The World's Not Okay - Singapore Says it Out Loud

Singapore PM says the era of global economic stability is over: the diplomatic equivalent of a five-alarm fire

Apr 06, 2025

In a tone reminiscent of the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Singaporean leaders - among America’s closest allies in Asia - are sounding the alarm over the potential fallout from Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs. Led by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, officials are warning citizens to prepare for significant financial pain, citing concerns that sweeping tariffs on imports could disrupt global supply chains and hit export-driven economies like Singapore especially. The message is clear: the ear of global economic stability is over, and the ripple effects of U.S. political decisions are already being felt far beyond its borders.

Mr. Wong said Singapore, which was hit by the lower tier tariffs of 10 percent will, for now, not impose retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. (However, other Asian nations such as Thailand and Vietnam are already reaching to concluded their own bilateral deals with the Trump team). Mr. Wong said Singapore will benefit from its large reserves, and “cohesiveness and resolve.” Here’s what Mr. Wong had to say:

The recent Liberation Day announcement by the U.S. leaves no room for doubt. It marks a seismic change in the global order. We are entering a new phase. One that is more arbitrary, protectionist and dangerous. For decades the U.S. was the bedrock for the free market economies of the world, and let efforts to build a multilateral trading system…

What the U.S. is doing now is not reform. It is abandoning the entire system it had created. Its new approach of reciprocal tariffs, country by country, is a complete rejection of the WTO framework….

The likelihood of a full-blown global trade war is growing…

Singapore will take a bigger hot than others, because of our heavy reliance on trade. The last time the world experienced something like this was in the 1930s. Trade wars escalated into armed conflict - and eventually the Second World War. Now one can say how the current situation will unfold in the coming months or years. But we must be clear-eyed about the dangers that are building up in the world. Global institutions are getting weaker. International norms are eroding….

We must brace ourselves for more shocks to come…The risks are real and the stakes are high.

Comment: Having interviewed the founder of modern Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, more than any other foreign correspondent, I know the island nation well. When Mr. Wong and his ministers speak with this level of urgency, its the diplomatic equivalent of a five-alarm fire. His sentiment aligns with earlier remarks by former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who warned in 2023 that any clash between the U.S. and China would have grievous consequences for the world. Take it from me: the Singaporeans know China - and the wider region - extremely well. Their assessment needs to be taken seriously.

The Singapore story is one of a stunning economic success - but it remains very vulnerable to external forces beyond its control

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Less than 48 hours after pounding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvij Rih, Russia released a missile and drone barrage - targeting Kyiv and Kharkiv especially. The capital’s mayor said early this morning that there were fires in the areas of the city and that a business center was partially demolished. Poland said it activated it defense systems and deployed fighter jets as Russian strikes reached close to Ukraine’s western border.

Russia’s war in Ukraine is taking a “poisonous” toll on the country’s soil, air wand water. According to experts cited by The New York Times, damage from artillery shells, mines, drones and missiles will endure for decades. It will degrade industries like farming and mining, introduce health risks and erode natural beauty. Fields are pocked with shell craters, their soil contaminated with the residue of explosives. Burning fuel tanks spew pollution into the air and wildfires burn unchecked in combat zones. Water from reservoirs has poured through destroyed dams, causing droughts upstream and damaging floods below. As the war enters its fourth year, Ukrainian authorities are collecting evidence of a new type of war crime known as ecocide. Prosecutors are pursuing 247 cases of environmental war crimes against Russia.

A top U.S. General, Christopher Cavoli, testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee that Russia is on track to produce 250,000 artillery shells per month, which would give it a stockpile three times larger than the combined artillery reserves of the US and Europe. The US currently produces 40,000 shells per month, with plans to increase this to 90,000 by 2026. The EU aims to reach a production of 167,000 shells per month by the end of 2025. Cavoli also warned that despite significant battlefield losses in Ukraine, Russia is rapidly replenishing its military strength. He emphasized that Russia is replacing not only its artillery but also tanks, armoured vehicles, and troops at a much faster pace than anticipated. Russia is expected to produce 1,500 tanks annually, while the US produces only 135. In the past year, Russia has lost an estimated 3,000 tanks, 9,000 armoured vehicles, 13,000 artillery systems, and over 400 air defense systems but is on track to replace them all - Business Insider

Russian sensors suspected of attempting to spy on the UK’s nuclear submarines have been found hidden in the seas around Britain. The discovery by the military has been deemed a potential threat to national security and has not been made previously public. Several devices were found after they washed ashore, but others are understood to have been located by the Royal Navy’s minehunter ships. The devices are believed to have been planted by Moscow to try to gather intelligence on the four Vanguard submarines, which carry nuclear missiles. As part of a Sunday Times investigation, it was found that the UK has discovered Russian unmanned underwater vehicles near deep-sea communication cables. The Ministry of Defence has also uncovered credible intelligence that superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs may have been used for underwater reconnaissance - The Sunday Times

Donald Trump risks making a “historical mistake” if his negotiations to end the war in Ukraine result in the US recognising Russia’s claims to Crimea and other occupied territory, says the Polish government’s adviser on Ukraine. Paweł Kowal, who advises Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Ukraine and heads the Polish parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said in an interview that a “red line” would be crossed for Poland and the rest of central Europe if expanded Russian borders were legally recognised as a result of the invasion of a neighbouring country. Kowal was speaking before flying to Washington on Sunday to meet senior members of the US Congress and Keith Kellogg, President Trump’s special envoy on Ukraine. There was a clear difference, Kowal said, between “provisional solutions” to end the fighting in Ukraine and the fulfilment of “Russian expectations to recognise Crimea, Donbas or other parts of Ukraine, which would be a historical mistake”. In terms of the precedent this would set enabling Putin to expand “imperial Russia”, Kowal warned, “it would be horrible”. - FT