Singapore still keen on ASEAN

Singapore still keen on ASEAN

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Singapore remains committed to the
Association of South East Asian nations (ASEAN) despite efforts
to forge free trade pacts outside the 10-nation bloc, Foreign
Affairs Minister S. Jayakumar said on Tuesday.

Jayakumar also told parliament that the tiny but economically
powerful city state was keeping a keen eye on civil unrest and
political developments in Indonesia and Malaysia, but took a
long-term view of relations with its much bigger nabbers.

Economic and political turmoil on the back of the region's
financial crisis of 1997-98 had hit investor confidence in many
parts of ASEAN, driving funds to northern Asia, he said.

"We will work with others to overcome present difficulties and
to keep ASEAN on track in important projects such as the ASEAN
Free Trade Area," Jayakumar said.

"ASEAN is of primary importance to us. But of equal
significance is our need to reach out and engage with the rest of
the world."

Export-driven Singapore signed its first bilateral free trade
agreement with New Zealand last year and has held formal talks
with the United States, Australia and Japan.

Analysts say Singapore's push for bilateral trade pacts could
spur its neighbors into boosting their own two-way agreements.

Jayakumar said ties between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur --
beset by long-standing issues over air space, railway land and
Malaysia's supply of nearly all of the city state's water -- had
improved and progress was being made on several fronts.

Singapore had agreed, in principle, to move a Malaysian-owned
railway station from the heart of a prime patch of real estate to
the border district of Kranji and to the construction of a tunnel
between the two countries, he said.

But the issue of water -- particularly the proposed price of
the Malaysian supply from 2011 to 2061 and beyond -- still needed
to be resolved and an agreement forged, he added.

Singapore has had an often uneasy time with Malaysia since it
seceded from its larger neighbor in 1965, powering forward in
economic terms but also acutely aware of its small size and
vulnerability in a region known for instability.

Comments by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in January that
Malays fared better in the largely Chinese Singapore than in
Malaysia prompted Kuala Lumpur to retort he should not be
meddling in its affairs.

Mending relations topped the agenda during last month's visit
by Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Ties with Indonesia have also been fraught with tension over
the years, with concern heightened recently by ethnic violence in
various parts of the archipelago, its battered economy and
intense pressure on President Addurrahaman Wahid to step down.

"We have always valued our relations with Indonesia," said
Jayakumar. "However, there will be ups-and-downs along the way...
We should therefore be prepared to ride out any difficulties that
come along with bilateral relations."

Wahid lashed Singapore in November for being anti-Malay and
ignoring its neighbors unless there was money to be made, but the
two sides patching up some differences in January by hailing
cooperation on a new natural gas project.