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Singapore - Information and Drafts 12/91 [OA 4424]
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323154739
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Singapore - Information and Drafts 12/91 [OA 4424]
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13884-001
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Records of the White House Office of Speechwriting (George H. W. Bush Administration)
Mary Kate Grant Subject Files
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Originally Processed With FOIA(s):
FOIA Number:
S
FOIA
MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
Collection/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Grant, Mary Kate, Files
Subseries:
Subject File, 1988-1991
OA/ID Number:
13884
Folder ID Number:
13884-001
Folder Title:
Singapore-Information and Drafts, 12/91
Stack:
Row:
Section:
Shelf:
Position:
G
18
29
1
2
singapore
SINGAPORE
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Singapore is an important offshore financial center, and
maintains a relatively open market for foreign firms.
However, U.S. firms face discrimination in the significantly
smaller domestic market.
The U.S. seeks Singapore's support for a strong financial
services agreement in the Uruguay Round. At a minimum, the
U.S. would like to see Singapore stop blocking progress and
play a more constructive leadership role.
-
The lack of support from Singapore and the other ASEAN
countries for a strong financial services agreement in
the Uruguay Round has been very disappointing.
In the bilateral financial services negotiations, the U.S.
seeks a commitment from Singapore for a level local playing
field in both the banking and securities sectors.
Treasury Department
December 10, 1991
UNCLASSIFIED
INCOMING
TELEGRAM
UNITED STATES
INFORMATION AGENCY
PAGE 01
Singapores
038658 ICA367
24/0314Z
ACTION OFFICE EA-03
INFO TCOC-01 DSO-02 /006 A3 27
PP RUEHIA
DE RUEHGP = #9787/02 2970315
ZNR UUUUU ZZH.
P 240309Z OCT 91
FM AMEMBASSY SINGAPORE
T.0 RUEHIA/USIA WASHDC PRIORITY 2222
INFO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2932
BT
UNCLAS SECTION 02 OF 02 SINGAPORE 09787
USIS FOR EA
E:0. 12356: N/A
SUBJECT: VISIT OF PRESIDENT BUSH: LOCAL COLOR FOR SPEECH
BENEFIT OF ALL THREE COUNTRIES. BINTAN ISLAND IS ONE OF
THE RIAU PROVINCE ISLANDS UNDER DEVELOPMENT.
5. THE DATE FOR THE JAPANESE ATTACKS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
IS DECEMBER 8. THE ATTACKS STARTED A FEW HOURS AFTER
PEARL HARBOR, BUT BECAUSE OF THE INTERNATIONAL DATELINE.
THE DATE IS ONE DAY LATER.
6. THIS MESSAGE HAS BEEN CLEARED BY THE EMBASSY.
DONAHUE
BT
=9787
UNCLASSIFIED
$
UNCLASSIFIED
INCOMING
TELEGRAM
UNITED STATES
INFORMATION AGENCY
Singapore 038659 1CA366
PAGE 01
038659 ICA366
24/0314Z
ON SATURDAY I WILL BE AT PEARL MARBOR IN HAWAII TO
COMMEMORATE THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY CF THE JAPANESE ATTACK
ACTION OFFICE EA-03
ON OUR FORCES THERE. MORE THAN 400 AMERICANS WERE
INFO TCOC-01 DSO-02 /006 A3 27
DEAD OR MISSING AFTER THAT ATTACH. WE WILL REMEMBER
THEM. WE WILL HONOR THEM.
