Veteran diplomat talks about trade war, complexity, Asean and more

SINGAPORE (Aug 16): Retired diplomat Bilahari Kausikan gave a wide-ranging talk on Indo-Pacific concept on Friday morning at the Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute. The veteran diplomat, known for his candid remarks including calling violent Hong Kong protestors “morons”, gave his views on fatalism, Asean, the trade war and more. Here are some of his remarks.

On an increasingly complex world, binary thoughts, and fatalism...

Various countries in the Indo-Pacific region have different ideas, and the difficulties of reconciling these ideas as well as the concerns that all these countries have about China may be complex, but there are opportunities in complexity, said Bilahari.