Kishore Mahbubani (left), Distinguished Fellow, Asia Research Institute and Jawed Ashraf, Former Ambassador of India to France and High Commissioner to Singapore during a discussion on Asia’s emergence in shifting Global Order at India Connect Singapore Edition (Dialogues on Diplomacy, Trade and Technology), in Chennai on Thursday.
The ‘Asian Century’ is real, it is coming and is one of the most exciting times one will see, Prof Kishore Mahbubani, Distinguished Fellow Asia Research Institute, said here on Thursday. Asian societies have been outperforming the rest of the world, and India’s ascent to the top 5 economies, in particular, has been striking, he added.
Mahbubani was speaking at the ‘India Connect Singapore edition’, a set of dialogues on diplomacy, trade and technology by Hindu Tamil Thisai, in collaboration with The Hindu & The Hindu businessline, and supported by the Singapore Consulate in India. He was engaged in the talk themed ‘Asia’s Emergence in Shifting Global Order’ by Jawed Ashraf, Former Ambassador of India to France and High Commissioner to Singapore.
“Even though Asian economies learned and applied concepts such as technology and innovation from the West, they are now excelling in those areas,” Mahbubani said.
The confidence in the future too is higher in Asia than in the Western world and the competencies are also shifting to this part of the world, he said. Singapore’s trade is almost three times the size of its GNP, he pointed out as an instance of the transformation. Referring to trade wars and tariff uncertainties as ‘froth,’ he said that structural advantages and changes were more important in Asia’s domination of the world order.
Tariff shock
“Currently, most Asian countries are in genuine shock due to the tariffs; it goes against everything US has stood for since 1945,” he said, noting that the region must seek new pathways for growth.
He conveyed full confidence that Asia will do well in the future and highlighted the size of the region’s middle class population as a key indicator of future growth.
China, India and the Asean region house around 3.5 billion people today and the middle class population out of this has seen a “spectacular increase” over the years, he said. However, the US vs China contest is set to emerge as a challenge and “create turmoil and challenges with many twists and turns,” he added.
Policy-driven
Former Ambassador Ashraf noted that trade negotiations have taken a different character currently and are not just about duties but more around policy. Countries are negotiating around reasonable assurance of supply chain resilience, labour supply, and data sovereignty and security, he added. “Any FTA should be a balance of negotiated interests,” he said. India-Singapore relations are particularly critical for energy security , he added.
Opening the event with his address, Edgar Pang, Consul-General of Singapore based in Chennai, called the India-Singapore bilateral relations as “Asia’s most dynamic and forward-looking.”
The cooperation among the two nations extends across diverse sectors from defence, digital economy to sustainability and people to people exchanges, he said. “It also extends far beyond traditional sectors into future defining technologies, green hydrogen, advanced manufacturing, and digital transformation,” he added.
Published on August 7, 2025
