Singapore and Asean can draw a lesson from the unstable situation in the Middle East - that a region needs to have cohesion if it does not want to be a platform for proxy contests by major powers, said Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing.

The intra-regional rivalry and lack of unity in the Middle East - together with its strategic location and abundant energy resources - have made it a proxy battleground for extra-regional powers, he said at the annual conference of the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore yesterday.

The Middle East, through its long history, has seen attempts to dominate it by people as diverse as the Egyptians, Persians, Arabs, British and French principally because of its strategic location at the confluence of Europe, Asia and Africa.

Its location has meant that it controls the critical "strategic lines of communications" (SLOC) in land, sea and air, he said in his keynote speech on the first day of the two-day meeting that brought together over 300 academics, think-tankers, diplomats and business people.

Mr Chan said that many, if not all, global and regional powers in history "desire to secure their interests in the region that include lines of communications, energy and even religious authority".

"Since the Middle East has seldom been united, it has also become a convenient proxy battleground for wider global geopolitical contests," he added.

With China's interests in the Middle East growing - including in SLOC, energy resources and religion, particularly the influence of Islam on China's Muslim minorities - the Asian power could come up against the United States' many interests in this region.

"Both the US and China have interests in the Middle East that are sometimes shared and, at other times, contested as part of a wider global backdrop of cooperation and contest," he said.

Later, during the question and answer session, he drew a parallel between the Middle East and South-east Asia as strategic locations, the Middle East with its Suez Canal and South-east Asia with the South China Sea and the Malacca Strait - all important shipping lanes.

One lesson that can be drawn from the Middle East experience, he said, is that if the region is not integrated and coherent, it can become a platform for proxy contests.

"It is in the interest of Asean countries to work closely together to make sure that we can chart our way forward, without which we may end up being a battleground for proxy contests."

Asean should do all it can to be a "neutral place where people from elsewhere can come and be engaged in the region", he said.

He also touched on Singapore and how its survival depended on the country staying connected with the rest of the world and making the world its hinterland.

"For the world to be truly our hinterland, we must have a deep understanding of what's happening around the world, not just the US and China or Europe, but many of these other places like Middle East, Central Asian republics, and also increasingly Africa," he said.

Nearer home, Singapore has been playing a role in China's development. But, as China's needs evolved, so has Singapore's relevance to it, noted Mr Chan.

Singapore has gone from building the Suzhou Industrial Park in the early days of China's development in the 1990s to the Tianjin Eco-city, initiated in 2007, which epitomised China's desire for sustainable development, he said.

It has since gone beyond geographically bound projects to the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative to connect China's western provinces to countries in South-east Asia.

As for the Republic's role in China's next lap of development, Mr Chan pointed to its participation in China's Belt and Road Initiative to build infrastructure in Asia, Africa and Europe.

"This is one area where Singapore can contribute to China, in its outward push in its connectivity to the rest of the world," he said.

Another area that is of interest to China is how Singapore has continued to remain successful and cohesive with its diverse and multi-ethnic population.

"China finds us quite interesting," he said. "They try to understand how we can keep a multi-ethnic, multiracial society together, one that does not have a lot of common history (but is) united by a common vision, a set of values, meritocracy, incorruptibility, multiracialism," Mr Chan added.

This is as China is also looking at ways to maintain its social stability amid disparate forces that threaten to pull its society apart.

As for Singapore, it needs to remain successful if it is to stay relevant to China and the rest of the world, he said.

It is only when Singapore is successful that others will find it interesting, he added.