Asian perspectives of the United States have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent”, Singapore’s defence chief has said on the sidelines of an international security meeting.
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Ng Eng Hen said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference on Friday that assumptions made in the years after the end of World War II had fundamentally changed.
One example he gave was that from the time of US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country that would not allow tyranny such as colonial control to be replaced by another form of tyranny. Now “the image has changed from liberator to great disruptor to a landlord seeking rent”, he said, according to a prepared text of his remarks posted on a government website over the weekend.
The remarks came after US President Donald Trump’s administration blindsided historic Nato allies with plans to directly negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the future of the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine. The fear for many officials at the conference in Germany was that by dialling back support for Ukraine, Trump had invited Putin to probe Nato’s willingness to defend the alliance’s eastern borders.
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Ukraine says it won’t accept any US-Russia peace deal reached without Kyiv
Ukraine says it won’t accept any US-Russia peace deal reached without Kyiv
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, meanwhile, has said that the US deserves “payback” from Ukraine for its support against the Russian invasion and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would be “very wise” to accept a minerals deal offered by the Trump team. Zelensky has rejected a US draft agreement that would give Washington access to critical minerals in the war-battered nation because it did not offer investments and sufficient protections.
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