Why Singapore should push for China's stake in TPP

AS a founding member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and a price-taker in world affairs, Singapore needs to help other members see that the TPP could bring a more stable Pacific order and beyond - provided that China has a meaningful stake in it.

This year's Strategic and Economic Dialogue was one of the most important bilateral forums between the United States and China, despite expectations of yielding little concrete results. The US had vowed not to "paper over" tenuous issues such as climate change, cyber spying and tensions in the South China Sea, while China had framed the discussion as an opportunity to "push for new progress in the building of a new model of major power relationship". Posturing on both sides will continue, because while out-takes from the meeting may not be definitive, it sets the stage for the meeting of US President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in September, during the Chinese leader's first visit to the United States.

The United States and China share the most important relationship in the world today. In partnership, they have the potential to shape a new world order. On the other hand, conflicted, they have the means of setting into opposition continental blocs that could pose even more serious challenges than an ideologically conflicted world during the Cold War.