PP RUEHIA
DE RUEHGP #9787/01 2870314
-- WE ALSO REMEMBER THAT ON THAT SAME DAY, BUT ON THIS
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
SIDE OF THE INTERNATIONAL DATELINE, THE WAR BEGAN FOR
P 2403092 OCT 91
THE PHILIPPINES, FOR THAILAND, FOR MALAYSIA AND
FM AMEMBASSY SINGAPORE
SINGAPORE. BOMBERS APPEARED OVER CLARK FIELD AND OVER
Indoves
TO RUEHIA/USIA WASHOO PRIORITY 2221
SINGAPORE. GROUND TROOPS LANDED AT SONGKHLA AND PATTANT
INFO RUENC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2931
(THAILAND) AND AT KOTA BAHARU MALAYA FRENCH
BT
INDOCHINA ALREADY WAS OCCUPIED BY THE JAPANESE AND EARLY
UNCLAS SECTION C1 OF 02 SINGAPORE 09787
IN 1942, BURMA AND INDONESIA (THEN THE DUTCH EAST
INDIES) ALSO CAME UNDER ATTACK. BY MID-1942, THE REGION
USIA FOR EA
WAS UNDER JAPANESE OCCUPATION, A SITUATION THAT WOULD
CONTINUE UNTIL THE JAPANESE SURRENDERED IN 1945.
E.0.12356: N/A
SUBJECT: VISIT OF PRESIDENT BUSH: LOCAL COLOR FOR SPEECH
-- WE IN AMERICA REMEMBER WITH YOU 11. SOUTHEAST ASIA.
WE. REMEMBER TO HONOR THOSE IN UNIFORM AND THOSE
1. FOLLOWING IS OFFERED AS LOCAL COLOR FOR
THOUSANDS OF CIVILIANS WHO SUPPERED AND WHO DIED IN THIS
CONSIDERATION FOR INCLUSION IN PRESIDENT'S SPEECH IN
WAR. NOT 11. BITTERNESS, BUT 11, SORRO- NOT IN DESPAIR
SINGAPORE:
THAT SUCH A THING COULD HAPPEN, BUT 11. HOPE THAT 11; THE
HALF CENTURY SINCE THOSE ATTACKS WE SEEM TO HAVE FOUND A
AMERICA'S BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH SINGAPORE GOES
BETTER WAY.
BACK TO THE FOUNDATIONS OF YOUR COUNTRY, AND MINE.
(NOTE: IN SINGAPORE IT IS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER
--. THE FIRST AMERICAN CONSUL IN SINGAPORE CAME TO THIS
CIVILIANS WHO ENDURED THE OCCUPATION THOSE WHO DIED
AREA IN 1834. HE WAS JOSEPH BALESTIER. HE WAS
AND THOSE WHO SUFFERED AND SURVIVED.)
ACCOMPANIED BY HIS SPOUSE, MARIA REVERE BALESTIER,
DAUGHTER OF PAUL REVERE, ONE OF THE HEROES OF THE
4. THE "GROWTH TRIANGLE" IS A DEVELOPMENT PLAN THAT
AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
INCLUDES SINGAPORE, THE RIAU PROVINCE OF INDONESIA AND
JOHORE STATE IN MALAYSIA. THE TRIANGLE COMBINES THE
-- MR. BALESTIER FIRST ESTABLISHED HIS OFFICE IN
FINANCIAL/MANAGERIAL/TRANSPORTATION/COMMUNICATIONS
BINTAN YOU MIGHT CALL HIM ONE OF THE EARLIEST
ASSETS OF SINGAPORE WITH THE LAND AND LOW-COST LABOR
ADHERENTS OF THE "GROWTH TRIANGLE." HOWEVER, HE MOVED
ASSETS OF NEIGHBORING RIAU AND JOHORE FOR THE ECONOMIC
TO SINGAPORE AND BECAME U.S. CONSUL IN 1837, BEGINNING A
BT
DIPLOMATIC CONNECTION THAT HAS CONTINUED SUBSTANTIALLY
#9787
OVER THE PAST 154 YEARS.
-- INTERESTINGLY, A BALESTIER HISTORIAN TELLS US THAT
IT WAS THE CONSUL'S JOB, FIRST AND FOREMOST, TO LOOK
AFTER AMERICA'S TRACING INTERESTS. IN THAT BALESTIER
SAW HIS JOB VERY MUCH AS OUR PRESENT AMBASSADOR, BOB
ORR, DOES.
