\n<\/p>\n
While the world is now multipolar, \u201cnot all the poles are the same\u201d, noted Mr Wong.<\/p>\n
The US remains a dominant power in this multipolar configuration \u201cfor the foreseeable future\u201d and continues to have \u201csignificant interest in this part of the world\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
During the dialogue, Mr Wong noted that there are some who think that America is on the decline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some who think that America is on the decline and is going to withdraw, and that it will just pull back into its own hemisphere. We don’t think that’s happening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Wong noted that people have been predicting the decline of America for a long time, including when he himself was a student. He had obtained his Bachelor\u2019s and Master\u2019s degrees in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a student in America when all they said was, \u2018Japan is going to take over the world\u2019. It has not happened, and time and again America has defied the odds, and it continues to be a dynamic and very innovative economy,” he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, China also remains \u201ca very important player, very key partner to all of our countries in Southeast Asia\u201d through its significant and extensive trade and investment links with nations in the region.<\/p>\n
Further afield, there are partners like Europe, India and the GCC, with whom the Association of Southeast Asian Nations <\/span>would want to have links with, said Mr Wong.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to have an active multi-engagement approach towards bringing all the key parties and having all of them have stakes in Southeast Asia. That’s our approach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Singapore takes the chairmanship of the 11-member bloc next year.<\/p>\n When asked about Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan\u2019s recent visit to North Korea, Mr Wong said that it was due to an invitation from the country to visit as part of an anniversary milestone between both sides last year.<\/p>\n \u201cOur approach is quite simple: we want to be friends with everyone,\u201d he said. \u201cDoesn’t mean that we agree with everything they do. We don’t, but that should not stop us from having open lines of engagement and continuing to have friendship and continuing to have engagement with them.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that North Korea also views Singapore with trust, and appreciates the relationship and engagement between both sides.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s one major reason why they agreed to have the summit here in Singapore between America and the DPRK,\u201d he said, referring to the 2018 meeting between US President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.<\/p>\n \u201cThat’s our approach in foreign policy: We have a position, we articulate our national interests, but we continue to be friends with as many countries as possible. It’s always better to have more friends than fewer, right?\u201d said Mr Wong.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n FORGING LINKS WITH MANY PARTNERS While the world is now multipolar, \u201cnot all the poles are the same\u201d, noted Mr Wong. The US remains a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--EPsGEbq9--\/c_crop,h_900,w_1600,x_0,y_125\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_mediacorp:cna:watermark:2021-08:cna,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/06\/08\/llt_8337.jpg?itok=0hheITO7","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9279,832,3610,12055,1129,24401,18509,4230,7815,1209,16265],"class_list":["post-59119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-assured","tag-china","tag-continue","tag-disruption","tag-dynamic","tag-imposing","tag-mutually","tag-restrictions","tag-sides","tag-wong","tag-worse","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/59120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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