SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has described his future successor as a person who is not only a "mobiliser and a communicator", but also "a doer, an analyst, an implementer, and a team builder".
In an interview with Beijing-based magazine Caijing published on Wednesday (Sep 7), Mr Lee said: "It takes time, but I have a promising team of younger Ministers and I am quite sure from amongst them, one leader will emerge."
The Prime Minister earlier spoke about the importance of leadership succession during the National Day Rally in August. His successor must be ready to take over from him soon after the next general election, he had said.
SINGAPORE, CHINA HAVE MUTUAL RESPECT EVEN WHEN THEY DISAGREE: MR LEE
During the interview with the magazine on Sunday, while he was in Hangzhou for the first G20 Summit hosted by China, Mr Lee also talked about his views on Singapore-China relations.
"It is a broad and substantial relationship. We have been friends for a long time. We cooperate in many areas – economic, trade, education, culture – and on political issues too, and also regionally with ASEAN," he said.
"But we are two countries, so we see the world from our respective perspectives. We have different vital interests, and we have different national policies and priorities. Often they align with each other and therefore we are able to cooperate. Sometimes, we have different perspectives and we respect each other’s points of view."
He also praised China's choice of topic, which was the blueprint for innovative growth, for the Summit.
"I think the Chinese government has chosen a very suitable topic for the Hangzhou
Summit ... These are opportunities and issues which face many countries, China included, and it is an area that we can cooperate and work together."
ASEAN MUST BE "AS COHESIVE AS POSSIBLE TO BE EFFECTIVE"
On whether the US was competing with China for influence in ASEAN with the US' rebalancing towards Asia, Mr Lee – who is currently in Laos attending the biannual ASEAN Summit – said during the interview: "There is always competition for influence but there are also opportunities for cooperation. Countries in Asia – Singapore, certainly, but many other countries too – are good friends to both China and America and we would like to be good friends with both."
He added that it was important for the ASEAN countries to be "as cohesive as possible to be effective, and to be a significant partner which can work with China, Japan, US or the EU."
"If ASEAN is split and Southeast Asia becomes a region where different powers contend with each other and try to jockey and gain advantage and play one country against another, it will raise tensions in the region and it will be very bad for all the ASEAN countries."
One way the ASEAN countries is working with partners is on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, which Mr Lee pushed for during his recent official visit to the US.
The Prime Minister emphasised the importance of promoting free trade between countries. "We have to work towards free trade because otherwise we will miss out on many opportunities for cooperation and relations amongst countries will become much more difficult," he said.
While negotiations for the TPP have been completed and the agreement signed, it still has to be ratified by all 12 participant countries. In the US, it is difficult to tell how this process will unfold, Mr Lee commented: "During an election campaign in America, it is very seldom popular to talk about free trade and to be in favour of free trade."
"We hope that after the election is over, there will be an opportunity either before January, in the lame�duck term of Congress, or after January, when the new President comes in and he is faced with the problem and he has to decide what to do."
- CNA/mz