During the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Committee of Supply debate, Foreign Minister K Shanmugam spoke about how MFA charts its course to best protect Singapore, its economy and its people's interests. This is done by:

1) Building and maintaining strong international network of friends; and actively participating in international organisations which are relevant to Singapore

2) Supporting key regional organisations and platforms.

3) Maintain strong relationships with Singapore's neighbours.

Using the Ukraine crisis as an example, he provided four lessons that Singapore can learn from the situation.

Lesson No. 1: When it comes to the crunch, treaties are only meaningful if one has the ability to enforce them. If Ukraine cannot defend the treaty, and has no partners which will come to its aid (with deeds, not just words), then the treaty by itself will not help Ukraine.

Lesson No. 2: In international relations, size matters. The disparity between big and small countries is a fact of life. A small country which cannot protect itself puts its sovereignty and its people at risk. Russia is vastly bigger than Ukraine, and its armed forces are much more powerful than the Ukraine armed forces. Russia is a nuclear power, and Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons as part of the 1994 treaty.

Lesson No. 3: The Security Council cannot always act decisively to protect small countries.

Lesson 4: When squeezed between two big powers or blocs, a smaller country like Ukraine can become a pawn. The country caught in between can be sacrificed if the two contending powers or blocs decide to reach a wider accommodation with each other, trading off their various interests. This has happened frequently in history – for example, to Poland. Smaller countries must always be aware of this.

Read the full speech here. 

Photo screenshot from here.

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