Dr Balakrishnan also said he is glad to see the new Chinese foreign minister already engaging South-east Asia. Read more at straitstimes.com.
BEIJING - As the Ukraine war comes up to a year, the situation is worrying and could get worse before it gets better, said Singapore foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan.
Singapore, as a small, independent, sovereign city-state, has also taken a position based on principle. Describing the incident as a “setback” to interactions between the US and China, he said the face-to-face meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi on the sidelines of the recent Munich Security Conference will hopefully restore the “very necessary engagement, collaboration and cooperation” between the two countries.
In spite of the change in leadership at the Chinese foreign ministry, he said he expects China’s engagement in the region to continue and even speed up. “The political significance of this is at a time when globalisation is under strain, when free trade and economic integration is facing political pushback, for us as a region, and with a major economic partner like China to continue making progress in agreeing in upgrading economic ties, is strategically significant,” he said.
Calling Mr Qin a “very accomplished diplomat”, Dr Balakrishnan said he is glad to see the new Chinese foreign minister already engaging South-east Asia. Apart from Singapore, Mr Qin had also met the Thai and Cambodian foreign ministers in Beijing recently and is now on a visit to Indonesia.
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