‘No good outcome can arise from an India-china conflict’

Singapore and India can leverage their respective strengths to mutually strengthen regional supply chains to cope with disruptions in the supply of energy, food and fertilisers because of the war in Ukraine, Singapore’s foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan has said. In an interview, Balakrishnan told Rezaul H Laskar that Singapore views the India-china military standoff with concern since “no good outcome can arise from a conflict”. Edited excerpts:

With the focus now on postcovid recovery, what are the priorities for Singapore for working with India?

As the Covid situation improves, India and Singapore will have many opportunities to reboot and pursue wide-ranging projects to support our people and strengthen economies. One key area we are looking at is skills development, which Prime Minister Modi has identified as a priority for post-covid recovery. Singapore has worked with local governments in Assam, New Delhi and Rajasthan to establish skill centres and share our training curriculum and industry experience.

We will deepen our cooperation in emerging areas that have gained much salience over the pandemic. These include digital transformation, vaccine provision and distribution, cybersecurity, research and innovation and smart cities. It is worth highlighting that our economic ties have withstood many challenges, including those posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Singapore and India’s bilateral trade in goods increased from S$19.8 billion in 2020 to S$26.8 billion in 2021, an increase of about 35%. Singapore remains India’s largest source of foreign direct investment, accounting for 27% in 2021. This year, we commemorate the 30th anniversary of Asean-india relations and the Asean-india Friendship Year. There will be new and innovative avenues to catalyse a sustainable post-pandemic recovery for Singapore, India and Asean.

The India-singapore relationship was bolstered by the Strategic Partnership of 2015, which was updated in 2018. What should be done now to take bilateral relations to the next level?

Singapore and India are natural partners with longstanding historical, cultural and people-to-people ties. Our relations commenced before Singapore’s independence when migrants from many lands, including India, arrived on our shores during the British period.

The Strategic Partnership of 2015 reflects our confidence in India’s prospect for accelerated growth, especially with the demographic dividend from her large population of talented young people and investments in education, skills and infrastructure. Our collaboration will expand to cover emerging areas such as fintech, digital economy and green technologies. The Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Reserve Bank of India will be linking our respective real-time payment systems by July 2022. This will facilitate even more cross-border transactions and expand opportunities especially for micro, small and medium enterprises to access new markets seamlessly and efficiently.

The Ukraine war has had a profound impact on food and energy security and global supply chains. In what ways can Singapore and India work together to address these challenges?

Global prices in energy and food have been on the rise for some time as Covid-19 receded. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has dramatically disrupted the supply of energy, food and fertilisers globally. The era of managing inventories just in time is over. We now manage supply chains based on just in case.

Singapore’s role as a logistics, transport and energy hub, and India’s position as a major export hub, offers an opportunity to mutually strengthen regional supply chains. Reliable, efficient supply chains between trusted nodes will become even more vital.

There are also avenues for us to co-create complementary solutions in sectors such as the green economy and agritech. India is an agriculture powerhouse, contributing to over 17% of the world’s agriculture exports in the last financial year alone. We are keen to work with India to further optimise trade through digitalisation. Existing platforms to strengthen energy and supply chain collaboration can be strengthened.

With Singapore the country coordinator for India for Asean, do the two countries have any initiatives to drive cooperation under the umbrella of Asean?

As country coordinator, Singapore hopes to elevate Asean-india relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP). We are working towards making this milestone upgrade meaningful, substantive and mutually beneficial. The CSP, when finalised, would complement India’s G20 presidency themes and priorities. We also hope to deepen Asean-india cooperation, including digital cooperation and defence, while we roll out existing initiatives within our current strategic partnership.

There are several platforms for engagement in the pipeline, including the annual Track 1 Asean-india Cyber Dialogue, the Asean-india Defence Ministers’ Informal Meeting and Asean-india Maritime Exercise later this month. Just as climate change and sustainable development present challenges, they also present opportunities for us to work together, such as by leveraging the Asean Smart Cities Network platform. There is much to learn from each other and accomplish.

There is a perception that India’s decision not to become part of the RCEP has had a fallout on India’s overall relationship with Asean members. Your comments?

We would have preferred that India had signed on the RCEP ab initio (from the beginning). Nevertheless,

India remains a vital economic partner for Asean. Aseanindia trade remains robust. In 2021, India was Asean’s sixth largest trading partner, and Asean was India’s fifth largest trading partner. India was the seventh largest source of FDI inflows to Asean in 2020, with FDI inflows totalling US$2.1 billion. We believe these trade flows and mutual economic benefit can be even greater with India in the RCEP. The door remains open for India to join the RCEP when circumstances permit.

Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong recently spoke of the need for China to remain economically integrated with the region against the backdrop of Us-china tensions. How does Singapore view the India-china military standoff, especially its impact on the region?

We view this with concern. No good outcome can arise from a conflict. Regional peace and stability are existential for Asia. Singapore welcomes efforts by both parties to find a peaceful resolution to the dispute. We are encouraged to see active steps for engagement being taken, including through the 24th Meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-china Border Affairs in May 2022 and the upcoming 16th round of talks between the senior military commanders. We hope India and China will continue to engage each other in good faith and reach a modus vivendi to ensure regional peace and stability.

India has backed Asean’s five-point consensus for addressing the situation in Myanmar, but efforts under this plan appear to have stalled. Can Singapore and India work together to drive any fresh initiative?

Unfortunately, more than a year after the five-point consensus was formulated and agreed to by the nine Asean leaders and Myanmar Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in Jakarta on April 24, 2021, we have seen little progress...

We hope India will continue to work with Asean to persuade the Myanmar military authorities to swiftly implement the five-point consensus in its entirety.