-- ALONG WITH OTHER SINGAPORE BUSINESSMEN, BALESTIER
ALSO LEARNED WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TRADE BARRIERS ARE
ERECTED. IN ADDITION TO HIS TRADING BUSINESS, HE BEGAN
A SUGAR PLANTATION ON WHAT IS NOW BALESTIER ROAD.
HOWEVER, THE BUDDING SUGAR INDUSTRY IN SINGAPORE WAS
KILLED, BALESTIER'S HISTORIAN TELLS US, "BECAUSE
SINGAPORE WAS DENIED THE PRIVILEGE ACCORDED TO PROVINCE
WELLESLEY OF HAVING HER SUGAR AND RUM IMPORTED INTO THE
HOME MARKETS AT A REDUCED DUTY."
-- MODERN SINGAPORE'S DEDICATION TO FREE TRADE SEEMS
WELL-FOUNDED IN HER HISTORY.
-- I WAS PLEASED TO LEARN THAT THE BALESTIERS ARE
REMEMBERED HERE VIA A BELL, CAST IN THE REVERE WORKS IN
BOSTON, WHICH WAS PRESENTED TO THE ORIGINAL CHURCH OF
ST. ANDREW BY MARIA REVERE BALESTIER. AS YOU KNOW, THAT
BELL NOW IS IN SINGAPORE'S NATIONAL MUSEUM.
3. IN VIEW OF THE FACT THAT THE PRESIDENT'S ODYSSEY
WILL END WITH PEARL HARBOR COMMEMORATIONS, HE MAY WISH
TO TAKE A MINUTE TO REMEMBER EVENTS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA,
ALSO 50 YEARS AGO:
Singapore
POSSIBLE THEMES FOR SPEECH IN SINGAPORE
Security/New World Order
-- My generation fought a world war -- in Asia and the Pacific,
in Europe, in North Africa. Those of us who experienced that
war vowed that it would be the last world war, that the forces
of totalitarianism must be resisted and their aggressive
designs frustrated. As visionaries, we founded the United
Nations; as prudent men and women, we also established a
structure of alliances to contain totalitarianism.
-- In the largest sense, we have achieved our goals. Despite
- and perhaps in some ways because of -- the advent of weapons
of mass destruction, the threat of global war today is smaller
than at any time since 1945; indeed, it has almost vanished.
The specter of world communism has disappeared; state-
controlled economies are discredited; the democractic tide is
higher than it has ever been, with elected governments in many
nations on all continents; the advantages of the free-market
system are evident worldwide.
-- For many years the United States, by its military presence
and its influence, has fostered stability in several parts of
the world. Nowhere have the benefits of that stability been
greater than here in East Asia, where many nations have
prospered to a degree beyond anything that might have been
imagined 20 years ago: first Japan; then the Dynamic Asian
Economies of Singapore, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea and
Taiwan; and now Malaysia and Thailand. Others such as
Indonesia are following rapidly. Economic growth in East Asia
today far outstrips growth anywhere else in the world.
-- The alliance structure succeeded in containing
totalitarianism and preventing global conflict, but it did not
preclude smaller wars or other kinds of regional or local
conflict. We are still dealing with some of those situations,
but the end of superpower rivalry has made the search for
solutionsd more productive. We have reached a stage at which
we can realistically discuss what I have called the New World
Order, under which nations will resolve their disputes without
resort to the use of force.
-- We have already seen the United Nations take on new vitality
and begin to exercise the role its founders intended for it,
most notably in rolling back the invasion of a small state,
Kuwait, by a much larger one, Iraq. We have enjoyed good
cooperation from the Soviet Union in convening a historic
Middle East peace conference.
