Singapore’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan (left) speaks with CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick at a CONVERGE LIVE event on April 22, 2026.
CNBC
If war breaks out between China and the United States in the Pacific, “what we are seeing in the Strait of Hormuz will be a dry run,” Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said on Wednesday.
Balakrishnan made the remarks at CNBC’s CONVERGE LIVE event in Singapore, responding to a question about whether the city-state is under pressure from Washington and China to choose between them.
Balakrishnan told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick that Singapore is uniquely positioned to take advantage of developments in the United States and China because of its ties to both countries.
The United States is Singapore’s largest foreign investor, with about 6,000 American companies based in the city-state. Singapore also has a goods trade deficit of about $3.6 billion with the United States, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Meanwhile, China is Singapore’s largest trading partner, and Singapore is China’s largest foreign investor.
Singapore would “refuse to choose” one or the other, he added. “The way we do things is to assess what is in Singapore’s long-term national interest, and if we have to say no to Washington or China or anyone else, we will not be daunted by that.”
“We are acting in the long-term national interest. We may be useful, but we will not be taken advantage of,” he said.
“Choke points are important”
Separately, Balakrishnan said the Middle East conflict showed that “choke points are important”, noting that Singapore also straddles one of the world’s key trade arteries, the Strait of Malacca.
The Strait of Malacca is 2 nautical miles at its narrowest point, while the Strait of Hormuz is 21 nautical miles.
The minister was also asked whether Iran’s move to collect tolls from ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz might lead other countries to consider collecting tolls through chokepoints such as the Strait of Malacca.
In March, Iranian state media reported that the Iranian government was preparing a bill to impose tolls on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
Mr Balakrishnan said that while this scenario would be a risk, the countries along the Strait of Malacca – Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia – had a strategic interest in keeping it open and not charging tolls.
“With respect to both the United States and China, we have told them that we are operating under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” he said, referring to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Article 44 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea states that “States bordering straits shall not obstruct navigation…. There shall be no suspension of navigation.”
“The right of transport access is guaranteed to everyone. We will not participate in any attempt to close or prohibit neighborhoods or impose tolls,” Balakrishnan said.
building trust
Singapore’s Balakrishnan emphasized building trust as the Middle East crisis, the war in Ukraine, and US tariffs sow mistrust between countries.
“Trust is basically a way to lower transaction costs. There’s real value in being predictable, in being boring, in being trustworthy, in being trustworthy.”
His remarks followed those of Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, who delivered the keynote speech at the event. “Trust can no longer be assumed, it must be built and strengthened,” Gunn said.
Mr Gan said Singapore was already an important financial center, adding that the city-state’s next step was to build a broader ecosystem for trust-based services, including risk management, cybersecurity and AI governance.
