Debated in Parliament on 10 Nov 2016.
Ms Sylvia Lim asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs what is the Government's assessment of the current state of bilateral relations with China after Singapore's alleged initiative on South China Sea disputes at the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Venezuela and given Singapore's official stand on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The Global Times, a Chinese tabloid, made a false allegation that Singapore tried to unilaterally insert South China Sea-related language into the Final Document of the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Venezuela. Since our factual rebuttals of the false allegations are known publicly, I will not repeat them here.
As Members know, Singapore has a long-standing and broad relationship with China. We celebrated 25 years of diplomatic relations and upgraded our relationship into an "All-Round Cooperative Partnership Progressing with the Times" last year when President Xi Jinping made a state visit. Singapore’s cooperation with China remains deep and multi-faceted. China is our top trading partner and we have been China’s top foreign investor since 2013.
Singapore has also been a consistent advocate of a free and open international trade system. We were a founding member of the P4, which subsequently developed into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP is intended to be an open and inclusive agreement. Singapore welcomes China to join the TPP when they are ready to do so, in the same way that we supported China's accession to the World Trade Organisation.
Singapore’s position as a non-claimant state in the South China Sea disputes has been articulated in this House on several occasions, including the Committee of Supply Debate in February this year. Prime Minister Lee also explained in considerable detail our position during this year’s National Day Rally. It will be useful for the Member and her party to state, for the record, whether they agree with the Government's position. If not, what is their position?
The Chinese leaders know Singapore's position and also understand that our bilateral relations extend far beyond a single issue. Hence, when Prime Minister Lee was invited to attend the G20 Leaders’ Summit hosted by China and met President Xi in Hangzhou this September, the two leaders agreed to strengthen our mutually beneficial cooperation based on the principle of mutual respect and mutual understanding. The Chongqing Connectivity Initiative, our third Government-to-Government project, is also making good progress.
People-to-people exchanges continue to be robust. Just recently, we hosted a Guangdong delegation under the Singapore Cooperation Programme to exchange views on developmental experience.
On the Government's part, we continue to support private-sector efforts through initiatives, such as the proposed upgrade of the China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.
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