Southeast Asian countries can shape their own destiny amid the deepening US-China rivalry, and the region seeks to be an “inclusive arena” where both powers are actively engaged, according to Singapore’s prime minister.
Lawrence Wong, speaking on Wednesday at a dialogue as part of a World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Tianjin, said countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) collectively made up a sizeable economy with “considerable heft”.
“Asean has the ability to shape its own destiny, to shape its own future. Asean was the arena for proxy wars during the Cold War. We don’t want that to happen again,” he told the meeting, more commonly known as Summer Davos.
According to Wong, the regional bloc’s approach to great power competition is clear: it rejects zero-sum competition and embraces engagement with the US, China and other powers.
Southeast Asia counts the US as its biggest investor and China as its largest trading partner.
“We want both to be actively engaged. We want other major powers to be actively engaged. And we want the region to be an open and inclusive arena where people have stakes in … and we can all work together for shared prosperity,” he said.