-- Here in Southeast Asia multilateral diplomacy has achieved
what we trust will be a notable and lasting success: the case
of Cambodia. I will not try to trace here the history of that
-2-
unhappy country -- a history in which the United States itself
is of course involved. But I want to record my appreciation
for the solidarity of Singapore and four other ASEAN members
with Thailand, the nation immediately threatened in the 1970s
and 1980s by the potential spillover of combat. More recently,
another ASEAN member, Indonesia, together with France, has led
the search for a settlement, in which the four other Permanent
Members of the Security Council have joined, together with the
United Nations, Australia, Japan and other governments. That
long search reached a milestone six weeks ago in Paris with the
signing of the settlement documents.
-- A settlement in Cambodia truly means the start of a new
era. For virtually the first time since World War II,
Southeast Asia is without serious conflict. For the United
States, that settlement makes possible a process of healing in
our relations with the states of Indochina: representation in
Cambodia for the first time since 1975, accredited to the
Supreme National Council headed by Prince Norodom Sihanouk; a
restoration of our diplomatic relations with Laos -- never
broken -- to the pre-1975 level; and the start of the process
of normalization with Vietnam. Just how far and how fast we
move in that process with Vietnam will depend on progress in
resolving the cases of our military personnel missing in action
-- but the trend in recent months has been decidedly positive.
-- For the people and the governments of Indochina, the
settlement in Cambodia holds great promise. The embargos on
trade and investment which many governments imposed can now be
lifted; travel and communications can be opened up; the
international financial institutions will be able to lend
freely for worthwhile projects. Most important, perhaps,
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia will be able to emerge from their
isolation and, if they chose, free themselves of the policy
constraints that have hindered their development. In fact,
Laos and Vietnam in recent times have both shown a
receptiveness to foreign private investment. The United States
looks forward to this new era, as, I am sure, do the peoples
of Singapore and the other five ASEAN nations.
-- Clearly, then, the situation in East Asia has improved in
recent months, as has the world situation generally. But we
remain in a transitional phase; we cannot wish away continuing
threats to peace and stability in such areas as the Korean
peninsula, and we cannot rule out sudden threats to world peace
and the rule of law such as the one that arose in the Persian
Gulf only sixteen months ago.
-- For those reasons, the United States will remain engaged
militarily in East Asia and the Pacific for the foreseeable
future. Here, as in Europe, we will take advantage of reduced
-3-
levels of threat and of increases in the speed, range and lift
capability of our ships and aircraft to slim down our
forward-deployed forces and the number of our bases. The
character of our presence will change; we will place more
reliance on access to a larger number of facilities owned and
controlled by others. Our total numbers may be reduced, but
our presence in the region could be more widespread and more
frequent.
-- The agreement signed in Tokyo a year ago by then-Prime
Minister Lee Kwan Yew and Vice President Dan Quayle exemplifies
this new type of arrangment. Under its terms, our ships and
aircraft -- based elsewhere -- are making increased use of
Singaporean military facilities. They exercise jointly with
Singapore's forces as well as on their own. They are gaining
familiarity with the geography and the operating conditions of
this part of Asia. We are open to the possibility of similar
arrangements with other nations of the region.
-- The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in June
settled the fate of Clark Air Base there. If we are able to
remain at Subic Bay, we shall do so, but if not we shall
continue to honor our treaty commitments. We have already
relocated headquarters, troops and equipment to Guam.
Meanwhile, United States forces will remain in Japan and
Korea. Our treaty relationship with Australia, the country I
shall visit next, is stronger than it has ever been. We hope
the day will come when New Zealand allows us to resume defense
cooperation under the historic ANZUS alliance.
-- In short, we will stay on the scene in East Asia. The test
of our security policy, or of any nation's, is not the size or
location of our forces; rather, it is the ability to deal with
any and all likely threats to the peace, and to deal quickly
and decisively with unpredictable crises, and that is precisely
how the United States and its partners in the multinational
coalition -- acting through the United Nations -- dealt with
the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Economic Cooperation
-- Interdependence and cooperation are equally important in the
world economy. That lesson is fully understood here in
Singapore, where total trade is three (??) times the value of
your gross domestic product. If the prosperity that so much of
East Asia already enjoys is to continue and spread, we must
have an open global trading system. To reach that goal, we
need a framework for economic integration, and we must avoid
regional fragmentation.
