#Singaporesummit mediates negotiations
SINGAPORE Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan has worked quietly in the background to bring North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump to the negotiating table.
The diplomat has impressive credentials and is one of the leading lights in the small Singaporean Tamil community.
Balakrishnan, 57, was born in 1961 to a Tamil father and a Chinese mother. He completed his primary and secondary levels of education at the Anglo-chinese School, a Methodist institution with roots in Indonesia.
He began his tertiary education at the National Junior College. After graduating in 1980, he was awarded the president’s scholarship by Singapore’s government to study medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
This scholarship is considered the most prestigious public undergraduate scholarship in the country.
During his university days, he became a student activist and was elected president of the NUS Student Union. He later became its chairman.
As the scholarship recipient, Balakrishnan was legally obliged to pursue a public service career for a specific period.
He is currently a member of the People’s Action Party (PAP), a right-wing political organisation.
He served as minister for community development, youth and sport from 2004-2010, minister for environment and water resources from 2011-2015 and took up the reins of foreign affairs in 2015.
On May 10, his ministry announced the country would host the #Singaporesummit, a meeting of Trump and Kim.
The meeting took place on Tuesday at a resort on Sentosa Island. The two leaders met to discuss a nuclear deal, among other things.
“This is a crucial first step on a long journey towards lasting peace and stability on a denuclearised Korean Peninsula. It has been a whirlwind few weeks for many of us. Team Singapore has shown the world what we can do,” said Balakrishnan.
As a leader in Singapore’s minuscule Tamil community, Balakrishnan played a vital role in introducing a Tamil degree programme at Singaporean universities in 2007.
He said this would “ensure that in future we will have more Tamil language teachers with degree qualifications”.