Singapore’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan said in a Bloomberg interview at the Milken Institute’s Asia summit that Taiwan was his country’s biggest trading partner last year, crediting artificial intelligence and semiconductors for the shift. He stated: “The biggest trading partner last year for Singapore was Taiwan, according to Government of Singapore. Right. So what’s going on? I think clearly AI technology, semiconductors, technology have a big part in it.”
The ranking reflects Balakrishnan’s characterization and awaits independent confirmation. Official merchandise trade figures by partner are published by Singapore’s Department of Statistics.
Why AI Watchers Should Pay Attention to This Trade Claim
For AI watchers, the claim signals where hardware is moving. Singapore’s large share of activity runs through cross-border trade. When a minister from such an economy says its largest trading relationship has shifted toward a semiconductor manufacturing hub, he describes the direction of physical flows in the chip supply chain.
What Singapore Wants From Its ASEAN Chairmanship
Balakrishnan made the remarks while laying out Singapore’s goals for its turn chairing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Channel NewsAsia reported that Singapore will push for deeper integration and wider partnerships as bloc chair in 2027. Bernama, Malaysia’s national news agency, covered the same remarks as Channel NewsAsia, framing Singapore as the incoming 2027 Chair.
Balakrishnan said success would mean member economies continuing to grow and integrate, with their respective strengths, “say, energy and technology,” combining in a complementary way “where the whole is more than the sum of the parts,” at which point “we would have succeeded.”
Rafting Together Against High Waves
His reasoning centers on defense. Balakrishnan described it: “If we’re going through turbulent weather and because by definition we are small except for Indonesia, the more we can raft our economies, the better it is to cope with high waves and strong winds.” Integration is a survival tool.
On combined size, Balakrishnan hedged: “If you add up the cumulative nominal GDP of ASEAN, we will be or may already be the fourth largest composite economy in the world. And guess what? We still have great growth potential in the next 20 years.”
He also stated: “We want to be assessed on our own merit, not as an arena for contestation between the superpowers, and not as another arena for proxy wars.” This signals a preference for non-alignment between the United States and China, according to Government of Singapore.
Growth Figures From the Segment
Balakrishnan said the region is growing despite the turmoil around it: “In the midst of a crazy world, in the midst of the breakdown in world order, the breakdown in trade, the disruption to supply chains, we’re having significant growth.” Bloomberg’s headline on the clip described him as touting Robust Asean Growth.
According to the segment, first-half growth figures for this year were:
- Vietnam: 8% plus
- Singapore: 6.1%
- Malaysia and Indonesia: around 5% to 5% plus
A Growth Case That Depends on Unity
Balakrishnan argues Southeast Asia can grow despite global trade fracturing. The region positions itself as neutral ground where supply chains can relocate, and his Taiwan trade claim fits that picture of AI-driven flows shifting through the area, according to Government of Singapore.
The argument rests on two conditions: the bloc stays unified and stays out of the superpower contest. Balakrishnan said those are his priorities, though he did not claim they have been secured.