3 Takeaways From Singapore Leaders' Blockbuster Foreign Policy Speeches

Major speeches by PM Wong and SM Lee offer a clear-eyed view on global transition and commitment to multilateralism, and link political stability to diplomatic strength.

- Bhavan Jaipragas

If this were a routine April—not the tense run-up to what could be a bruising general election—the back-to-back heavyweight foreign policy speeches from Singapore's top two political leaders would still have those who watch the Republic closely sitting up and taking notice.

Singapore's friends and partners near and far are surely watching for clues about how the long-time stewards of this city-state—resource-poor and smaller than New York City—intend to navigate the accelerating decline of the world order under which it has risen to become one of the world's wealthiest, most stable societies with the ability to underwrite its own defense.

For that purpose, the speeches—first by Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a dialogue with union leaders on April 14, and then by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at the S. Rajaratnam Lecture on April 16—offer, between them, as complete a picture as practicable to a public audience on the ruling PAP's view of geopolitics and its foreign policy approach.

Both addresses, along with Mr. Wong's speech at the April 17 PAP manifesto launch—which also touched on the state of the world—are meaty enough to be studied from various angles.

For me, three important observations stand out.

GOVT'S CLEAR-EYED PERSPECTIVE

First, it is quite clear that Singapore's leadership rejects a simplistic reading of the global landscape. Despite Washington's current erraticity under President Donald Trump—with sweeping tariffs announced then suspended, threats of sectoral tariffs, and adamance that America will no longer be the world's policeman—the Singapore Government does not view this as a neat pendulum swing of power.