DHAKA: The United States may find itself irrelevant in Asia if it continues to drag its feet on free trade and if it fails to find a way to accommodate the rise of China, said Singapore foreign affairs and law minister K. Shanmugam in Washington on Tuesday.

Shanmugam, who is at the start of a week-long working visit to the US, gave a hard-hitting critique of Washington’s policy on Asia during a forum at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Pulling few punches at the hour-long dialogue, he issued his strongest remarks yet on the US failure to make meaningful progress on the mega trade pact with Asia known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The deal presented a stark choice to the US, he said.

‘Do you want to be part of the region or do you want to be out of the region?’

‘If you are out of the region, not playing a useful role, your only lever to shape the architecture, to influence events is the Seventh Fleet and that’s not the lever you want to use, or you can’t use it at every instance. Trade is strategy and you’re either in or you’re out... The world doesn’t wait, not even for the United States.’

Shanmugam delivered a similar message on Tuesday at a separate forum organized by The Atlantic magazine.

He said US credibility would be severely impacted if it failed to push through the free trade deal.

‘How do you remain and be taken seriously if, after having committed so much of your prestige to this, you don’t do it?’ he said, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1559 HRS, JUN 17, 2015
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