'Need to Be Relevant': Singapore Willing to Work With AUKUS & Quad, Says Senior Minister

Singapore wants to be an “honest broker” in resolving differences between China and the US. According to Education Minister Chan Chun Sing, the strategically-located ASEAN city-state has a “vested interest” in ensuring that maritime issues and other disputes are resolved in a “principled manner,” and he warned against taking sides.

Singapore's Education Minister Chan Chun Sing said on Tuesday that his government would have to work with emerging groupings such as AUKUS and the Quad in order to maintain its status as a credible partner.

“For us to be relevant, we need to have a deep understanding of different interests,” said Sing in response to a question from Sputnik about how he viewed the Quad and AUKUS.

“We will talk to everyone, so long as it is in the interest of promoting open and inclusive security architecture,” he said.

He added that all the nations must work towards contributing “positively” to regional security.

Sing recalled that Singapore played a key role in the formation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a 1982-era treaty that mandates a legal framework for maritime activities.

The minister was delivering a keynote address at the 41st Fullerton Lecture on the theme "Singapore Amid Great Power Rivalry," organised by London-headquartered defence think tank International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS).

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, aka the Quad, comprises Australia, India, Japan, and the US. A joint statement after the group’s first-ever leaders’ summit in the White House in September this year said that the Quad countries would work towards “free, open, rules-based order, rooted in international law and undaunted by coercion, to bolster security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and beyond."

All the Quad countries have rejected the idea of it being a security alliance to contain China, amid accusations by Beijing that the four-nation bloc is a sort of “Asian NATO” geared against China’s growing international clout.

The AUKUS pact, on the other hand, is a three-nation alliance comprising Australia, the UK, and US.

Announced on 16 September this year, the AUKUS pact will see Australia's Navy acquire advanced nuclear submarines developed from American and British technology.

According to an Australian government statement, the three nations will “support our security and defence interests” through the newly formed alliance.

Beijing has blasted the AUKUS pact for inciting an “arms race” in the region.

Both AUKUS and the Quad have underpinned themselves on following the concept of "ASEAN-centrality," placing the 10-nation southeast Asian bloc at the heart of their respective agreements.

However, AUKUS has evoked a mixed reaction from the ASEAN countries, with regional powerhouses such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines expressing concern over the alliance. Only Vietnam has welcomed AUKUS.

Singapore's Foreign Minister Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, meanwhile, said after the AUKUS announcement that his government wasn’t “unduly anxious” about the pact since it has had “longstanding ties” with all the three partners.

Balakrishnan also said that managing differences between the US and China was more of a concern to Singapore than AUKUS.