Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan's Participation at GESDA Summit's High Level Ministerial Session, 14 October 2022

Minister Balakrishnan delivered a speech and participated in a panel discussion at the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA) Summit’s High Level Ministerial Session on 14 October 2022. 

  Minister highlighted that GESDA provided an environment for open platforms to access technology for collaboration. Small states like Switzerland and Singapore have agency and can work together to make a difference in upholding an inclusive and rules-based multilateral system. Minister Balakrishnan expressed his support for Swiss President Ignazio Cassis’ GESDA Agenda, and stressed the need for a network of people with mastery in science and diplomacy to make common cause.

The transcript of Minister’s speech is appended.

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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

SINGAPORE

14 OCTOBER 2022

Your Excellency Ignazio Cassis

President of the Swiss Confederation,

Peter Brabeck

Chairman of the GESDA Board of Directors,

Excellencies,

Distinguished Panellists,

Ladies and Gentlemen

It is an honour to join you here today. I come from Singapore, a tiny city state at the heart of Southeast Asia. Singapore is uniquely positioned, but also exquisitely exposed, to both the opportunities and challenges presented by scientific, diplomatic and geopolitical developments which are occurring simultaneously all around us.

Science as a Driving Force for Development

Let me make a couple of points. First, we are on the cusp of another profound revolution and this is based on a very remarkable cocktail of simultaneous and mutually synergistic scientific breakthroughs in digital computation and communications, data science and artificial intelligence, biomedical sciences, which includes Genomics, gene editing, immunotherapy, synthetic biology, nanoscience and new materials, autonomous robotics, and renewable energy.

What is unusual is that in each of these areas of platform technologies use, we are witnessing breakthrough. But they do not occur in isolation. A breakthrough in one area feeds into and sets up a virtuous cycle of acceleration in all the other adjacent fields. So, this is a profound moment of acceleration.

The second point, to look from context, is that the focal points, the parts of the globe where this acceleration of science efforts are, are not distributed uniformly. In some places, it is accelerating and there are also other places which may be left behind. It is critical for us to understand the underlying factors for these differences in outcomes.

For example, what is the optimal role for governments in supporting basic research, and realising value from its application? How should universities and research institutions be reorganised in this new age of discovery and innovation? How can the translation of discoveries into new products and services be accelerated? This involves governments playing a role not simply the regulator and a producer of rules but being a proactive enabler, providing the necessary frameworks and infrastructure for progress and excellence, and to translate this research into useful, and if I may add, ethical applications for commercialisation.

Third point; are our current regimes for intellectual property protection and dissemination fit for purpose? Have we found the right balance between temporary monopolies for inventors and the dissemination of knowledge for wider exploitation? Equally important for governments, are innovations in the policy ecosystem – both national and global – that will bring together talent, money, and the necessary commercial and industrial players to enable innovation to flourish.

   Fourth point is that we have all benefitted, I would say in the last century, from sharing a common, open stack of scientific discoveries based on that shared platform of research, methods, applications and technology. The reality is that today, we are now in danger of perhaps a technological bifurcation due to geopolitical conflict. This will have a profound impact on all of us because it will lead to a more divided world, characterised by slower progress, higher costs, greater contestation and increased risk of conflict.

In fact, we are already witnessing these effects, with supply chain disruptions, rising costs of living, inflation. Our countries today, in managing our supply chains, are thinking in terms of ‘just in case’ rather than ‘just in time’ and we see ‘friend-shoring’ in order to ensure continuity and resilience in supply chains.

The ripple effects of all this bifurcation goes beyond just science and technology. It risks the decoupling of global systems that have been the enablers of peace and stability for the last seventy-five years after the end of the second world war, and it raises therefore the prospect of a more fractured, more divided, less prosperous, and certainly less peaceful world.

Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

If I could just draw your attention to some of the early lessons from COVID-19. Treat this as a real-life worked example of the interplay between science, public policy and the extent of social cohesion and trust within societies. COVID-19 was not the first pandemic, and not even the most virulent pandemic that humanity has faced. Yet it is obvious that our global system for detection, prevention, preparedness and response had major gaps.

The global pandemic response highlighted the importance of governments and private sector working together to address global problems. At the outset of the pandemic, actually, the scientific community was able to get together, was able to publish the genome within weeks, was able to work single-mindedly towards devising diagnostics and even the development of vaccines in record time - in months rather than years, which you would normally take. That’s the good news. 

But the other half of the equation is that we also discovered that it was social capital within societies, in particular trust between citizens and trust between citizens and the government and scientific authorities that made a critical difference for outcomes. Many people died, even in wealthy societies, not for lack of vaccines or treatment facilities, but because of misinformation, political polarisation, which adversely influenced behaviour at both the individual and community level.

Singapore and Switzerland played a role in co-chairing the Friends of the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Facility. Together with other like-minded partners, we pioneered the term ‘vaccine multilateralism’, which encouraged others to join this collective global effort to ensure the unimpeded, fair, and equitable distribution of vaccines.

But yet, on this point, it is noteworthy that by the middle of this year, vaccine supply at the global level was no longer a limiting factor. Today, if Switzerland or Singapore was to offer free vaccines from our excess stock, no country is willing to accept. Think about that.

The Case for Multilateralism

I have offered a rather sobering assessment of our world today. But my intention is not to cause alarm or assign blame, but rather for us to acknowledge the challenge before us, and to underscore the intent and the need to double down, double down on multilateralism and to effect a concerted global response equal to scale of its challenge.

At the same time, these challenges have also brought unprecedented opportunities. The dramatic advances in science and technology offer new ways of solving major challenges of our generation. If we can harness these advancements, if we can mitigate the unwanted downsides, and distribute the benefits more equally across our globe – then we hold the keys to a better future.

Our belief is that the only way forward is to uphold an inclusive and rules-based multilateral system that has underwritten global peace, progress and prosperity for the last 75 to 80 years.

  Small states, like Singapore, and even Switzerland, have agency and we have a critical role to play. That is why we work together with a cross-regional group of countries to establish the Forum of Small States,  in 1992. Groupings such as FOSS.  Today we account for 108 members in the UN, that is the majority of the UN General Assembly membership.

As we celebrate the 30^th anniversary of FOSS, my hope is that the world can come together – combining both deft diplomacy and the tremendous potential offered by the inexorable march of science and technological progress to chart a brighter, more prosperous, and cohesive future.  

So therefore, I stand here in support of the GESDA Agenda, I stand here in support of the agenda outlined by President Cassis, and to make the point that we need to establish the network of people who have both mastery of science and diplomacy, and to make a difference, by making common cause and especially at this time of historic opportunity and risk.

Thank you all very much.

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Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan delivering a speech at the GESDA Summit in Geneva, 14 October 2022

Photo Credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan on a panel discussion at the GESDA Summit with  Alexandre Fasel (Moderator), Special Representative for Science Diplomacy in Geneva, Switzerland; Ignazio Cassis, President of the Swiss Confederation and Head of the Federal Department for Foreign Affairs; Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri, Minister of State for Public Education and Advanced Technology, United Arab Emirates; and Martina Hirayama, State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation, Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research of Switzerland, 14 October 2022

Photo Credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan and Swiss President Ignazio Cassis at the GESDA Summit in Geneva, 14 October 2022

Photo Credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore