This mean by taking the position of what the China paper advocate ---- there will be a total breakdown of international order ------ and turn the World into a slaughtering house -- when might is resorted where there is a dispute.
And it will mark the flashpoint for WW3.
Is this is what the China paper want?
No single issue should define a diplomatic relationship: PM Lee on South China Sea disputes
By
Linette Lim
Posted 29 Sep 2016 18:17
Updated 29 Sep 2016 18:20
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong speaks to Singapore media while on his official visit to Japan. (Photo: Linette Lim)
TOKYO: No single issue should define the whole relationship with another country, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday (Sep 29), referring to regional disagreements over the South China Sea.
“How do we maintain a position both for Singapore, and also as the dialogue coordinator for the ASEAN-China relationship? You can see what we have been trying to do - where we are able to say what Singapore stands for… where we can try to help push things forward for the other countries, we work with them to do that,” said Mr Lee.
“Where the countries don’t agree, well we just accept that there are different perspectives … because no single issue defines the whole relationship with another country.”
He added that because these relationships are “always multifaceted” - covering trade, people-to-people relations, educational cooperation, and tourism – there needs to be effort to “try and contain the issues where there may be difficulties and not let it sour up the whole gamut of ties”.
Mr Lee, who was speaking to Singapore media at the end of his four-day official visit to Japan, was responding to questions on whether he was concerned that Singapore will be increasingly being called upon to take a stand on regional disputes and the repercussions for Singapore if it is seen as "playing" multiple sides.
“I think we must never be seen to be playing multiple sides. We must have a stand, our own position and we stick to that position whomever we are talking to ... You cannot have different messages for different people because you will soon run into very serious trouble.”
Mr Lee reiterated that Singapore’s basic foreign policy approach is to be friends with all the countries who are willing to be friends with it.
“It’s easier if they are also friends with one another, but from time to time there will be issues between our friends, and we will have to decide where we are going to stand and how we can try our best to preserve our friendship with both sides.”
“NO DOUBT” ON WHERE THE MAJORITY OF ASEAN COUNTRIES STAND ON TRIBUNAL RULING
Before the Prime Minister met with Singapore media on Thursday afternoon, he also took part in a
conference and dialogue session, where he fielded questions on the ASEAN-China relationship.
When asked if he was concerned over the lack of consensus on the South China Sea, Mr Lee said it is difficult for 10 countries to have a single position, as if it were one country.
“Some countries are in a different geopolitical position … for example, Laos and Cambodia, which are very close friends of China and have been a for a long time and understandably so,” he said, adding that it was more important to work together on basic principles which all countries can agree on.
One principle important to Singapore, and to most of the ASEAN countries, is the respect for international rule of law, according to Mr Lee.
He noted that even though ASEAN did not express a position on the recent tribunal ruling on the South China Sea, “many of the individual countries did make statements, so it’s quite clear where they stand.”
“There’s no doubt where the seven or eight countries - most of the 10 countries – stand,” he said.
WITHOUT RULE OF LAW, “THE POWERFUL DO WHAT THEY WILL AND THE WEAK SUFFER WHAT THEY MUST”
As the coordinator for ASEAN-China relations, Mr Lee pointed out that it is neither possible to command ASEAN and corral everybody into one position, nor negotiate with China on behalf of ASEAN.
“What is possible for us to do, is for us to be an honest broker … and try to bring about a consensus where that is possible,” he said.
Speaking from Singapore’s point of view, he said that abiding by a rules-based international framework, which includes tribunal, international courts, and the UN Security Council, is important.
“If there is no international rule of law, and it’s just law of the jungle, and the powerful do what they will and the weak suffer what they must - which is what Thucydides has characterised it as - then there is no place in the world for a small country like Singapore,” said the Prime Minister.
He added that Singapore also recognises that the reality is that big powers “don’t always abide by the rules”, and this applies not just to China, but has happened with the US, and with Britain.
Mr Lee, who was in Japan to mark the 50th year of diplomatic relations between the two countries, described his official visit as “good all-round” and ‘multi-purpose”.
He met with Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe,
Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, senior politicians and Japanese business leaders, as well as
Singaporeans residing in Japan. He also collected a posthumous
award recognising the late founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s contributions to Singapore-Japan relations.
- CNA/ll
