S’pore-Japan forum urges collective action to build resilience against global uncertainty

TOKYO – Small countries like Singapore should work together and with middle powers like Japan to wield an outsized voice and influence in the international order at a time of flux.

This was the consensus among panellists at a public forum on Sept 18 as they discussed how to navigate global uncertainties.

The forum was held as part of the 18th annual Japan-Singapore Symposium, which took place in Tokyo under the theme Japan-Singapore Cooperation In A World Remade.

One of the panellists, Singapore Institute of International Affairs chairman Simon Tay, identified the “remaking of America” as a “hyper-accelerator” of change, besides wars and the big-power rivalry between the United States and China.

These evolving geopolitical dynamics threaten to sow division, not least within Asean, which faces growing pressure to take a stand.

Executive fellow Takio Yamada of the Japan Institute of International Affairs think-tank said: “Rivalry between big powers is intensifying and affecting the region.

“Forces are already functioning to divide Asean.”

More cooperation – not less – is critical in such a climate, the panellists said, as they discussed the importance of trade frameworks, such as the 12-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the 15-nation

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)

.

Both count Singapore and Japan among their members.

“We have to exercise collective agency. Singapore and Japan share strategic interests to convince the US to stay committed to preserving the liberal economic order for its own interest. But that is not enough,” Waseda University economist Tomoo Kikuchi told the symposium.

“We must also expand consumption within the region and deepen regional financial integration.”

The CPTPP originated in 2006 as the P-4 grouping comprising Singapore, New Zealand, Chile and Brunei.

These four countries are also among the 14 small and medium-sized trade-dependent nations in the

Future of Investment and Trade Partnership

, founded on Sept 16 with the aim of strengthening the rules-based trading system to ensure open and fair trade.

The initiative had come about in “reaction to the declining support for globalisation and free, open trade”, Mr Adrian Ng, Director-General for Asia, Middle East and Africa at Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry, told the forum.

“As small countries, we are more affected than others,” he added.

Noting the symbolism of 14 countries that believe in fair and open trade coming together to address challenges such as supply chain resilience, he said: “We may not be the needle-movers at the start, but ideas can be powerful.”

The Japan-Singapore forum also discussed ways in which the two countries can work together in areas beyond their bilateral relationship.

Panellists proposed that both countries could take the lead in the CPTPP to strengthen its ties with blocs such as the European Union and Asean, with Mr Ng advocating for “greater regional integration between different regions”.

However, existing frameworks must also be continuously upgraded and reviewed in an era of rapid change, said Mr Ashok Mirpuri, who heads international policy and governance at Temasek.

When the Japan-Singapore Economic Partnership Agreement was concluded in 2002, the iPhone had not been invented. Likewise, when the CPTPP entered into force in 2018, artificial intelligence was not widely discussed, he pointed out.

“Things have changed dramatically, both in the geopolitical context, but also in terms of technology,” Mr Mirpuri said.

He added that without lowering the standards of the CPTPP, it should be possible to seek new arrangements to allow groupings like Asean to participate in some form.

“We need to be a little bit more flexible in thinking as technology changes, as geopolitics change, as new challenges emerge like climate change, about what we can do in the future,” he said.

This message, of expanding partnerships to signal a strong global commitment to free trade, was also made by Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sim Ann in a video address to open the forum.

“Singapore and Japan must work together to find creative, pragmatic solutions to buttress the rules-based multilateral order,” she said.

“We should continue to build resilient networks and work pragmatically with other like-minded partners on specific issues even when universal consensus is elusive.”

On security, former Japanese foreign and defence minister Taro Kono told the symposium that the Japan-US security treaty “has been and will be the public good for this region and cornerstone for security of East Asia”.

Mr Kono, who chairs the Japan-Singapore Parliamentary Friendship League, suggested, however, that Japan and Singapore should consider – as a Plan B – working with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) after the Ukraine war is over to “turn it into a non-regional organisation to defend our common values globally”.

Both Prof Tay and Mr Yamada concurred on the importance of both Singapore and Japan continuing to engage with the US to ensure it remains committed in the Indo-Pacific region.

But Prof Tay stressed that Japan must strike a better balance in its respective relationships with the US, its security ally, and China, its largest trading partner, which is also its largest security threat.

Japan is a very close friend of Asean, he said, adding that as it continues to emphasise working with the US and the superpower’s other allies, it must also find ways to build better relations with Beijing, given that China is an important economic partner and near neighbour of Asean.

“If we do not find that there is a working relationship between China and Japan, this may colour Japan’s ability to work with Asean,” he cautioned.

“If Japan becomes too close to America – a changing America – and too far from China – a changing China – then the ability of Japan to be a true friend and partner of Asean and Singapore will be a bit weakened.”

Prof Tay said he believed that the changes that are unfolding in the US are irreversible.

“There should be little hope to bring back the America we knew… and therefore nostalgia for the past is not very helpful,” he said.