Vivian Balakrishnan on a decade of representing S'pore in a changed world: 'Foreign policy now has domestic salience'

Of late, Singapore's Foreign Minister has been directing much of his diplomatic energies to a different audience those at home.

- Li Xueying Foreign Editor

While his main focus is to represent the Republic’s interests abroad, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan has also spent “hundreds of sessions” — he’s lost count - explaining Singapore’s foreign policy to Singaporeans. In the House, more MPs are rising to query his ministry’s policies, whether during the annual Budget debate or the delivery of ministerial statements.

“In the past, I would have had very few questions in Parliament,” says Dr Balakrishnan. “(But) today, yesterday, or the last month, you can be on the front lines in Parliament, which means foreign policy now has domestic salience.”

It reflects how a certain emphasis in his work has, perhaps counterintuitively, shifted over the past decade. As the world becomes a more troubled one, “a lot of our diplomacy is focused domestically”.

“Because of our multiracial, multi-religious makeup, the truth is, when crises or conflicts break out in the world, it is very easy for us to view them through different lenses. And it is important that we achieve internal alignment, whilst recognising that different groups will feel more or less strongly about wars and conflicts elsewhere.”

And crises and wars and conflicts there have been aplenty in his time as Singapore's top diplomat.

On Oct 1, Dr Balakrishnan marked 10 years in the role. That makes him one of Singapore's longest-serving foreign ministers, alongside Professor S. Jayakumar, who similarly helmed the portfolio for a decade, from 1994 to 2004.

Old Guard leader S. Rajaratnam left his indelible imprint, steering the young nation’s external relations from independence to 1980.