Going alone is not the answer to security questions: Chan Chun Sing
[SINGAPORE] Political and military leaders must arrest the temptation to go it alone when they feel insecure, as history has many examples of such an approach backfiring, Defence Minister Chan Chun Sing said on Sunday (Jun 1).
This is as attempts to prioritise one’s security without due regard for international laws and norms could easily lead to greater insecurity in others, sparking a vicious spiral that begets greater insecurity, Chan said at the sixth and final plenary session of the Shangri-La Dialogue.
This applies to all aspects of security, including countries’ economic well-being, he added, recalling a point made by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim at the forum a day earlier that faltering trade has consequences that ripple beyond any one region.
Chan said today’s world is not unlike the 1930s, when beggar-thy-neighbour policies arguably contributed to expansionist and irredentist foreign policies that culminated in World War II.
As competition in the security and economic domains increase, so has the need for guardrails and communication channels to reduce the risk of miscalculation, he said.
He cited how Singapore and Malaysia both respected an international tribunal’s directive when there was a disagreement over reclamation works, and thereby managed to reach an amicable settlement.
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“While the issue began with acrimony, the warmth and civility between the negotiating teams led to an amicable resolution,” he noted.
The two neighbours still have their differences, but have continued to deepen cooperation, such as through the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone, he said.
Chan emphasised that while great powers have great responsibilities when it comes to upholding international rules, small countries also have agency and responsibility in upholding the global economic and security order.
On its part, Singapore is committed to engaging both the US and China without taking any sides.
“We believe that taking sides, regardless of issues and context, breeds irrelevance,” he said. “And if one is irrelevant, it will almost certainly require (one) to take sides.”
Instead, Singapore takes the side of principles that promote a more integrated global economic and security order, where states have a fair chance to compete and can improve the lives of their people through trade rather than war, he added.
Noting that emerging security challenges have to do with threats against networked infrastructure that transcend borders, Chan said Singapore is working with Asean partners to develop principles to facilitate defence cooperation for the region’s critical underwater infrastructure.
Fellow speakers at the plenary also shared different ways by which small states can contribute to tackling security problems.
Sweden’s Defence Minister, Dr Pal Jonson, noted his country’s expertise in psychological defence and in responding to information operations, and how small states such as Sweden and Singapore are ranked well when in innovation and research capabilities.
Papua New Guinea Defence Minister, Dr Billy Joseph, said his country amplifies its voice by working through multilateral forums such as the South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting and the Pacific Islands Forum.
The Pacific Response Group, a disaster coordination organisation formed in November 2024, helped Vanuatu following an earthquake there a month later, added Dr Joseph.
Responding to a question about Singapore’s diplomatic approach, Chan said small states are realistic that engagement is not on the basis of sympathy or charity, but on being successful and having value-add.
Singapore’s approach is to look at the principles that will best enable it to survive and thrive, he added.
For instance, on Ukraine, Chan said the principle the Republic holds dear is that of the sovereignty of nations, as it would be a dangerous world if one country can march into another on the basis of wanting to right the wrongs of history.
Holding to this principle meant it has stood up to great powers in the past for doing the same, as the greater risk is of the principle no longer being observed by countries big and small, he added.
On questions about understanding China’s perspectives, Chan said it is in the interest of everyone to work with China, and vice versa.
This year’s summit was the first time since 2019 that China did not send its defence minister, which raised questions about Beijing’s continued engagement with the region.
If China perceives that the world does not respect or understand it sufficiently, it is incumbent upon the country to use every opportunity possible, including the Shangri-La Dialogue, to get its voice heard and make clear its stance, said Chan.
He urged countries to deepen efforts to understand others, so that they do not end up with simplistic interpretations or misreadings of other people’s intentions.
Chan was also asked if Singapore would apply the concept of self-determination to the case of Taiwan.
Responding, he said it was scary to hear simplistic explanations that try to frame the conflict as one between democracy and autocracy, or to draw “unhelpful parallels” between Taiwan and Ukraine.
How the issue is going to be resolved, if not managed, will have to be determined by the Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, he added.
People on both sides share similar end goals of having security, including economic security, and the hope is that channels of communication can be opened so they can discuss where their shared future lies, said Chan.
Chan said his final takeaway from the forum was the need for deeper cooperation, given the complexity of the issues confronting the world.
“Today, the challenges that we face are not geographically isolated challenges (but) are interwoven,’ he said.
“And to solve those issues... we need to build the solutions at the network level, and all of us can contribute to that – be it big or small countries.” THE STRAITS TIMES
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