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.
“There’s a remarkable alignment in our thinking and in our resolve in how to stay relevant as small countries, and play a responsible role in today’s world,” said Mr Tharman, referring to national and business leaders he met in both countries.
“We can see the world is changing. We also know there’s just a very high degree of uncertainty. In other words, we can’t actually see how the world will change in the years to come,” Mr Tharman said. “We nevertheless have to survive, we’ve got to thrive, and we’ve got to contribute to the global good.”
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.
The evolving world order was a topic of discussion on the trip, and Belgium’s King Philippe and Luxembourg’s Grand Duke Henri touched on it in state banquets they hosted for the president.
“Today, unfortunately, the very foundations of our world order that has brought us stability, peace and prosperity since the end of the Second World War are in danger,” Grand Duke Henri said on March 27.
“As the basic rules of mutual respect and international law are no longer being observed, our open economies that depend on free trade and the rule of law have become very vulnerable. The political stability we have been able to provide our citizens may be at risk,” he added.
President Tharman 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,” he 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.”
Deep expertise
President Tharman reiterated a point he previously made about the importance of small countries knowing and deepening their competitive advantages.
“We’ve got to prove our worth in the world through deep expertise,” he said. “We’re not going to be good at everything. We’re small countries, so our expertise is not very broad. But where we do have some advantage, we’ve got to have deep expertise. And that’s the strategy for all three of us: Singapore, Belgium, Luxembourg.”
Climate finance is one such area for financial hubs Singapore and Luxembourg. At a state banquet Luxembourg’s Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Teresa Maria threw in his honour on March 27, President Tharman pressed home the important role the financial sector has in ensuring a timely transition to a net zero world.
Many are worried the US’ recent withdrawal from the Paris Agreement threatens to derail gains made in fighting climate change.
“The choice is not over ‘whether’ but ‘when’ we invest in these global commons. And the choice of ‘when’ we invest has enormous implications for how much we eventually need to invest,” Mr Tharman said. “Put simply, we either invest and take actions now to enable an orderly transition to a net zero world, or defer actions and are eventually forced to spend far more to deal with a disorderly transition, or worse still to spend in adapting to uncontrolled climate change.
“Helping everyone understand this choice, and ensuring a fair and equitable transition, is a central task within our societies and in international cooperation,” he said.
President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Grand Duke Henri (just seen) meeting firefighters during a visit to the National Fire and Rescue Centre in Luxembourg, on March 28.ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH
Luxembourg and Singapore, President Tharman said, are well poised as financial hubs to galvanise the finance required even if the trillions of dollars required globally to ensure sustainable growth in the emerging and developing world appears daunting.
“We know that public finances alone will not be enough to fund the transition to net zero. Both our countries play a special role therefore in mobilising private capital for investments in sustainability in our respective regions and together with our partners globally.”
President Tharman also pointed to existing platforms such as Singapore’s Financing Asia’s Transition Partnership (FAST-P) and the Luxembourg-EIB Climate Finance Platform. While the former aims to harness and bring together public and private sector capital to accelerate Asia’s net zero transition, the latter invests in companies in emerging countries that are involved in climate change mitigation and adaptation projects.
Exchanging expertise
For President Tharman, states with deep expertise would also be able to benefit from an exchange of knowledge. “We built on a foundation that started early. A foundation not just of developing expertise on our own, but of exchanging expertise,” he said.
For instance, Belgian firm Deme worked on land reclamation and the construction of deep-water berths in Singapore, helping lay the foundations for the new port in Tuas.
Singapore-based port operator PSA now counts its investment in Belgium’s Port of Antwerp-Bruges as its largest outside of the Republic. President Tharman pointed to how PSA is working very actively with the Belgians to develop a green port, a green maritime corridor and digitising maritime trade.
President Tharman Shanmugaratnam meeting Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden, at Senningen Castle in Luxembourg, on March 28ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH
Partnership and collaboration
President Tharman also met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels. He told reporters their conversation, like those he had with the leaders of Belgium and Luxembourg, touched on ways Europe and Asia could collaborate, with Singapore as a catalyst.
“Europe is very keen on collaborating with Asia – with China, with India, with Asean. With each, there has to be a different mode of collaboration,” he said.
“They have some concerns with China, but they don’t want to walk away from China,” he added. “That’s very clear in our conversations, and we spent some time talking about that.”
China and the European Union are their respective largest trading partners in 2023, but they have not always seen eye to eye on many issues.
“Europe has the convening power, and some bargaining power. It can be a very important player at this pivotal time in the global economy and in global politics,” President Tharman said.
“But Europe is not large enough on its own. It is also not monolithic, with respect to the interests of its member states. So it does want to work with like-minded partners elsewhere, like us in Singapore and like many other Asian nations,” he said.
Earlier on March 28, President Tharman and Grand Duke Henri witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Luxembourg-based satellite company SES and Singapore-based quantum communications tech company SpeQtral, aimed at enhancing cybersecurity in data encryption. It will enable both companies to develop an interoperable ground station capable of seamless and secure communications with satellite missions.
President Tharman Shanmugaratnam viewing satellite dishes at SES HQ in Luxembourg on March 28.ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH
President Tharman was also hosted to lunch by the Luxembourg government, and Prime Minister Luc Frieden recounted their long friendship from their time as finance ministers of their countries. “It’s people who create and shape the world in good times and in bad times,” Mr Frieden said.
President Tharman had, at the state banquet in Luxembourg on March 27, made a similar point on the agency of small states, saying his host nation and Singapore “both share a commitment to a rules-based international order”.
“We both know it in our bones that we must do all we can, with our partners, to keep alive a system where nations are able to cooperate to avert dangers and to advance their mutual interests,” he said. “And we both know that we must show through our constructive contributions that even as small nations, we must have a seat at the table where important global decisions are being made.”
He told reporters: “We are not badly positioned in Singapore because there’s a very high regard for us – there’s a high trust in Singapore – but we’ve got to keep deepening our capabilities and keep finding partnerships that make us useful.”
- Clement Tan is an assistant foreign editor at The Straits Times. He helps to oversee coverage of South Asia, the US, Europe, the Middle East and Oceania.
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