minority. If you try to impose uniform identities and try to straitjacket everyone, you are building walls and conflict. If we accept that we are all minorities but we all want a better world, and we have mutual respect and we protect minorities, and yet we still have a world where we can transact, we can engage and interact in peace and in mutual respect, we can have a golden age. I’m not saying that because I’m here at AJC. But I think this is a lesson for the whole world from the story of the Jewish people. 

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