Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) yesterday called for greater integration between Southeast Asian nations at a time when multilateralism is under threat.
His remarks came at a business summit on the sidelines of meetings this week between the 10-member ASEAN and external partners, including the US and China, which are in a dispute over trade.
“ASEAN has great potential, but fully realizing it depends on whether we choose to become more integrated and work resolutely towards this goal in a world where multilateralism is fraying under political pressures,” Lee said at the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit.
Photo: Reuters
Lee has previously said that the US-China trade dispute could have a “big, negative impact” on Singapore, and the city-state’s central bank has said it could soon drag on growth.
Meanwhile, US Vice President Mike Pence said that US President Donald Trump’s absence at the summits was not a snub.
Pence arrived in Tokyo yesterday, with his trip to take him to Singapore and Papua New Guinea.
He faces the challenge of reassuring allies about US policy toward Asia.
The US’ commitment to the Indo-Pacific region “has never been stronger,” Pence told reporters in Alaska on Sunday night en route to Tokyo.
Trump’s decision to skip the event is “not in the least” a snub, Pence said, adding that the president is “where the American people would want him” in Paris for World War I commemorations.
Trump became the first US president not to attend an ASEAN summit since 2013, when then-US president Barack Obama canceled his visit to deal with a US government shutdown.
Pence has the president’s full backing and plans to announce several new initiatives during his week-long trip, a senior US administration official said.
They include bilateral, trilateral and possibly larger initiatives that cover the digital economy, energy and infrastructure, said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
As the top representative from the world’s largest economy, Pence is to have an audience with several world leaders interested in hearing more about US policy.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS