Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Sunday re-affirmed his commitment to working with newly elected leaders in India and Indonesia.
“There are new leaders in Indonesia and India. How their countries fare will affect the entire region. I look forward to working with them,” said Mr. Lee referring to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indonesian President Joko Widodo in his annual National Rally speech.
Highlighting Singapore’s concern about global uncertainties, Mr. Lee said: “The world is in flux. Conflicts far away could affect us.”
In Ukraine, it was sheer luck that no Singaporeans were on the flight, but it could easily have been very different, said Mr. Lee, referring to last month’s downing of a Malaysian Airline plane over Ukraine, killing 238 passengers and 15 crew on board.
“Nearer home, there are tensions in the South China Sea — every foreign leader I meet asks me about the South China Sea,” he said.
Though Mr. Lee has not specifically stated in his speech, the South China Sea tensions continue over territorial claims between China and a number of South East Asian countries which are members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean).
On Saturday, during the visit of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Mr. Lee welcomed India’s strategic partnership with Asean, and encouraged India to continue playing an active and constructive role in South East Asia and support the Asean Grouping’s centrality in the various regional groupings.
Officials on both sides are working on a first meeting between Mr. Modi and Mr. Lee at the “earliest possible opportunity.”
Mr. Lee’s reaffirmation of Singapore working closely with India underlines the strong diplomatic and robust bilateral trade relations between the two countries.
Ms. Swaraj and her Singaporean counterpart K. Shanmugam on Saturday launched year-long celebrations of the 50-year of diplomatic relation between the two countries.
