Strong mandate from GE2025 boosts Singapore’s standing: PM Wong
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
PM Wong said that many leaders had congratulated him on his election victory, which showed that they had been paying close attention.
PHOTO: ST FILE
Follow topic:
KUALA LUMPUR – A strong and clear electoral mandate from Singaporeans has given the country’s leaders the ability to engage their foreign counterparts with confidence, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on May 27.
Speaking to Singapore journalists at the close of the 46th Asean Summit and meetings with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and China, PM Wong said that many leaders had congratulated him on his election victory,
“They were watching our elections, and they took note of the outcomes,” he said.
At the summit’s opening, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had congratulated PM Wong on what he called a “convincing victory” at GE2025, when the PAP secured 65.57 per cent of the popular vote.
Had he been re-elected with a reduced mandate, PM Wong said, perceptions of Singapore among foreign leaders would have been different.
Responding to a question on how the results of the 2025 General Election had helped Singapore in conducting foreign policy at the Asean summit, the first major multilateral meeting since the election, PM Wong said foreign leaders would have made “their own internal reassessments” if the PAP had been returned to government with diminished standing.
While his counterparts would still have been polite, they would have been more tentative in their engagements with him, said PM Wong.
“Is it worth engaging this person? Maybe I should wait and see. Maybe we don’t... pursue him, or consider such aggressive follow-ups for now. And then, maybe we can think about it later,” he said. “So I’m sure these things could have happened if we had a different election outcome.”
Because Singaporeans had given him and his team a clear mandate, the country was able to engage its counterparts with confidence, and PM Wong said he would make full use of this mandate over this term of government to advance and secure Singapore’s position in a changed world.
“We will certainly do our best in this endeavour,” he said.
The Asean Summit in Kuala Lumpur also produced a new blueprint for the bloc’s future, with the adoption of the Asean 2045 vision statement. Leaders signed the Kuala Lumpur Declaration 2045 – Our Shared Future on May 26.
PM Wong said Singapore had been actively involved in the discussions that led to the adoption of the statement. He stressed that it was crucial to follow through the adoption of the vision with concrete actions.
“We talked about all the things that we need to do beyond the rhetoric, all the concrete steps that we can take to advance Asean integration, and Singapore will certainly do what we can, working with all our Asean member states to advance these outcomes,” he said.
PM Wong also pointed out that closer Asean integration and partnerships would create more opportunities for Singapore businesses, particularly in markets that they may not be so familiar with.
“Whatever we do, we want Singaporeans to benefit,” he said.
He added that the Government and its agencies will raise awareness of new overseas opportunities with Singapore businesses, and link them up with potential partners in other markets.
“These are all things that the Government can facilitate and will facilitate, and we will try our best to ensure that whatever we do in terms of the free trade agreements, in terms of partnerships at the government-to-government level, will in the end translate to more opportunities for our business sector,” he said.
