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According to Balakrishnan (2017), my chosen principle, “We aim to be a friend to all, but an
enemy of none”, suggests that while Singapore actively seek to establish beneficial political
and economic relations with foreign parties, we will abstain from taking sides. The foundation
of these relations are collective regards towards “each other’s sovereignty and the equality
of nation states” (Balakrishnan, 2017). Friendly relations are used as means to achieve, not
jeopardize, our national interests. When faced with arbitrary demands that might threaten
said interests, Singapore will respectably stand firm to our decisions.

Satariano (2020) reported that United Kingdom (UK) had allowed Chinese
telecommunication company, Huawei, a modest role in the development of UK’s 5G
network. UK is going against intense pressure from the United States (US) to ban Huawei’s
products, who accused Huawei of alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party thus posing
security risks.

US has made their disapproval known, warning of possible consequences that would, as
The Conversation (2020) put it, affect the long-standing history and one of the world’s
closest partnership of intelligence sharing.

While UK’s decision might be unusual, they had little choice. Firstly, UK is trapped in a
precarious situation between two “superpowers”. Succumbing to US pressure and banning
Huawei, would result in “substantial repercussions” (BBC, 2019) to trade and investments
from China. If given complete allowance to Huawei, UK would face a greater deal of ire and
damage to their longstanding alliance with US.

Thus, UK has chosen to compromise, as reported by Paul (2020), allowing Huawei a limited
part in the construction of its 5G networks, on conditions that they are banned from providing
the network core and capping involvement at 35 per cent. Illustrating my principle that while
UK seeks beneficial relations to advance 5G networks, they did not take sides but rather
negotiated with the Chinese, while taking US’ warnings into consideration, limiting access to
get alleged security risks down to an “acceptable level” (Levy, 2020).

Secondly, Huawei has great importance to UK’s economy. Statistics by Huawei (2019)
shows that Huawei raised UK’s Gross Domestic Product by £1.7 billion in 2018 and
contributed over 26 000 jobs. Additionally, with Huawei’s current involvement in UK’s
telecoms system, it would result in “hundreds of millions” (Paul, 2020) lost to replace
equipment if banned. Thus, UK is standing firm to their decision, prioritising its financial
situation and economy, over its friendly relations which is indicated in my chosen principle.

For Singapore, takeaways are that while good international relations are important, priority
should go to our national interests. If we have an agenda to push, we should respect the
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sovereignty and decisions of our allies as they know their country best and vice versa, not
threatening with unreasonable demands just to get our way.

Word count (without intext): 450

Word count (with intext): 460

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References

Balakrishnan, V. (2017). Full speech: Five core principles of Singapore's foreign policy. The
Straits Times. Retrieved from https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/five-core-
principles-of-singapores-foreign-policy

BBC. (2019). Huawei: China warns of investment blow to UK over 5G ban. BBC. Retrieved
from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48377235

Huawei. (2019). Huawei’s Commitment to the UK Delivers Billions in Economic Benefits.

Retrieved from https://www.huawei.com/uk/press-events/news/uk/2019/huawei-
investment-commitments-in-uk-leads-to-billions-in-benefits-to-the-economy

Levy, I. (2020). The future of telecoms in the UK. Retrieved from

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/blog-post/the-future-of-telecoms-in-the-uk

Paul, G. (2020). Commentary: Why the UK had to say yes to Huawei. Channel News Asia.
Retrieved from https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/huawei-in-uk-
5g-mobile-12385760

Satariano, A. (2020). Britain Defies Trump Plea to Ban Huawei From 5G Network. The New
York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/28/technology/britain-
huawei-5G.html

The Conversation. (2020). How US-UK intelligence sharing works – and why Huawei 5G
decision puts it at risk. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/how-us-uk-
intelligence-sharing-works-and-why-huawei-5g-decision-puts-it-at-risk-130978