Sep 24, 2010Originally Posted at Today OnlineSingapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke to The Wall Street Journal ahead of the summit today between leaders of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) and United States President Barak Obama. These are excerpts of the interview.
WSJ: I want to ask you about the summit. Specifically why the broader push to have these regular US-Asean summits? Why are these important for you guys?
PM Lee: Because the US is one of the most important international relationships for Singapore and also for Asean. We are in Asia - Asia is booming, China is a big story and a major trading partner for us, but China is not the whole story. Even on trade, where our exports go to China, a lot of it is processed and re-exported and ends up finally in America and Europe and the developed countries.
But America plays a role in Asia which China cannot replace, and nobody can replace, because of the history since the Second World War, because of its security contributions maintaining the peace in the region, and influencing the region in many benevolent ways - technology, foreign investments, culture, soft power. Many young people go to America to be educated - even from China. And Singapore sees America as continuing to have a role in the region.
So that is from our side. From America's side, China is the biggest story in Asia and is their most important bilateral relationship in the world. But in Asia, it is important for America to have relations not just with China but also the other countries - Japan, of course, also South-east Asia. America has many friends here, it has many interests here, and it has many investments here.
It is an account which should grow, and it is necessary in order to complement America's relationship with China, and keep the region open and accessible to all parties.
WSJ: You talked about the relationship with US vis-à-vis China. I mean, China has become a much more important figure, economically, politically, in every possible, measurable way, in the last five or ten years. Has that changed the relationship, I mean is it more important now to be closer to US than vice-versa?
PM Lee: For us, China is a given in our foreign relationships. The US has also been a given, until now, and we believe that for a stable architecture in the region, the US has to be part of the story. If it is only a China story, I believe that it is not good for Asia and not good for China, because for Asia, you would be dependent on one source of prosperity, vibrancy, tourism.
For the overall configuration, if the Americans do not have a big stake in the region, or the Europeans do not have a big stake in the region, the chances of a bloc forming, or a rivalry across the Pacific, grows.
Whereas if the Americans are present here, the cooperation is trans-Pacific and it links the whole network closer together and makes it less likely that you are going to have a split down the middle of the ocean.
WSJ: I am not sure what you mean when you say 'a split down the middle of the ocean'. Can you explain that?
PM Lee: If America has friends in the region, and interests in the region - in Japan, in Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam - then Asia and America, will form one cooperative framework, one cooperating, wider economic area.
If we did not have that, and Asian countries were all in a China orbit and we exported just to China, did business mainly with China and had a relationship exclusively with China, then if there is some friction or some other problem between the US and China - which cannot be ruled out, it is bound to happen from time to time - we are all part of that problem.
And the chances of all of us in Asia being seen by America as being a rival and a competitor and a threat are much greater.
But if you have investments here, if you have business here, then you will see us as friends and part of the solution, not part of the problem.
WSJ: Were you surprised by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's remarks in Hanoi, particularly on the South China Sea? Was that the right policy for the US?
PM Lee: I think the US has always had an interest in the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, as well as the peaceful resolution of disputes, and in accordance with UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea). As for how she expressed it - well, I do not know if other countries would have expressed it in that way. But I think it was a useful reminder. The question is how to maintain a stance that is consistent, firm, and yet not confrontational.
The problem is not going to be solved anytime soon. Many countries have claims, Singapore does not, but Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, China all have claims. And if you read them, they all have long stories and histories behind it.
So I do not see any claimant, anytime soon, saying: "In the interest of being friends with our neighbours, we will abandon all this."
Neither do I see them, soon, going to The Hague or some international forum and having a group of wise men adjudicate, and then peace, or at least harmony breaks out. All these overlapping claims are going to be maintained for a long time, hopefully without the matter being pressed to breaking point by any side.
WSJ: You pointed out that it could take a long time to settle these disputes. Are we moving in the right direction or the wrong direction? Was the Hanoi declaration, or whatever that comes out on Friday, do you sense that things are going in the right direction or the wrong direction?
PM Lee: I think it is hard to say from one pronouncement whether things are changing direction or going in the right or wrong direction. What is helpful is for the US to have a long-term interest in the region, and to sustain that whatever the political cycle or climate is, and whatever the other preoccupations of the day may be to America.
If you go back a quarter century, the US had a presence in Clark Air Base in the Subic Bay in the Philippines, and that was from the region's point of view an extremely positive thing.
Unfortunately that came to an end, and Singapore did a little bit, by way of hosting a few US military facilities and allowing their ships to transit here. But we are not, in any sense, a replacement for Clark or Subic.
But it is important for the US to maintain sustained engagement in the region, not just engagement in the South China Sea but engagement with the Asean countries. Asean is 10 countries, and quite a disparate association.
Not all 10 are totally like-minded, because between Laos and Cambodia, to Singapore and Malaysia, it is quite a range. So it is a management-intensive exercise to maintain such a relationship even amongst ourselves, never mind our partners.
But it is important that America does this, and across a wide range of areas, so people know that America is a power, which is a Pacific power, and here to stay. The Bush administration had the right instincts, pursued the right lines but I think did not have enough bandwidth, or close enough focus to actually make many things happen.
WSJ: There is a perception that South-east Asia - it may not necessarily include Singapore in this equation but I suspect in some people's minds it would - is trying to draw the US back in, essentially as a hedge against China?
PM Lee: We are quite clear, and have said this explicitly, that we want a very good relationship with China, we want to deepen our cooperation, but we believe it is a plus for us all that China is prospering and becoming a more significant participant in the world.
But China is not the only story and for Asia, for South-east Asia, it is good if India is also prospering, and it is also important that America continues to be part of our geopolitical scene.
