[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[January 4, 1992]
[Pages 25-31]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session With the Singapore Lecture 
Group

January 4, 1992
    The President. Thank you, Mr. Minister. To Prime Minister Goh, 
Senior Minister Lee. I'm delighted to be here, and thank you, sir, for 
that very kind introduction. Let me take this opportunity to say a few 
words about these two gentlemen I've just referred to.
    Minister Lee, a quarter of a century ago, you led this small island 
of cultural and ethnic diversity, of limited physical resources, to 
independence. And then, through your vision and your force of intellect 
and will, you forged Singapore's nationhood. You stood courageously in a 
life-and-death struggle against the Communists, and you prevailed. You 
led your nation and your region in the quest for peace and prosperity. 
It is my convinced view that future generations will honor the name of 
Lee Kuan Yew. And as you know well from your visits in my own home in 
Kennebunkport, Barbara's and mine, I am pleased to know you as a friend.
    Prime Minister Goh, I salute you, sir, for your wisdom, for your 
vigor in carrying Singapore forward now on its path to the future. I am 
grateful for the wonderful talks we had this morning, and I pledge 
America's steadfast friendship as you lead Singapore in facing the 
challenges of the coming generation. And I'm also pleased that you, like 
many of your countrymen, came to the United States of America for part 
of your education. These too are ties that bind us together.
    Now, on to the business at hand. It's an honor to deliver this 
lecture, following such leaders as Brian Mulroney and Helmut Schmidt and 
Ruud Lubbers, Bob Hawke, Mahathir bin Mohamad, and Valery Giscard 
d'Estaing, and such distinguished thinkers as Henry Kissinger and Milton 
Friedman. Let me acknowledge Professor K.L. Sandhu, director, Institute 
of Southeast

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Asian Studies; A.V. Liventals, the chairman, Mobil Oil Singapore; Lee 
Hee Seng, deputy chairman and board of trustees, ISEAS; and Dr. Richard 
Hu, chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Finance 
Minister.
    Let me also salute the members of the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council, 
with whom I just met, who are here with us in this auditorium today.
    The addresses in this series reflect the changes in our world. Your 
first lecturers focused on the ideological and military struggle between 
socialism and democratic capitalism, and especially between the United 
States and what we used to call the Soviet Union.
    Think of that phrase for just a moment, ``what we used to call the 
Soviet Union.'' When citizens pulled down the hammer and sickle 10 days 
ago and hauled up a new tricolor of freedom over the Kremlin, the Soviet 
Union ceased to exist, and the prospect of a new world opened before us. 
That act culminated a decade of liberation, a time in which we witnessed 
the death throes of totalitarianism and the triumph of systems of 
government devoted to individual liberty, democratic pluralism, free 
markets, and international engagement.
    As this struggle has drawn to a close, these lectures have shifted 
their focus from military confrontation to matters of economic 
cooperation. Our new world has little use for old ways of thinking about 
the roles and relations of nation-states. The cold war categories, 
North-South, East-West, capitalist-communist, no longer apply. The 
future simply belongs to nations that can remain on the cutting edge of 
innovation and information, nations that can develop the genius and 
harness the aspirations of their own people.
    Individuals wield power as never before. An innovator, equipped with 
ideas and the freedom to turn them into inventions, can change the way 
we live and think. Governments that strive only to maintain a monopoly 
of power, rather than to strengthen the freedom of the individual, will 
fall by the wayside, swept away by the tides of innovation and 
entrepreneurship.
    Liberating technologies--telephones, computers, facsimile machines, 
satellite dishes, and other devices that transmit news, information, and 
culture in ever greater volumes and at ever greater speeds--have 
disabled the weapons of tyranny. The old world of splintered regions and 
ideologies has begun to give way to a global village universally 
committed to the values of individual liberty, democracy, and free trade 
and universally opposed, I might add, to tyranny and aggression.
    If we are to realize the opportunities of this new era, we must 
address three intertwined challenges: The new requirements of peace and 
security, the challenge of promoting democracy, and the challenge of 
generating greater economic growth and prosperity around the world.
    Consider first the challenge of peace and security. The world has 
learned, through two World Wars and most recently, as Senior Minister 
Lee talked about, through Saddam Hussein's naked aggression, that the 
dogs of war can be unleashed anytime would-be aggressors doubt the 
commitment of the powerful to the security of the powerless.
    As a nation that straddles two great oceans, a nation tempered by 
painful wartime experience, the United States remains committed to 
engagement in the Atlantic community and the Asia-Pacific region, and we 
are unalterably opposed to isolationism. That's my vow to you, as long 
as I am President of the United States of America.
    A quarter century ago, many feared that free nations would fall like 
dominoes, remember the domino theory, fall like dominoes to the 
subversion of communism. Now, we can say with pride and a robust sense 
of irony that the totalitarian powers, the powers that fomented conflict 
the world over, have indeed become the dominoes of the 1990's.
    This end to the cold war gives the United States an opportunity to 
restructure its military. Having said that, I want to assure you and all 
of our many friends in this part of the world that the closing of bases 
in the Philippines will not spell an end to American engagement. We will 
maintain a visible, credible presence in the Asia-Pacific region with 
our forward-deployed forces and through bilateral defense arrangements

