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Predictability, stability are assets for small states in a changing world: President Tharman

By Clement Tan | March 28, 2025 | The Straits Times

LUXEMBOURG – Singapore will need to stay predictable and stable, while building deep expertise in some areas, to thrive in a changing world rife with uncertainties, said President Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

He was speaking to Singapore media towards the end of his six-day trip on state visits to Belgium and Luxembourg. Other than national leaders, he also met business leaders in Belgium from sectors ranging from offshore engineering to biomedical technology and sustainability, as well as financial sector leaders in Luxembourg. 

“One thing that comes across very strongly in all the conversations we’ve had is that it is critical for us, as small countries especially, to be predictable, to be stable, and to always hold to our side of the bargain,” President Tharman told reporters.

“Singapore is not the cheapest place in Asia to do manufacturing or build ships or anything else, but their companies are making investments for the long term, and for them, it’s predictability and trust in Singapore that brings them to Singapore,” he said.

The first state visits by a Singapore leader to Belgium and Luxembourg come amid significant shifts in the world, with the Trump administration upending longstanding US commitments to the post-Cold War order and imposing trade tariffs on its closest allies.

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Belgian royals roll out the red carpet for President Tharman

By Clement Tan | March 24, 2025 | The Straits Times

BRUSSELS – Belgium’s King Philippe and Queen Mathilde received President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and his spouse, Mrs Jane Ittogi Shanmugaratnam, at the Royal Palace on March 24, marking the start of the first state visit by a Singaporean leader since bilateral relations were established nearly 59 years ago.

Arriving in a Mercedes-Benz car at the front plaza of the palace, flanked by members of the Belgian Royal Escort on horses and motorcycles, Mr Tharman inspected the military guard of honour before being ushered into the palace.

He also took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, built in memory of Belgian soldiers who died during World War I, and met Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever.

President Tharman and Mr De Wever reaffirmed the longstanding ties between Singapore and Belgium, and discussed the strengthening of collaboration in areas such as maritime, innovation and sustainability.

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Polish Foreign Minister brings Ukraine rallying cry to South-east Asia

By Clement Tan | Sep 4, 2024 | The Straits Times

SINGAPORE – Two-and-a-half years after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Poland’s Foreign Affairs Minister Radek Sikorski’s exasperation is unmistakable.

“My frustration is that in some parts of the world, people don’t see this Russian aggression for what it is, which is a colonial attempt to regain its… former ‘colony’,” Mr Sikorski told The Straits Times in an interview on Sept 2, during his first official visit to Singapore in his second stint as his country’s chief diplomat.

United Nations member states had voted overwhelmingly to condemn Russia in the immediate aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. However, deepening the support for Ukraine has proven a tougher sell outside of Europe and North America, as international attention was diverted by the Middle East crisis and intensifying US-China competition.

With their shared history of Russian control, Poland has been among Ukraine’s loudest and biggest advocates. If Mr Putin succeeds in Ukraine, the existential fear is that he would go on to invade and retake Poland and former Soviet territories such as Estonia, Georgia and Latvia.

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‘US can be secure only if Asia is’: US defence chief seeks to deepen strategic alliances in region

By Clement Tan | June 2, 2024 | The Straits Times

SINGAPORE – The United States wants to meld its strategic alliances and partnerships in Asia into a “new convergence” based on the rule of law – a commitment that its defence chief said will continue regardless of the outcome of the presidential election in November.

Mr Lloyd Austin evoked “a future of fresh and growing partnerships” in a speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue on June 1, which immediately elicited a question from a Chinese military delegate on whether the US was planning to build “a Nato-like system in the Asia-Pacific region”.

In response, the US Secretary of Defence described it as a strengthening of relationships with allies and partners based on a common vision and common values.

He also emphatically rejected the Chinese delegate’s suggestion that Nato’s eastern expansion was responsible for the war in Ukraine, eliciting applause from many in the audience.

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Bank of Japan ends the world’s only negative rates regime in a historic move, abandons yield curve control

By Clement Tan | March 19, 2024 | CNBC.com

Japan’s central bank raised interest rates on Tuesday for the first time since 2007, ending the world’s only negative rates regime and other unconventional policy easing measures enacted over the course of the last few decades to combat deflation.

These changes mark a historic shift and represent the sharpest pull back in one of the most aggressive monetary easing exercises in the world. The BOJ’s actions also precede the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision later this week.

“The likelihood of inflation stably achieving our target has been heightening … the likelihood reached a certain threshold that resulted in today’s decision,” BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda said at a press conference after the central bank’s decision, according to a translation provided by Reuters.

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Taiwan’s political disrupter could be kingmaker in a split parliament. Here’s why it matters

By Clement Tan | January 26, 2024 | CNBC.com

TAIPEI — “One day, we’ll get our victory,” Ko Wen-je, the vanquished presidential candidate for the Taiwan People’s Party, said at his concession speech two weeks ago.

He urged his disappointed young supporters, some of them crying, not to give up, and framed himself as a one-man social movement crusading for political change.

