Transcript of Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan’s doorstop Interview with Singapore Media in Beijing on 12 June 2017

CNA: Minister, can you talk about what was discussed in the meetings in the afternoon?

Minister: Well, let me summarise the last two days actually. I think I had an excellent series of meetings. I had the privilege of meeting Vice President Li Yuanchao, met State Councillor Yang Jiechi and of course Foreign Minister Wang Yi. They were all very welcoming, very warm and we reviewed the state of our bilateral relations as well as ASEAN-China relations. First on bilateral relations, we agreed that the Singapore-China relations are in good working order, very strong, based on a very solid foundation that goes back four decades. And there is also great potential to do more together. So we reviewed the figures.

First, Singapore has been the largest foreign investor in China for the last four years. China obviously is our biggest trading partner. The trading figures, the numbers still looked good. We reviewed the three G-to-G projects in Suzhou, Tianjin, Chongqing. All of them are doing well. Each of them in its own way represents a paradigm of development which is relevant, not only at the time when it is started but continues to be relevant today. We also affirmed that the meeting next week - which is another round of negotiations for upgrading the China-Singapore FTA - is also proceeding and proceeding well. We then looked at the opportunities that the Belt and Road will present to Singapore and Singapore companies.  

On this, Foreign Minister Wang Yi put up three recommendations which I agreed with. The first was to build this high-level platform for connectivity. Basically to build a network that spans and interconnects China, Central Asia, Europe and Southeast Asia; and obviously Singapore is the heart of Southeast Asia. The second was to build a platform for financial support for the Belt and Road initiative, because you know that if you add up all the capital that is needed for the infrastructure and connectivity, it’s a very large number. China hopes to take advantage of the fact that Singapore is already a well-established financial centre. It has the track record for being able to finance and to assess major projects; that Singapore can also play a role in helping to mobilise the capital that’s needed for the Belt and Road.

The third area where he suggested and I agreed that we could do more together with is on training, building human resource development and technology transfer for third countries who are also involved in or want to be involved with Belt and Road projects. If you add up all these things, it works out to quite a significant list of where we will have to get our officials from different ministries and agencies to sit down together and work on it. So, we are going to be very busy on that front. 

On the ASEAN front, we also reviewed the situation and we are quite satisfied. Singapore is the China-ASEAN coordinator until the middle of next year. Things are going well.  The situation in the South China Sea is calm. We have made significant progress in settling the framework for the COC.  The MFA hotline is operational and also, we have substantially settled the CUES, which is the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea. So basically, it’s calm and that’s an important confidence measure, which allows ASEAN to focus on the larger strategic long term plans.  

The first thing is we reaffirm our commitment to try to expand ASEAN-China trade to one trillion US dollars a year, which is a stretch target because we want to try to get that done by 2020.  Also, the increase in mobilised bilateral investments between China and ASEAN to about 150 billion US dollars. Related to that, of course, we also affirm the fact that we all want to try to accelerate or to catalyse the negotiations for the RCEP, which is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.  This will be a very large free trade agreement. It will include about 45 percent of the world’s population, 30 percent of the world’s GDP.  If we can settle this, meaning a free trade area that includes the entire ASEAN, that will include China, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India.  This will be a very significant development.  I think especially at this point of global development when questions are being asked about the relevance of free trade - for us to be able to settle this and make a statement that free trade and economic integration is still the way to promote peace and prosperity is a very important and significant thing.

We will also look at ensuring that there is complementarity between the Belt and Road initiative on one hand and the ASEAN Master Plan for Connectivity on the other hand. So these are again areas where there is a very strong positive agenda. So all in all, it’s been a good visit and I am glad to say that it’s all systems go, green lights, and we’ll proceed on that basis. 

LHZB: Minister, can I ask about the three platforms that you talked about?

Minister: Yes.

LHZB: Because the connectivity one, we already have Chongqing.

Minister: Yes.

LHZB: The financial one - what exactly are we doing? Because if it’s just funding…

Minister: Well, for that again, you’ll have to take stock of the current situation. Currently, according to the Chinese’s own data, if you look at investment flows from China outwards into Belt and Road countries, one-third of it flows through Singapore anyway. In fact, if you look at the reverse flow which is investments from Belt and Road countries into China, Singapore accounts for 85 percent of it.

So, the first key point is that Singapore is already a major player, as far as financing for the Belt and Road is concerned. But what we are looking at, is to look for complementarities between the larger schemes, and to see how Singapore, as a separate financial centre in our own right and with a reputation for reliability, trustworthiness, due diligence, can help mobilise even more sources of capital for these projects. So we will still have to work through the specifics. But the key point here is to help mobilise more capital. And you would have recalled that Minister Lawrence Wong spoke last week about the need for more bankable projects; and you need the ability to be able to assess those projects and then to link up capital to those projects.  So it's an area which Singapore has a headstart in, Singapore has some natural advantages in, and we can play a significant role. 

ST: Going back a little bit to ASEAN relations, so was the COC mentioned in your discussions today?

Minister: Yes, of course, we discussed. They were all very happy that the framework for the COC has been settled. And as I said before, these are important confidence building measures. It shows that we will not allow single issues, or even difficult issues, to derail the agenda for the long-term strategic opportunities. And that's very, very important.

ST: So is there any timeline discussed beyond August?

Minister: Well, we have to get it endorsed first in August. But, you know the point here is to do it step-by-step. You can't resolve everything straight away, but you can build confidence and with that confidence as a platform, you can proceed with collaboration on strategic long term projects.

ST: And on bilateral ties, are there any plans for high-level meetings this year?

Minister: Watch this space. Alright, thank you.

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