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with nations of the region.
    That is why I'm pleased to announce that this morning we've reached 
agreement with the Government of Singapore to explore in detail how we 
can transfer a naval logistics facility from Subic Bay in the 
Philippines to Singapore in the next year. We appreciate Singapore's 
far-sighted approach to the security requirements of a new era.
    The United States does not maintain our security presence as some 
act of charity. Your security and your prosperity serve our interests 
because you can better help build a more stable, more prosperous world. 
An unstable Asia burdened with repression does not serve our interests, 
nor does an Asia mired in poverty and despair. We need you as free and 
productive as you can be, and we understand that our security presence 
can provide a foundation for our mutual prosperity and shared defense.
    But we also need your support in addressing the new threats of this 
new era, regional conflicts, weapons proliferation. And so, I'm pleased 
that the ASEAN nations are working with us to craft new and flexible 
arrangements to ensure the common defense. Access agreements and 
increased ASEAN-U.S. dialog can help us work cooperatively to promote 
stability in the whole region. By working cooperatively, we better share 
the security responsibilities of the post-cold-war era.
    Strong, credible security arrangements enabled us to meet the second 
challenge, the challenge of democracy, a challenge of shared interests 
and shared ideals. Again, ASEAN is helping to spread positive political 
change in ways that reflect the values, aspiration, and cultures of the 
nations in this region. ASEAN is trying to help the former Communist 
states in Indochina reintegrate themselves in a world that respects free 
markets and free people. Those efforts are starting to produce very 
hopeful results.
    Just a few weeks ago American diplomats arrived in Phnom Penh for 
the first time in 16 years. We owe that breakthrough to years of effort 
by many nations. But the Cambodian peace accord signed by Secretary 
Baker in Paris last October could not have existed without the help and 
the cooperation of ASEAN. This historic agreement offers the very real 
hope of national reconciliation to the long-suffering people of 
Cambodia.
    And additionally, when the Paris conference agreed on a peace 
settlement for Cambodia, my Government offered to remove our trade 
embargo as the United Nations advance mission began to implement the 
settlement. And today I am pleased to announce the lifting of that 
embargo. Working with others, we need to turn attention to the economic 
reconstruction of that deeply wounded land, and so its new political 
reconciliation has a home from which to grow.
    We are now normalizing our ties with Laos and have begun to move 
with Vietnam along a path marked by implementation of the Paris accords, 
and for the sake of many, many American families, the satisfactory 
resolution of our concerns, our deep concerns about POW's and MIA's.
    The key point is this: After being strong, determined, and patient, 
we finally can entertain realistic hopes of building lasting ties of 
interest and affection with Indochina. Organizations such as ASEAN which 
promote security, more open political systems, and open markets form the 
building blocks for what I've called the new world order.
    This movement toward democracy leads us to the third challenge for 
the future, the challenge of economic growth and building a world of 
open and fair trade.
    Everyone agrees that political rivalry and military adventurism 
threaten international stability. But no one should doubt that economic 
isolationism, protectionism, can be at least as threatening to world 
order. The protectionist wars of the twenties and the thirties deepened 
the Great Depression and set in motion conflicts that hastened the 
Second World War.
    On the other hand, during the past half century, engagement and 
trade have produced unprecedented peace and prosperity here in 
Singapore, throughout free Asia, in Europe, and in the United States. 
This prosperity also has led naturally to democracy, a fact that 
illustrates the indivisible relationship between security, democracy, 
and individual liberty.
    The United States will remain engaged economically, especially in 
this part of the

