While JD Vance’s pot-and-kettle critique of European democracy made most of the headlines at last weekend’s Munich Security Conference, another speech drew attention across Asia. This was Singapore defence minister Ng Eng Hen’s analysis of how the latest shift in American foreign policy would affect southeast Asia and the Global South more broadly.
Singapore has a close security partnership with Washington, offering United States forces access to all its military facilities and hosting a US Navy logistics command unit. The balance of trade is also in America’s favour, with Singapore importing more from the US than it exports there.
Ng began by saying that the assumptions of the last 80 years had fundamentally changed, and that American primacy had become the overriding consideration of US foreign policy, even at the expense of bilateral and multilateral ties. This was affecting how the US is perceived in Asia.
“The image has changed from liberator to great disruptor to a landlord seeking rent,” he said.
Eric Adams, the New York mayor at the heart of Donald Trump’s attempt to reshape US justice department
Thanks to Trump, Saudi Arabia gets a big week in international diplomacy
Polls indicate German federal election will return Merkel-style coalition
Denis Staunton: As Europe wrings its hands at the US, the rest of the world may be organising
He suggested that any major shift in the great power balance was likely to alter the trajectory of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). This group of 10 countries with a population of 700 million has a combined GDP of about $4 trillion (€3.8 trillion), the fifth largest in the world.
“In this indeterminate phase, in the absence of a leader to protect our global commons, I think we must all expect that the progress and wellbeing of the global commons will suffer. To me, that is a given. It is just how much. That includes any global regime to deal with climate change,” he said.
“Who, if anyone, any one country or region or bloc, can step in if the US declines to protect the global commons and how effective, and against what resistance?”
What Ng calls the global commons are also called global public goods, which include financial stability, global public health, emergency humanitarian action and the freedom of the seas. These have traditionally been provided by coalitions led by the largest powers, which feel the benefit of their contributions more directly than smaller countries do.
Donald Trump’s axing of USAID and his withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organisation underscore the urgency of Ng’s question. In his speech at Munich, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi said Beijing was “well aware of the international responsibilities on its shoulders, and we are willing to provide more public goods to the international community”.
China is a major funder of United Nations programmes, including peacekeeping forces and development aid and it has become an increasingly influential player in the international system. But Beijing is reluctant to take on too much responsibility for the stability of the global order, emphasising instead the importance of reforming international institutions to reflect today’s multipolar world.
Smaller countries and middle powers are not waiting for a cue from the superpowers and Malaysia’s prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, said this week that he will host an inaugural joint summit in May of the Asean, China and the Gulf Co-operation Council. The council’s members include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and Anwar said it was important for the Asean to expand its global engagement beyond traditional partners.
“Strengthening ties with China, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Brics and other emerging economies is not about choosing sides. Rather, it is about ensuring Asean’s strategic relevance in a multipolar world,” he said.
“We remain non-aligned and will not be drawn into great power rivalries. We reject economic coercion and unilateral actions that undermine regional stability.”
Wang is in Johannesburg for the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting, which started on Thursday, and is due to discuss issues including food security, unemployment and artificial intelligence. US secretary of state Marco Rubio is staying away from the meeting, accusing South Africa of promoting “solidarity, equality and sustainability” and expropriating private property.
The latter refers to an act signed into law this month that establishes how the South African government can take private land for public use, usually if it is not being used. It is the latest land reform effort in a country where in 2017 white South Africans (who are 7 per cent of the population) owned 72 per cent of the agricultural land whereas black South Africans (who are 81 per cent of the population) held 4 per cent.
Rubio’s absence from the G20 meeting sends an eloquent message about Washington’s priorities in the new world order. While Europe wrings its hands, the rest of the world may be starting to get organised.
