Straits Times editor-at-large Han Fook Kwang rightly observes (Ukraine war: A warning on great power rivalry, April 3) that the great powers must move away from mutual demonisation and zero-sum thinking and seek win-win ways.

While Mr Han correctly identifies the increasing world division between freedom- desiring democracies and controlled autocracies, I would like to point out that democracy and freedom are a people's choice and not, as he suggests, a falling in line behind American hegemonic power.

By contrast, in autocracies, the people's choices and freedoms are severely curtailed or non-existent.

It is worth remembering that from late 1941 to 1945, Russia and Western nations were allies in the fight to rid Europe of Nazism but there were two very different outcomes: liberation and democratic freedom for the countries in western Europe and subjugation to the Soviet Union for the eastern countries.

The West does not expect Russia to play a subservient role to the United States, but the West, together with others including Singapore, expect Russia to act in accordance with the United Nations Charter and within the post-war rules-based order that respects territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Brian Dalby