-4-
-- Trade across the Pacific has expanded dramatically in recent
years, in step with dramatic economic growth in many East Asian
countries. Some ten years ago America's trade with the Pacific
surpassed our trade across the Atlantic; today, it is nearly
one-third larger. The ASEAN countries, taken together,
constitute America's fifth-largest trading partner. Singapore
alone is a bigger export market for U.S. goods than Italy,
Spain or the USSR. Nations on the eastern rim of the Pacific,
from Mexico to Chile, are eager to join in this booming
trans-Pacific commerce. I urge U.S. firms take advantage of
these dynamic markets and to redouble their efforts to export
to and invest in the- ASEAN countries.
-- The Pacific Basin is a natural trading region, and it is
logical that the governments of the region concert to promote
that trade by eliminating barriers and establishing common
policies. An excellent forum for doing so already exists: the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, grouping. The
concept had occurred to a number of people in several
countries, but it was Prime Minister Bob Hawke of Australia who
developed the idea and convoked the first APEC ministerial
meeting in Canberra two years ago.
-- APEC has since met twice more, here in Singapore last year
and again last month in Seoul. Its original group of twelve
participants has grown substantially with the simultaneous
addition of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and APEC can look
forward to further growth in the years ahead.
-- APEC is performing many useful functions, but none is more
important than mobilizing the support of all fifteen
participants for a successful conclusion of the Uruguay Round
of multilateral trade negotiations to update and extend the
system known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
The nations of APEC are convinced that the GATT system must
cover world trade in agricultural products, as it has long
covered manufactured goods, and that it must be extended to new
realms such as intellectual property rights, services, and
investment.
-- The alternative is a likely failure of the global trading
system, a reversion to exclusionary trading blocs, and,
eventually, the constriction of world trade. It is incumbent
on all of us -- in North America, in Asia, in Europe -- to
overcome parochial interests, abandon protectinist rules and
tactics, and expose our economies to the rigors of competition.
-- Even while we pursue reform of the global system in the
Uruguay Round, we can reduce and eliminate barriers to trade
with our immediate neighbors. That is what the United States
and Canada are doing right now, and what we and Canada propose
-5-
to do with Mexico, thereby creating a North American Free Trade
Area, or NAFTA, which will have few internal barriers and will
be more accessible than at present to other world traders such
as Singapore.
-- Thailand has proposed that ASEAN establish a free-trade area
of its own over the next fifteen years, and the other five
governments have agreed. Such action is the direct parallel of
what we in North America are doing in NAFTA, and the United
States applauds this decision by the ASEAN nations.
The Spread of Democracy
-- The most inspiring single event of the last few years was
the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. The Wall symbolized the
worst of totalitarianism, and its destruction stands for the
desire of people everywhere to control their destinies and to
be governed only by their own consent.
-- To a gratifying degree, that is happening. The democratic
impulse is alive, whether fed by relative proposerity, as
seemed to be the case in China, or by economic failure, as in
the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. And in many places the
impulse is flourishing. In recent years elected governments
have come to office everywhere from the Philippines to Poland
and from Nicaragua to Mongolia.
-- There are basic human rights, universally recognized though
not universally observed, but there is no copyright on
democracy and no one form of government or set of practices to
which every nation must adhere. The United States recognizes
the legitimacy of diversity.
What the United States cannot condone, however, is the
suppression of the popular will -- and that is what has
occurred in Burma, where the military leadership permitted
elections last year but, when the results proved not to the
military's liking, refused to allow the winners to take their
rightful seats and organize a government. So long as this
situation continues, the people of Burma will remain victims,
subject to torture and intimidation and deprived of the chance
to share in the general properity and well-being which so many
of their neighbors already enjoy.
(NEEDS CONCLUSION)