SINGAPORE (TVBS News) – U.S. Ambassador to Singapore Jonathan Kaplan wondered on Thursday whether many have forgotten what it took to get to a stable world, despite improvements in “human collective knowledge” and “resources to develop.”
Speaking at the grand opening of the Milken Institute Asia Summit, he remarked that wars have immeasurable human costs and sacrifices from people and governments, stressing that “our world order is quickly becoming uncertain.”
“Now more than ever, we need to safeguard what we have built by facing our challenges and looking at the opportunities that define the 21st century,” he said.
“Now more than ever, we need to protect the rule of law, national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and free and fair trade,” he added. “Now more than ever, we need to reject authoritarians who disregard the will of their nations, completely ignore basic human rights, and it will often engage in cumbersome and unfair trade practices.”
The U.S. ambassador stressed the need to redefine the global trade strategy and develop a sustainable Indo-Pacific economic framework to address the complex challenges of the region and capitalize on the tremendous opportunities that lie ahead.
“We must fight disinformation to man the truth except for the facts,” he continued, stressing that “peace will not be ubiquitous; it will not be cost-free.”
According to the ambassador, the international system will have to be adapted to “minimize the cost to our world to expand the games that globalization has helped us to foster and to ensure that we continue to serve the interests and aspirations of our next generation.”
“To paraphrase President Biden, we’re writing the rules, the new rules for the 21st century that are going to help all of our countries grow faster and fairer,” he concluded.
