A Conversation On War And Zeitgeist

His Excellency Artis Bertulis, the EU Ambassador to Singapore, discusses the state of the world today.

- SUFFIAN HAKIM

I'VE SPOKEN TO the Head of the EU Delegation to Singapore and EU Ambassador to Singapore, Artis Bertulis a few times since he took office in September 2025. They were mostly pleasantries exchanged at official events.

Before assuming office in Singapore, Ambassador Bertulis built a distinguished, three-decade diplomatic career representing both the European Union and the Republic of Latvia. Bertulis initially entered the diplomatic arena in 1991 as a member of the Latvian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee fresh from its independence from the Soviet Union, later serving as a Foreign Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister in 1994 and twice taking on the mantle of Head of State Protocol.

He most recently served as the EU Ambassador to Guinea-Bissau from 2022 to August 2025.

I've always enjoyed our conversations, but they tended to be small talk. This changed when we had a two-part interview in early April: the first about this year's amazing EU Film Festival (which you can read on AUGUSTMAN.com), and the second about the current state of the world and Europe's place in it.

That latter part of the interview was significant. For many of us, these are uncertain and unprecedented times, and nations that used to provide leadership and moral clarity are the ones now throwing the world further into turmoil. This is further exacerbated by deeper existential crises such as climate change.

We spoke in his office, with gorgeous panoramas of Singapore's southern coast. The native of Latvia is a seasoned diplomat: gentlemanly, erudite, and calm. I appreciated that because a lot of discourse on current affairs these days tends to be bleak and pessimistic, and in some cases, manic.