Ukraine war: Singapore urges China to use ‘enormous influence’ on Russia to end conflict

‘I hope they will assert their influence with Chinese characteristics, which means quietly and discreetly, but effectively,’ Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said

He also said Beijing has a greater economic stake than Moscow in an ‘integrated multilateral rules-based world’

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Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:39am, 16 Mar 2022

Singapore’s top diplomat said he hopes China will use its “enormous influence” on Russia to help end its war with Ukraine, warning that Beijing’s decisions in the coming days and weeks could determine the future path of the global economy.

“The big issue now is what decisions and actions China takes,” Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan said in an interview with Bloomberg.

“If you get a deepening of the bifurcation of the global economy, of supply chains, of technology, this will be a very, very different world.”

Singapore last month became the first Southeast Asian nation to say it is imposing unilateral sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine, a move Balakrishnan said was necessary due to “the egregiousness of it all.”

Calling the invasion “perhaps even a bigger moment than the fall of the Berlin Wall,” he said China has a greater economic stake than Russia in an “integrated multilateral rules-based world.”