Singaporean FM urges Int'l cooperation against COVID-19, opposes blame game

Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan has cautioned against resorting to blame game amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and called for international cooperation to combat the highly infectious disease.

The biggest challenges facing humanity, including pandemics and climate change, are transnational ones, so dealing with them will require cooperation, multipolar leadership, and multilateral institutions and processes,Balakrishnan told the virtual Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday evening.

"We're moving from a unipolar world into a multipolar world and the hope that America somehow will single-handedly carry this world is not realistic," he said, adding that the "old canard (that) you are either with us or against us does not work in a multipolar world."

Calling the Chinese government's decision to impose a lockdown on the Chinese city of Wuhan two days before the Chinese New Year "a big deal," Balakrishnan said that the move shows that once the Chinese government understood the gravity of the situation, did things most other governments would hesitate to do, and did so decisively and comprehensively.

China's willingness to take decisive measures to contain the coronavirus even at great economic cost is worthwhile and should be credited, he said.