June 26, 2025
TIANJIN – With global rules weakening and economic nationalism on the rise, Singapore is proposing a workaround of getting like-minded countries to cooperate on specific issues, while leaving the door open for others to join in the future.
“This is what we call a flexible multilateralism,” Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said in a dialogue at a World Economic Forum (WEF) event in Tianjin, China, on June 25.
“Starting (by) first laying the building blocks, and eventually others can join, and we can steer progress in the right direction,” he said, adding that the efforts should be open and inclusive.
He urged countries to update, evolve and improve the multilateral system, rather than abandon it altogether.
The American-led post-war global order, which had allowed for free trade and prosperity for countries big and small, has come under threat with the US imposition of high tariffs on goods from much of the world, especially those from China.
The US has imposed a 10 per cent baseline tariff on Singapore, even though it has a free trade agreement and a trade surplus with the Republic.
“For small countries like Singapore, we are worried because we have limited options, we have limited bargaining power, and we risk being marginalised,” said PM Wong in his opening remarks during the dialogue.
He said bigger countries will also find it hard to deal with and operate in the new environment because it will be harder for the world to address common threats, such as pandemics, climate change or financial shocks.
In response, Singapore has sought to make multilateralism “more resilient, more inclusive, and better suited to the realities of our time”.
For example, Singapore, together with Japan and Australia, had pushed for a joint initiative about e-commerce at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
After five years of negotiations, more than 70 countries have joined this initiative, which serves as the building block for the first set of global rules on digital trade.
“The efforts may seem small and incremental, but if like-minded countries everywhere were to do our part, then collectively, I think we can make a difference,” he told the moderator, WEF president Borge Brende.
“Then step by step, hopefully, we can lay the groundwork for a new and more stable global order in time to come.
“It is painstaking work, but there is no alternative. A new system does not just appear by magic.”
Trade has been a major driver of global economic growth. But with US President Donald Trump launching sweeping tariffs on most countries and the WTO forecasting that trade in goods would contract this year, many worry about the future of global trade.
PM Wong said: “I think trade will still exist. There is a move towards security, resilience, greater self-sufficiency. But frankly, no one can be completely self-sufficient.”
He noted that while trade may not grow as fast as it used to, it remains relevant but with changing patterns.
This means Singapore will have to remain competitive and relevant, and seek to stay at the centre of the evolving trade links.
Other drivers for global growth are technology and the move towards sustainability, he said.
“We all want to decarbonise. We want to get to net zero. We will need to harness new sources of clean and renewable power,” he said.
PM Wong was speaking at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions, a WEF event more commonly known as Summer Davos, that attracted more than 1,700 global leaders from businesses, government, civil society and academia.
Halfway through the dialogue, Mr Brende asked PM Wong a familiar question about how Singapore balances between its “special friends” – the US and China.
“I know everyone monitors and tracks what we say and what we do very closely. Trying to parse every hidden meaning behind every word, behind every action, whether we are moving closer to one or the other. But that is not how we look at things,” PM Wong said.
Singapore’s starting point, he explained, is to look at how it advances its own national interest.
“Our interests are to have close, good relations on substance with both America and China, and we will continue to do whatever we need to do to promote and advance Singapore’s interest,” he said, adding that it is not about balancing between the two superpowers.
He said Singapore engages with not just America and China, but also other major powers.
“We want all to be engaged in this region, in South-east Asia,” he said.
“We want the region to be an open and inclusive arena where people have stakes in the region, and one in which we can all work together for shared prosperity.”
Asked by Mr Brende how Singapore navigates the fragmented geopolitical landscape and avoids ending up between a rock and a hard place, PM Wong said: “If we end up in a hard place, it’s not just us. Many other countries will also end up in a hard place, and I think the consequence of that will be disastrous for the world.
“So we hope we will never get there.”
Yew Lun Tian is a senior foreign correspondent who covers China for The Straits Times.