“For me, over the last 10 years, whether I was in office or standing for election, I have always regarded it as a social movement aimed at changing political culture. Since this social movement has not fully materialized, let’s keep working hard,” the former Taipei City Mayor told supporters in Mandarin.

While he may have finished last in the first competitive three-way race for the Taiwan presidency since 2000, Ko garnered more than a quarter of the popular vote — disrupting the usual stranglehold of the dominant political parties, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and Kuomintang.

The 63-year-old clearly resonated with the young and educated as he spoke plainly into their everyday bread-and-butter issues, including soaring housing costs and stagnant wages at a time of high inflation.

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Japan wants higher returns for investors — here’s what it’s doing

By Clement Tan | January 12, 2024 | CNBC.com

Japan is stepping up efforts to ensure its listed companies become more efficient with capital allocation and increase shareholder returns this year.

The operator of Tokyo’s stock exchange will release Monday, its first monthly list of public companies that have shared their plans for optimizing capital management to enhance returns for their investors.

The Japanese government and the TSE also have plans in the works for increasing corporate board independence and female representation.

“It’s not just the Tokyo stock exchange, but the entire Japan government is pushing for better corporate governance right now,” said Toru Yoshikawa, a business professor at Waseda University in Tokyo.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange is entering into its second year of corporate governance reforms, kickstarted in March last year, by directing listed companies whose shares are trading below a price-to-book ratio of one — an indication it may not be using its capital efficiently — to “comply or explain.”

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India suspends visa services for Canadians, demands parity in diplomatic staffing as bilateral crisis deepens

By Clement Tan | September 21, 2023 | CNBC.com

India suspended visa applications in Canada on Thursday due to unspecified security threats, while demanding Ottawa reduce its diplomatic staffing in India on grounds of interference in domestic affairs in an escalation of the festering diplomatic crisis between the two countries.

The feud was sparked Monday by the Canadian government’s announcement of “credible allegations” the Indian government orchestrated the extra-judicial slaying of a Sikh separatist in Canada. New Delhi had slammed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s claims as “baseless” and “absurd” and accused Ottawa of being sympathetic to anti-India causes.

“The issue is not about travel to India — those who have valid visas and other kinds of document like OCI are free to travel to India — but the issue is of incitement of violence and the creation of an environment that disrupt the functioning of our high commission and consulates,” Arindam Bagchi, the official spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said at a regular news conference in New Delhi on Thursday.

OCI is short for Overseas Citizenship of India, a form of permanent residence for people of Indian origin that grants a lifetime of entry into the country, along with some benefits. 

The move will curtail Indian travel for Canadians, even if they apply in third countries, Bagchi said, adding that this temporary suspension will involve all visas, including e-visas. He said this situation will be reviewed on a regular basis.

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‘A real big deal’: Biden backs economic corridor as shifting geopolitical alliances fragment the global economy

By Clement Tan | September 18, 2023 | CNBC.com

NEW DELHI — Even for those accustomed to the ebbs and flows of the U.S.-Saudi Arabia relationship, the sight of President Joe Biden extending a handshake to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman at the recent G20 leaders’ summit in New Delhi was quite the turnaround.

After all, Biden had warned last October of “consequences” after the Saudi-led oil cartel OPEC decided to cut crude production and boost prices amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Roughly a year on, Saudi Arabia is not only one of six new invitees to the China-dominated BRICS coalition, but also a signatory to the Biden-led pact for a ship-to-rail economic corridor linking India with Middle Eastern and European Union countries unveiled on the sidelines of the G20 summit — framed as a counter to China’s decade-old Belt and Road Initiative.

Saudi Arabia’s double dipping underscores the range of economic and strategic opportunities that abound for the various economies caught between the dueling U.S. and China as they build their own alliances and spheres of influence. U.S. and other major Western nations have been keen to “de-risk” their economic — and not decouple — from China on grounds of national security.

This is also consequently leading to a fragmentation of the world’s economy as protectionism and nationalism impede global trade, while giving rise to a complex matrix of relationships in a multipolar world that are not always straightforward as nations pursue their self interests.

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G20 nations soften Russia condemnation to reach Delhi summit compromise, draw Ukraine’s ire

By Clement Tan | September 9, 2023 | CNBC.com

NEW DELHI — The Group of 20 nations on Saturday overcame differences in references to the war in Ukraine, reaching a consensus on a joint declaration that paves the way for frameworks on debt resolution, and country-specific climate financing solutions among other pledges aimed at enhancing development in the Global South.

In an 83-paragraph joint communique aimed at deepening the integration of the needs of developing economies into the multilateral forum’s agenda, the Delhi declaration omitted words from the last year’s statement that overtly condemned Russian aggression against Ukraine — instead highlighting the human suffering and other negative impacts of the war in Ukraine that have complicated recovery efforts in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The wording of “most members strongly condemned the war” was among the changes. Instead, G20 member states agreed to lean on the tenets of the United Nations charter on territorial integrity and against the use of force.

“Considerable time was spent — especially in the last few days — in regard to geopolitical issues, which really centered around the war in Ukraine,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said Saturday at a press conference following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initial announcement of the consensus on a joint declaration.

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