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world. The Asian-Pacific region has become the world's economic dynamo. 
Our trade with Singapore, it's increased tenfold during the past 16 
years. We now export more to Singapore than to Italy or Spain, more to 
Indonesia than to the whole of Eastern Europe. The economies here 
continue to grow at an astonishing rate while enjoying impressive income 
equality and general prosperity.
    The ASEAN countries, along with other nations in the region, helped 
initiate the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation process 2 years ago, 
APEC. APEC offers a powerful vehicle for sustaining free, market-based 
trade, for advancing the cause of regional and global trade 
liberalization, and for strengthening the cohesion and interdependence 
of the whole Asia-Pacific region.
    Now this is important to us. Most of America's recent economic 
growth has come from export industries. Each billion dollars' worth of 
U.S. exports support many thousands of good American jobs.
    A delegation of executives from major American businesses, from the 
automobile industry to computer and electronics firms, to food and 
energy companies, has joined me in order to express our national 
commitment to free and fair trade. Our executives will learn more about 
opportunities here, and they will also work to help other firms compete 
fairly throughout the world. With us today also are the American 
Ambassadors to the ASEAN countries. They will be returning to the United 
States soon to tell American businesses there about the opportunities 
that exist in ASEAN.
    The United States is trying to establish an economic operating 
framework to facilitate and to encourage these ties. This past October 
we agreed to a new trade and investment framework agreement with 
Singapore. And I propose that we complement that agreement by 
negotiating a bilateral investment treaty. When combined with our global 
efforts through GATT and our regional initiatives through APEC, this 
comprehensive approach can enable us to meet the economic challenges of 
the post-cold-war era.
    Americans believe in free and open trade. Nations can achieve 
astonishing levels of prosperity when they embrace the challenge of the 
marketplace. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade can play an 
especially crucial role in expanding freedom's economic frontiers. And 
that's why on each stop of this important trip I'm calling for urgent 
action on behalf of the international trading system. I am urging the 
world's trading nations to join with us in making GATT Director Dunkel's 
proposed draft agreement the basis for the successful conclusion of the 
Uruguay round.
    While all of us have problems with portions of that draft, none of 
us can afford to let the progress it represents slip away into the past. 
Now is the moment for a strong collective response. And I particularly 
urge the dynamic trading nations of this region to help us to convince 
all GATT participants to build the momentum to achieve this agreement. A 
successful conclusion to this Uruguay round can prepare the way for even 
greater trade liberalization in years to come and greater prosperity for 
everyone.
    GATT ensures that the world will continue moving toward broad 
economic integration and not toward trade blocs. I don't have to point 
out to an audience in Singapore, especially an informed audience like 
this, that there's a huge difference between a free trade zone, an oasis 
of free trade, and a trade bloc that attempts to hold the rest of the 
world at bay. We resolutely oppose efforts to create economic fortresses 
anywhere.
    On the other hand, we wholeheartedly endorse free trade agreements. 
Let me be clear on something. Our North American free trade agreement 
will beckon all nations to make the best of the resources and 
opportunities that the United States, Canada, and Mexico have to offer. 
NAFTA, that North American free trade agreement, is not a threat to 
Asia. It would not encourage the division of the world into trading 
blocs. Instead, our increased growth can stimulate more trade with Asia. 
And we support efforts to build free trade agreements elsewhere, 
including among the ASEAN nations.
    Consider your own experience. A regime of free trade has enabled 
Singapore to become one of the Four Tigers of Asia and one of the 
fastest developing nations on

