A continued lack of strategic trust between the US and China could create an “escalatory spiral” that leads to a potential mishap between the two nations at a time when tensions are flaring over Taiwan, Singaporean Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan said on Friday.
“The key missing ingredient in this relationship, from the perspective of a dispassionate third country, is that there is a lack of strategic trust between the United States and China,” he said in New York at an event hosted by the Asia Society, according to prepared remarks.
“I think the ultimate focal point for this is the Taiwan Strait, which is the reddest of red lines for Beijing,” he said.
Photo: Reuters
Balakrishnan said he has observed on four separate trips to China in the past year that “attitudes have become more assertive,” with a strong and growing nationalism and more “muscular” actions to defend international interests.
“As China’s strategic and economic influence has grown, so has their sense of vulnerability,” given that communist regimes must respond to “the anxieties and the zeitgeist of their own societies,” he said.
“There can be no good outcome for us in Asia if our countries are forced into two camps with a line in between,” Balakrishnan said.
Photo: Reuters
He spoke on other issues at the meeting.
On the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, he said it “very studiously avoids any mention of market access.”
“To the extent that it reflects US acknowledgment that there are opportunities out across the Pacific and continued engagement — that is positive,” Balakrishnan said. “Singapore will stand fully shoulder to shoulder on this endeavor. But you need to do more — that is the message.”
“Foreign policy and trade policy begins at home. You have got to embark on the necessary reform and investment in your domestic capacity,” he said. “You need to build up social and political capital, and then engage and re-engage the world with confidence. That is my pitch.”
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