MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Singapore's foreign policy, as in the past, will be governed by two objectives -strengthening and consolidating domestic economic progress and security on the one hand and the active promotion of regional cooperation to maximise regional peace and prosperity.

As far as global peace and economics are concerned, Singapore is in no position to influence effectively the course of world events. The principal actors in this area are a handful of rich and powerful nations. Singapore's policy would be to stay out of their conflicts but cooperate with them where their policies serve our national and regional interests.

Insofar as regional politics is concerned, Singapore is aware that Western influence and involvement are no longer dominant factors. The major powers will still treat the region as an area of contest but except for Japan and China, the other powers no longer regard Southeast Asia as crucial to their interests as it once was.

Nevertheless the major industrial powers are still important to us economically and their policies will affect our security for better or for worse, Their investments, their markets and their technology are necessary for our continued economic progress.

Equally our security and independence would be jeopardised if, through unwise and short-sighted policies, we unwittingly bring about the dominance of the region by a single great power.

In the light of these new realities our foreign policy must be flexible and sophisticated. Hard facts rather than wishful thinking should dictate decisions. We cannot, in an increasingly turbulent area, predict how events would develop but we must be prepared to discard outdated policies in favour of new approaches if circumstances demand them.

We believe that ASEAN could be a stabilising factor and a source of strength for its members provided we give regional cooperation more substance than we have done the past ten years. If we do not move faster than we have done so far, then events could overtake us. And then ASEAN might not have either the vitality or the collective strength to cope with them.

Regional cooperation should not merely stop at ASEAN. New states with different social systems have emerged in Southeast Asia. It is vital that the ASEAN states should not conceive of relations between them and the new states in terms of confrontation for such an approach must ultimately be disastrous to both sides.

It would be unrealistic to ignore the fact that there are mutual suspicions and fears between some of the ASEAN states and the new states. But given time and firm but flexible policies we believe that the existence of different social systems are not insuperable barriers to the development of sound and mutually beneficial relations between the Southeast Asian countries.

We must believe in this because the alternative is protracted conflict which will only open the way for outside manipulation and eventual domination.

S RAJARATNAM Minister for Foreign Affairs