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Earth. When other nations' economies falter, you suffer. The worldwide 
economic slowdown has slowed your rate of economic growth this year, 
although most nations would be overjoyed to settle for 6-percent growth. 
I can speak for one. [Laughter] Singapore has one of the most open 
economies on Earth, and I appreciate Singapore's leadership on pressing 
for even greater market freedom around the world.
    But we also need to consider the full import of economic 
development. An economy is the aggregate of work, ingenuity, and 
optimism of a nation. The term ``economy'' encompasses what millions of 
people do with their lives. And therefore, when we talk about 
strengthening economies, about growth, about opportunity, we mean much 
more than signing trade pacts. We mean building better lives for our 
people.
    Americans understand that no nation will prosper long without a 
first-rate educational system. And I've encouraged Americans to mount a 
revolution in education. We call it the America 2000 education strategy. 
America 2000 challenges our citizens to set high standards for their 
schools. It encourages all Americans to join forces in creating world-
class schools. And meanwhile, we will continue to strengthen our 
university system, we think the world's finest and the host today to 
over 200,000 students from Asia. Perhaps one may be a future Prime 
Minister. I am certain she'll be a good one. [Laughter] And our APEC 
educational partnership initiative is seeking to link these educational 
ties to our mutual economic interests.
    Once we have given students basic skills, we must give them the 
freedom to make the most of the knowledge they have acquired. Tax cuts 
and deregulation in the 1980's helped unleash the greatest peacetime 
economic recovery in American history. And while in my country reducing 
the tax on capital gains is somewhat controversial politically, most of 
our competitors impose very low taxes on capital gains. Some, like 
Singapore, don't tax capital gains at all. We can learn from you. We can 
create a climate even more conducive to risk, to innovation, to the bold 
exploration of new technologies and ideas, and I'm confident we will.
    Beyond that, the nations of the world want to enjoy the blessings of 
growth without destroying the environment. And we need to achieve 
environmental protection without denying developing nations the 
opportunity to develop. The United States has environmental expertise 
and state-of-the-art environmental technology. The Asian nations have 
environmental challenges.
    I am pleased to announce today that AID, the U.S. Trade Development 
Program, the Overseas Private Insurance [Investment] Corporation, OPIC, 
and our Ex-Im Bank have developed a creative approach in partnership 
with this region to better address the challenge of balancing the 
environmental protection with development. We hope we can coordinate our 
effort with those of other developed nations through various types of 
support, including U.S. equipment and technology. This will be good, be 
good for Asia's environment, good for American jobs.
    In conclusion, the nations committed to democracy and free markets 
have brought the world to a new era, one that promises unprecedented 
freedom from violence and deprivation. But this world will not simply 
happen. It will require hard work, tough negotiation, sacrifice, and the 
courage of our convictions. And if we cast our lot with the forces of 
enlightenment and freedom over the counsels of defeatism and ignorance, 
we will build a better world, a world bound by common interests and 
goals.
    Like you, Americans desperately want a world at peace, one in which 
no blood must be shed for the ideals we all share. So, we will maintain 
a vigorous security presence in order to prevent despots and tyrants 
from undermining the triumphs of freedom and democracy.
    Like you, Americans want to live in a world enriched and enlivened 
by international trade in goods, in ideas, in cultures, and in dreams 
for the future. We want the opportunity to compete aggressively in the 
international marketplace. And at the same time our consumers want 
access to the best goods and services that your economies have to offer. 
We want to live in a world made better by the genius and achievement of 
every culture. So, we will advance the

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prospects for more open trade.
    And like you, Americans want a world united and enlightened by 
freedom and justice, by political pluralism, by the universal commitment 
to individual liberty and prosperity. So, we will stand fast by our 
principles and remain confident, strong, and vigilant.
    Since 1784, when an American trading ship, the Empress of China, 
sailed for Canton from New York, the United States has tried to build 
strong ties of commerce with Asia. We remain committed to that vision. 
And together, the United States and its Asian-Pacific allies can indeed 
build a world filled with economic tigers, nations growing rapidly, 
pioneering new intellectual, commercial, and cultural terrain, spreading 
the blessings of free markets, democracy, and peace. My trip through 
Asia this week marks a new start. The next step is up to all of us.
    Thank you again. And may God bless you, the people of Singapore, 
people of the United States of America. Thank you all very, very much.
    Q. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a tight schedule, threaten to 
squeeze out the question-and-answer session. We have a very few 
questions that the President has offered to meet. So, can I ask the 
questioners to be brief, to the point. State your name, and get to the 
point quickly, please.

Free and Fair Trade

    Q. Mr. President, the trend in closer economic interaction within 
region, with Europe forging a single market and the U.S., Canada, and 
Mexico moving towards a North American free trade area, will grow in 
momentum in the 1990's. How, in your opinion, can we ensure that these 
trends do not result in inward-looking economic blocs? How can APEC as a 
body promote greater economic openness and counter these inward-looking 
trends? Thank you.
    The President. One, help us reach a successful conclusion to the 
GATT round. Therein lies the most important single step that can 
guarantee against trading blocs. Secondly, accept my word that nothing 
in the North American free trade agreement wants to contribute to 
dividing the world into trading blocs, into blocs that shut out other 
people's goods. That is not what it's about. If we are successful in the 
NAFTA, that will increase markets for Asian goods in South America which 
has been an area that needs economic help.
    So, the first answer is, help with GATT, successful conclusion of 
the Uruguay round. And the second answer is, please understand that 
NAFTA, and I can only speak for American participation therein, and I'm 
sure it's true of President Salinas of Mexico and of Brian Mulroney of 
Canada, have no intention of having that free trade between ourselves be 
a block to ASEAN goods. Stop worrying about it. That isn't going to 
happen.
    If I could think of a third reason, I'd tell you. [Laughter] But 
those are the two I've got.

