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Indonesia collaboration beneficial for ASEAN: Singapore PM
Wong sat down with a few senior journalists to share how robust Indonesia-Singapore cooperation could impact the wider Southeast Asian region.
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Toward stability: Singapore's Prime Minister Lawrence Wong attends a press conference at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, in Jakarta, on Nov. 5. Wong said Indonesia-Singapore collaboration could pave the way for regional integration. (JP/Muhammad Zaenuddin)
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ingapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong arrived in Jakarta on Monday to prepare for an “introductory meeting” with President Prabowo Subianto’s administration. Wong sat down to speak with The Jakarta Post’s editor-in-chief, M. Taufiqurrahman, and a few other senior journalists to share how robust Indonesia-Singapore cooperation could impact the wider region. The following are excerpts of the interview:
Question: Prabowo’s approach on foreign affairs is predictably different from the previous administration, in the sense that he would be more assertive in the shifting order of the world. How does the Singaporean government feel about it?
Answer: I would say President Prabowo has a more active foreign policy, and that is completely in line with Indonesia's growth and development as an important country in Southeast Asia and in the world.
The President himself has stated very clearly that Indonesia will be a friend to all and will be a good neighbor. And Singapore shares this approach fully, because we want to be friends with all countries as well.
We know we are in a new environment, where increasingly there will be more geopolitical tensions and it will be defined by the United States-China relationship in many ways. That relationship is one – whichever party wins the election tomorrow – where I think there will continue to be deep mistrust and mutual suspicion.
We hope there won't be conflict, but both sides are preparing for conflict [and] both sides are trying to find ways to grow their spheres of influence. Our worry is that we end up in a world that becomes fragmented into rival blocks, rival spheres of influence, like what happened in the last Cold War.
