Prime Minister Lawrence Wong

speaker

29 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Nov 2025 last heard 24 Nov

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Nov 2025 with 1.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

The MeidasTouch Podcast · Furious World Leaders Lock Out Trump from Closing Ceremony · 24 Nov 2025 podcast

Where are we going?

What do you mean, what do you mean?

For decades, the rules-based multilateral system anchored by the WTO provided this stability, but the system is now under severe strain.

One reason is that the system has been optimized for efficiency in a different era, and it has not caught up with the realities of today's world.

realities like digital trade, as well as the fact that interdependencies are increasingly being seen as vulnerabilities and are open to being weaponized or used as leverage in moments of dispute.

Understandably, countries are taking actions to protect themselves and to prioritize resilience and security.

Yet, if every nation goes its own way, the global system will unravel even more quickly.

And when that happens, everyone will be worse off.

And the heaviest burden will fall on the developing nations.

So we do need to reform and update the global system to ensure it addresses the strategic realities of our time.

First, we must recommit to the core foundations which remain relevant today, and that means upholding international law and the norms and practices that guide state behavior.

That is critical to continued peace and stability in the world.

Second, we must reform the current system, be it the WTO or other global institutions.

We cannot be paralyzed by old ways of doing things.

We all have to get behind the urgent reforms that are needed in the WTO so that it becomes more effective and outcome-oriented.

We should complement the WTO with flexible multilateral approaches, and that's why Singapore supports minilaterals and plurilaterals, which can serve as important pathfinders towards updating global rules.

Third, we should build new partnerships.

And as several colleagues have talked about just now, we are making progress with partnerships and dialogues between the CPTPP and ASEAN, as well as the CPTPP and the EU.

In fact, two days ago, ministers came together and had a very productive trade and investment dialogue covering issues like trade and investment facilitation, digital trade and supply chain resilience.

Showing 1–20 of 29 · page 1 of 2