US-led world order that allowed Singapore to thrive is fraying, says PM Wong

Global developments deeply worrying for small, open economy like S'pore, he adds

- Ng Wei Kai

The United States and China claim they do not wish to force countries to choose sides but, in reality, each seeks to draw others into its own orbit, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.

Their rivalry is already reshaping the world and will define geopolitics for years to come, he told an audience of about 900 at the annual S. Rajaratnam Lecture on April 16.

"We are in the midst of a messy transition globally. To what, nobody can tell," PM Wong said in a speech at the Singapore University of Technology and Design.

He noted that the US is stepping back from its traditional role as the guarantor of order and the world's policeman, but neither China nor any other country is willing or able to fill the vacuum.

These changes mean a post-World War II rules-based international order that Singapore thrived in for the past 60 years—one shaped and underwritten by American leadership—is fraying, PM Wong said.

"The conditions that sustained it no longer hold," he added.

Nations are turning inward, prioritizing their own narrow interests, he said.

Alongside rising geopolitical unease, there is growing turbulence in the international economic system, PM Wong noted.

Geopolitical competition has returned with a vengeance, and the major powers no longer feel economically secure.

PM Wong said that economic instruments—such as tariffs, export controls and sanctions—are being used not for market purposes, but as instruments of statecraft to advance national interests.

"These trends are not new, but they have reached a new intensity with the latest US tariff moves," he said.

On April 2, US President Donald Trump announced wide-ranging tariffs, hitting Asian countries particularly hard. He later postponed most of the "reciprocal" tariffs, but announced further tariffs on China of up to 145 percent. China responded with tariffs of up to 125 percent.