Transcript of Doorstop Interview by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam in Luxembourg on 28 March 2025

Question 1: What are some of President’s key takeaways from this trip, and why are these takeaways significant for Singapore?

Question 2: Given the uncertain global economic outlook and many political changes taking place in Europe now, how will Singapore navigate all of this and work with our partners to make sure that Singapore benefits?

Question 3: Specifically on small states, how should small states like Singapore work together in this volatile world?

President Tharman Shanmugaratnam: I’ve had very productive discussions during my two State Visits in Belgium and Luxembourg – with King Philippe and Queen Mathilde in Belgium, together with their ministers, officials, and even business leaders and social sector NGOs; and here in Luxembourg with the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess, their ministers and business leaders.

I would say there's remarkable alignment in our thinking, and in our resolve in how we stay relevant as small countries and play a responsible role in today's world.

We can see that the world is changing. We also know that there's a very high degree of uncertainty. In other words, we can't actually see how the world will change in the years to come, but we nevertheless have to survive, we've got to thrive, and we've got to contribute to the global good. And one thing that comes across very strongly in all the conversations we've had is that it's critical for us, as small countries especially, to be predictable, to be stable and to always hold up our side of the bargain. The business leaders themselves were very clear about that. Singapore is not the cheapest place in Asia to do manufacturing or build ships or anything else, but their companies are making investments for the long-term, and for them, it's predictability and trust in Singapore that brings them to Singapore. That came through very clearly.

The second issue that came through is that as small countries, even more than before, we've got to prove our worth in the world through deep expertise. We're not going to be good at everything. We're small countries, so our expertise is not very broad, but where we do have some advantage, we've got to have deep expertise. And that's the strategy for all three of us: Singapore, Belgium, Luxembourg.

We build on a foundation that started early. A foundation not just of developing expertise on our own, but of exchanging expertise. It goes back a long way. It was a Belgian company, Hesse Natie, that taught us how to handle container traffic at our port at Pasir Panjang in the early days. And in the reclamation work that we did way back, another Belgian company, DEME, was deeply involved. But now, it's a two-way exchange. PSA, in the Port of Antwerp and Bruges, is working very actively with the Belgians, to develop a green port, as well as a green maritime corridor, plus digitising the maritime trade so that you also have green lanes for the goods when they arrive at port. That's an example of how they originally helped us, we are now helping them and working together for them.

Other areas such as mRNA vaccines, where again Belgium is a leader; particle therapy for cancer, where their company IBA is a global leader. And here we have in SES in Luxembourg, a global leader in space technology. We're very happy to work with them. It’s a good example also, of how public-private collaborations have led to breakthroughs in technology and global leadership. SES was originally a state company in Luxembourg, and eventually listed so it's now largely private-owned. It is now collaborating with a young Singapore company, SpeQtral, a spinoff from NUS Centre for Quantum Technologies, which was also publicly funded. What SpeQtral did was to develop the quantum keys to enable end-to-end encryption in satellite communications – with huge market potential – but they can only scale up by working with a global leader like SES. So, a good interesting example of how we develop deep expertise, and we partner each other to have a global impact.

The other dimension of my conversations, both with the leaders in Belgium and Luxembourg as well as European Council President Ursula von der Leyen, was in how we collaborate between our regions, and with Singapore being a catalyst in Europe-Asia collaboration. That was always important, but it's more important than ever before now, given the changes we're seeing in the world. Europe is very keen on collaborating with Asia – with China, with India, with ASEAN. And with each area, there will be a different mode of collaboration. They have some concerns with China, but they don't want to walk away from China. That's very clear in our conversations, and we spent some time talking about that.

Europe has convening power, and some bargaining power. It can be a very important player at this pivotal time in the global economy and in global politics. But Europe is not large enough on its own. It is also not monolithic with respect to the interests of its member states. So they will find it very useful to work with like-minded partners elsewhere, like us in Singapore and other Asian nations.

The development of the Europe-Asia relationship in areas like digital trade - where we're now very likely to see the final agreement on the EU-Singapore Digital Trade Agreement (DTA) within a matter of months – in AI safety, in everything to do with advancing sustainability, at a time when some parts of the world are retreating from climate action, each of these collaborations are going to be critical.

Small countries, both in Europe and us in Asia can play a catalytic role. The key is to take a long-term view, partner each other, always hold to our side of the agreement, so that there's mutual benefit. 

It's an important shift that's taking place in the world economy. We are not badly positioned in Singapore because there's a very high regard for us – there's a high trust in Singapore – but we've got to keep deepening our capabilities and keep finding partnerships that make us useful.