SINGAPORE – Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that disruption of energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz is an Asian problem is not “completely wrong”.
Asian economies are among the biggest customers of energy shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, so any prolonged disruption would be particularly significant for the region.
President Trump said Asian economies should shoulder more of the burden of keeping waterways open, rather than relying primarily on U.S. protection.
“We don’t use the straits. We don’t need the straits. Europe needs the straits. South Korea, Japan, China, (and) many other people need the straits,” he said earlier this year.
But Balakrishnan cautioned against viewing the issue through the simple lens of who buys the oil, stressing the importance of maintaining freedom of navigation in international waterways. He spoke to CNBC on Wednesday at the Milken Institute’s Asia Summit in Singapore.
Mr Balakrishnan said the principles were “non-negotiable” for Singapore, citing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the right of transit and freedom of navigation. “For us, this is an existential issue, it is a matter of principle, it is a matter of international law,” Balakrishnan said.
He also said Iran’s attempts to advocate stronger regulation of traffic through Hormuz go beyond the revenue it receives from tolls and fees.
From Tehran’s perspective, the ability to assault ships could effectively establish the right to decide which ships are allowed through, giving Iran what Balakrishnan described as a potential “veto power” over Hormuz.
This power could give Iran “more leverage, from an Iranian perspective, than a potential nuclear weapon,” he said.
Balakrishnan added that he did not expect the United States or Gulf states to tolerate a situation in which Iran had such a veto over the waterway, suggesting tensions could persist even if oil spills continue.
“There’s going to be a lot of pushover in the coming months,” he said, adding that he didn’t think there would be a “quick diplomatic end” to the conflict.
Balakrishnan warned in April that the U.S.-China standoff in the Pacific could make the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz look like a “dry run,” highlighting the vulnerability of global trade to key maritime chokepoints.
Balakrishnan insisted that Singapore “refuses to choose” between Washington and China and instead acts in its own long-term national interests, while stressing that the city-state supports freedom of navigation in the Strait of Malacca and will not participate in efforts to close, block or toll the waterway.
