Singapore Welcomes Stability U.S. Brings to Region
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
SINGAPORE, Sept. 18, 2000 -- U.S. military presence is
crucial to stability in the Southeast Asian region, said
U.S. Ambassador to Singapore Steven Green.
Singapore also wants to see a responsible China emerge and
the unrest in Indonesia settled, he said.
Green spoke Sept. 17 to reporters traveling with Defense
Secretary William S. Cohen. Singapore is one stop on the
secretary’s six-nation tour of Asia.
“Regional stability is very important for Singapore,” Green
said. Singapore sees the U.S. presence in the region as
building stability. Singapore has a “very strong” military
and commercial relationship with the United States, he
said.
Singapore is the 10th largest purchaser of American
products in the world. “That means that Singapore buys more
products from the United States than China does,” Green
said. About 18,000 Americans live in Singapore and around
1,300 U.S. companies have made Singapore their regional
headquarters. The city-state with a population of around
3.8 million has influence in the area far beyond its size,
Green said.
“As relates to our military relationship, I don’t think
there’s another country in the world that welcomes our
presence more and makes more assets available to the United
States than does Singapore,” Green said. “Singapore sees
the United States and its presence as a stabilizing factor
for the region. When we had our issues in the Philippines
and left Subic Bay, Singapore made facilities available
here for U.S. forces.”
Green said Singapore hosts between 80 and 100 U.S. Navy
ship visits per year. Singapore is also finishing
construction on the Changi Naval Pier, which will allow
U.S. aircraft carriers to dock and receive full services.
The Singaporeans are even extending the runway from Changi
International Airport out to the dock.
“It will be the only facility where planes can be off-
loaded from carriers in this part of the world,” another
embassy official said.
The new dock will mean more ship visits for Singapore. “A
lot of the [military] logistical issues we deal with are
handled out of Singapore,” he said. “The Singaporeans have
made a very welcoming environment for our men and women
that live here and they’ve made a very welcoming
environment for our men and women who visit here.
“As you can imagine probably the greatest nightmare for an
ambassador is to have 10,000 young hormones running around
the streets of Singapore. But on balance I must say our
military men and women behave very well.” Green said many
of the sailors and Marines that visit volunteer to help the
areas poorer citizens. “Singaporeans need to see that side
of Americans,” he said.
The United States has been doing military exercises with
Singapore for many years. Most of the exercises, however,
have been bilateral. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen
would like to see more multilateral exercises in the
region. Green said Adm. Dennis Blair, commander-in-chief of
U.S. Pacific Command, has also suggested more multilateral
exercises for the region.
“We are having some conversations now with how those
exercises would take place and when and where,” Green said.
“Certainly it would help in humanitarian programs.”
Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said the United States would
like more emphasis on regional security structures. “We
don’t want to replace the bilateral structures,” he said.
“We want to augment them by adding a level of multilateral
exercises.”
Bacon said the East Timor crisis in Indonesia is a perfect
example of multilateral cooperation. The working
relationships the United States forged with Australia and
other nations of the region allowed the coalition to work
smoothly together. It would also take some of the burden
off the U.S. military.
“We’ve always felt that bilateral or multilateral responses
are more effective than unilateral responses,” he said.
The Singapore air force flies F-16s -- in fact, Singapore
just ordered 20 more F-16s for $1 billion. Because of the
lack of training space in Singapore, two squadrons, and
attendant refueling aircraft, are based in the United
States at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., and at Cannon AFB,
N.M. Other squadrons are based in Brunei and Australia.
The United States trains more than 1,000 Singaporean
service members at any given time. Singapore has compulsory
military service, and all healthy men serve for 30 months
once they turn 18.
“This makes for a large military for such a small state,”
said an embassy official. “They are well-trained and well-
equipped. Exercising with them is very useful to both
countries.”
The city-state is not a formal ally of the United States.
Though it has state-of-the-art naval facilities, no U.S.
ships are permanently based here. “Singapore is a facility
and not a homeport,” Green said. “We have a naval logistics
unit based in Singapore of about 135 service members and
some U.S. Air Force personnel stationed here.”
Singapore sees the emergence of a responsible China as an
opportunity. Singaporean officials said the relationship
between the United States and China and the United States
and Japan as two linchpins to regional security.
Singapore’s biggest short-term concern is Indonesia -- the
closest Indonesian islands are only 18 miles away “There
are 220 million people in Indonesia and half the population
is making a dollar a day or less -- 40 million unemployed
people," Green said. "If you are Singapore, you have to be
very concerned about a hungry neighbor and a neighbor that
may be in disarray.”
He said Singapore and the United States would do all they
can to help Indonesia make the transformation to a
democracy. Part of the problem is one of sovereignty.
“There’s not a lot anyone can do unless (the Indonesians)
ask for it,” he said. Still, Singapore has offered help to
Indonesia and consults with its neighbors and the United
States on conditions there.
But Singapore’s biggest concern is that the United States
will not see Southeast Asia as a priority. Officials are
worried the United States will get involved in other areas
of the world and forget about the region. “I must tell you
that Secretary Cohen has made a tremendous difference to
our ability to accomplish things out here,” Green said.
“He’s proven that that is not the case; that [the United
States] is concerned about the region.
“His presence here on a constant basis has been proof of
that. It has really made my job easier in dealing with the
Singaporeans because they understand and they know by his
presence that this is an important area of the world to
us.”
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