U.S. Role in the Pacific

    Q. Mr. President, I believe that most countries in the Asia-Pacific 
region want to see the U.S. continue to play a major economic and 
security role in the western Pacific. But many are worried that Japan 
may become the leader in the economic competition, especially in trade 
and investments, in the Asia-Pacific region. Will the U.S. respond to 
this Japanese economic challenge and stay in the competition? However, 
if Japan eventually becomes the preeminent investor and trader in the 
region, will the U.S. remain engaged in the economies and the security 
of the region?
    The President. Good question, and the answer is yes. Regardless of 
what happens, we are going to continue our cooperation in terms of 
security. That's a given. That's important. It's important, I think, to 
ASEAN. And I think it's very, very important to my country, to the 
United States of America.
    I'm not as gloomy as the question implied in terms of Japan 
dominating ASEAN. I would be worried about it if I thought that we would 
all acquiesce, including Singapore, in a bloc to offset Canada or to 
offset a perceived trading bloc in Europe. Then I would be concerned 
about that. But I don't think that is going to be the reality because we 
are going to forcefully, with our best we can offer in terms of 
economics and investment and in two-way trade, stay involved in

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the area.
    If you predicated it by saying, the world will divide into three 
blocs, do we have any concern about domination from an economic 
superpower, which is Japan, I'd say you could have some concerns there. 
But that's not what I see as the reality. And I hope that in some way 
this trip contributes to the idea that we want to avoid blocs that shut 
people out and we want to open markets that cause people to come in.
    And so, that is the way I look at it right now. But we will stay 
engaged. I'm looking forward to the part of my trip that takes me to 
Japan. We have trade problems there. They're aware of it; we're going to 
talk to them. But it's not going to be exclusively on that. I'm 
interested, as you know, in creating jobs for Americans through fair 
trade, through access to markets, through matters of this nature. But we 
also have a wide array of other considerations that I will be discussing 
with the very able leaders of Japan. And it might well be that we will 
talk about the idea that we ought not to see this world divided up into 
regional blocs.
    So, I'll do my best in that regard.

Europe

    Q. It was with some irony that I read recently in the observation of 
Li Peng, Chinese Prime Minister, China's Prime Minister, that in fact, 
with events surrounding the dissolution of the ex-Soviet empire, events 
in Yugoslavia, that in fact the single source of threat to your new 
world order is no longer security in Asia-Pacific but in fact Europe. 
Your comments, please.
    The President. Mike, please elaborate. I didn't see the comment by 
Li Peng, and I need a little more of what he was talking about. Threat 
to Europe, in what sense?
    Q. In the sense of the threat to the new world order that you 
referred to earlier, the theater of threat from a sort of geopolitical 
and military sense is no longer question marks over Asia-Pacific but 
more question marks over the European theater.
    The President. Well, see, I wouldn't agree with the premise that in 
the past the concern wasn't about the Soviet Union, if that's what he 
was talking about. The major so-called ``superpower confrontation'' has 
been between the United States and the Soviet Union, Soviet Union with 
its satellites and the United States with its friends and allies. And 
now, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, we see that this doesn't 
exist. That major cold war security threat, if we handle things properly 
with the emergence of the republics or this Commonwealth, should no 
longer concern us.
    We're going to stay engaged with the republics. We're going to stay 
engaged with the Commonwealth, helping in every way we can these now-
fledgling democracies as they emerge and strengthen their independence. 
We want to see that there isn't a security threat from that part of the 
world.
    I may be missing what he's getting at, but I just think we have to 
guard against unpredictability, and thus the security presence will 
remain in Asia. It may be different than it's been in the past. The 
whole makeup of the U.S. defenses has been changing, as you know, but we 
are going to retain, because of unforeseen circumstances and with the 
welcome of our friends in this area, a security presence here.
    So, if the distinguished leader of China was implying that wasn't 
necessary anymore, fine. That's a good--and I'm confident that China is 
not seeking external hegemony. There was a time when everybody was much, 
much more concerned about that. But we'll be here. We'll be around as a 
stabilizing, reassuring security presence where wanted.
    By that, I can't say that we think the only threats to worldwide 
security might emerge in this area; we don't. But we've had a Pacific 
presence, and we're going to continue to have a Pacific presence.
    Still not sure I got to the point, but anyway, that's the answer.

                    Note: The President spoke at 12:50 p.m. at the 
                        Westin Stamford Hotel in Singapore. A portion of 
                        these remarks could not be verified because the 
                        tape was incomplete.