Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) yesterday called for greater integration between Southeast Asian nations at a time when multilateralism is under threat.
His remarks came at a business summit on the sidelines of meetings this week between the 10-member ASEAN and external partners, including the US and China, which are in a dispute over trade.
“ASEAN has great potential, but fully realizing it depends on whether we choose to become more integrated and work resolutely towards this goal in a world where multilateralism is fraying under political pressures,” Lee said at the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit.
Photo: Reuters
Lee has previously said that the US-China trade dispute could have a “big, negative impact” on Singapore, and the city-state’s central bank has said it could soon drag on growth.
Meanwhile, US Vice President Mike Pence said that US President Donald Trump’s absence at the summits was not a snub.
Pence arrived in Tokyo yesterday, with his trip to take him to Singapore and Papua New Guinea.
He faces the challenge of reassuring allies about US policy toward Asia.
The US’ commitment to the Indo-Pacific region “has never been stronger,” Pence told reporters in Alaska on Sunday night en route to Tokyo.
Trump’s decision to skip the event is “not in the least” a snub, Pence said, adding that the president is “where the American people would want him” in Paris for World War I commemorations.
Trump became the first US president not to attend an ASEAN summit since 2013, when then-US president Barack Obama canceled his visit to deal with a US government shutdown.
Pence has the president’s full backing and plans to announce several new initiatives during his week-long trip, a senior US administration official said.
They include bilateral, trilateral and possibly larger initiatives that cover the digital economy, energy and infrastructure, said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
As the top representative from the world’s largest economy, Pence is to have an audience with several world leaders interested in hearing more about US policy.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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