The Conversation on the Indo-Pacific with George Yeo, Former Foreign Minister of Singapore

George Yeo is a Singaporean former politician and Brigadier General who served as Singapore's Foreign Minister between 2004 and 2011.

With both a diplomatic and military background, Yeo is well qualified to talk on issues of security as well as the broader geopolitical and geo-economic issues of these neighboring countries, with Singapore situated in the heart of the Indo-Pacific region, and occupying a relatively ‘neutral' position.

Yeo is a diplomat who also has a distinguished military career, having served in the Singapore Army where he rose to the rank of Brigadier General, and also served in the Singapore Air Force (RSAF) between 1976 and 1988. He was Chief of Staff – Air Staff between 1985 and 1986, and Director of Joint Operations and Planning at the Ministry of Defense between 1986 and 1988.

A former member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), Yeo was the MP representing the Bedok Reservoir–Punggol ward of Aljunied GRC between 1988 and 2011. He also served as Minister for Information and the Arts between 1990 and 1999, Minister for Health between 1994 and 1997, Minister for Trade and Industry between 1999 and 2004, and Minister for Foreign Affairs between 2004 and 2011.

Speakers:
- George Yeo, Former Foreign Minister of Singapore
- Dr. David Martin Jones, Danube Institute’s Director of Research
- Dr. Csaba Barnabás Horváth, Danube Institute Research Fellow specializing in Asian geopolitical security
- Dr. Viktor Eszterhai, Research Director of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs (HIIA)
- Melissa O’Sullivan, Deputy Director of the Danube Institute

Music Info:
Flying and Uplifting - No Copyright Background Music by LesFreeMusic.
Music Link: • Flying and Uplift...
Outro Music by Coma-Media from Pixaba

[kaimingraymondchoi]

For the benefit of the panel and all our friends watching, I would like to tell you:- China electricity price continuously dropped in the past twenty years. Thanks for its huge investment in hydro-power. China medical cost and education cost have dropped a lot in the past five years. Thanks to Xi's effort to curb corruption and allocated resources to help the middle and lower class.
Housing prices are dropping. Thanks to the CCP policy, houses are for people to live not for people to speculate. Yet it is this government that get tons of criticism from the West. China may need to sell more mirrors overseas.

[hfyen]

George Yeo is doing Singapore proud on the world stage with his reservoir of knowledge and possess the rare ability to retrieve the appropriate information to articulate his views A brilliant man indeed

[emeritusdavidteo]

A man of vision and wisdom relevant to both the west and China. Any diplomat will do well listening to his opinions.

[Jeffrey]

George Yeo is a very wise man. I only hope the audience understands him.

[kalipotmeng]

Mr. Yeo presents China better than a Chinese ! And he has world knowledge. Impressive.

[dunzhen]

"If your gods are foreign gods, then their domination of you is complete". Wow. Profound

[sophosanthropos]

George Yeo's general knowledge, especially of history and philosophy, is impressive! More importantly, how he connects history with current affairs.... that is, wisdom, not just knowledge

[liamporter]

George Yeo is brilliant. Thanks for sharing and surfacing the truth. 👏👍

[gohsiewhau]

LKY is very knowledgeable about chinese cultures n civilisation!! He learnt chinese language n weitings st adult age, after he became leader !! Even at very old age, he still continued his learnings on chinese language, history, classics etc... He kept his tuition teacher till his very old age. He was pragmatic n applied some sun-tze strategies in his dealings too😅😅😅👍💪👏🙏

[lordshiva]

To be truthful, the British by way of shenanigans extended borders into China at a time when China was weakened, distracted and in turmoil. Actually, India is sitting on wide areas of China's territory in the northern fringes and the entire northeast. South Tibet in its entirety (which we renamed Arunachal Pradesh), for instance, belongs to China.

[lordshiva]

Historically, Tamil Nadu even had our own diplomatic relations with other countries far and wide. The proof is manifested - for example - in Tamil language (NOT friggin Hindi) being accepted in Singapore and Malaysia as one of their official languages. This is implicit international recognition of the status of Tamil Nadu as an independent nation. The intervention of the British Empire to rob us of our nationhood had been truly a deplorable episode in recent world history.

[kooisengchng]

The most important take away point is that Asians want development and growth, NOT war. So Blinken and company going all over Asia forming warring parties is a no no. Except S Korea and Japan - these 2 countries are occupied countries. Each has dozens of american bases esp Japan. Asians must maintain this mindset of growth above hostilities, cooperation over hegemony and mutual respect for each other.

[picandvideo]

Fascinating! Learn so much about geopolitics and historical perspectives. 👏👏👏

[kaimingraymondchoi]

Rule based international order is by definition some nations or group of nations created these rules and trying impose these rules onto other nations. Of course, given the cultural differences, levels of development etc. this is very difficult to achieve. But the worst part of this rule base international order is that it is frequently breached by the States pushing this international order. In other words, they are applied by the initiating states only at times when it is beneficial to them

[kennySg]

I thought he talked about Singaporeans should be bigger than themselves was powerful sharing for the host country. Being bigger means bigger heart, bigger network and bigger dream....

[shineluvslambiel]

Singapore is just amazing. Yeo, Mahbubani, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and even Lee Hsien Long himself. Their wisdom, insight, their provocative independence of thought, and their ability to articulate these thoughts is just out of this world.

[nqswsgq]

George Yeo is a pragmatic person but alas sensible, people with objective views constitute a small portion in this world. If not, how could the world be so chaotic throughout history with all kinds of nonsensical policies leaders made?

[Bigsmallcountry]

I am not sure if the Europeans have the depth to understand what George was speaking.

[hongqi]

Mr. Yeo is one of the very few people outsides of China that is qualified to speak on China's history and its culture in an unbiased nature.

[gentleman]

Last analogy was right on the spot. Kudos