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September 3, 2026

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‘Singapore’s perpetual karma is to be relevant’: Tommy Koh looks back on 55 years in global diplomacy

Retiring after five decades at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tommy Koh reflects on ASEAN’s rise, Singapore’s foreign policy and the state of the international order.

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SINGAPORE: Singapore gained independence in 1965 but only set up a formal foreign service in 1972, after founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew doubted enough people would want to join, said former diplomatic stalwart Professor Tommy Koh.

It took him a year to convince Mr Lee of the need for a professional foreign service to manage international relations and deliver consular services, rather than seconding staff from other ministries.

“We had no foreign service when I joined. When I came back from the UN in 1971, we still had no foreign service,” said Prof Koh, who was Singapore’s permanent representative to the United Nations from 1968 to 1971.

The 88-year-old retired from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) last month after 55 years, during which he served as Singapore’s permanent representative to the UN, ambassador to the United States and, most recently, ambassador-at-large.

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In an interview with CNA at the National University of Singapore’s Centre for International Law, where he is board chairman, Prof Koh recounted his exchange with Mr Lee.

“He said: ‘Tommy, which ambitious young man or woman would join such a small service? You join the civil service, admin service, you have many opportunities,’” recalled Prof Koh.

He replied that “there are some people who are attracted to this kind of life”, stressing that “every country needs a foreign service, we need institutional memory, we need intellectual capacity”. Mr Lee was eventually convinced.

Singapore was “never prepared for independence”, and its first generation of ambassadors were “borrowed from various parts of Singapore” and thrown into the deep end, said Prof Koh.

He himself was 30 years old and teaching law when he left for the UN as ambassador. “We learnt on the job, and we collectively contributed to the founding principle of our foreign policy,” he said.

Prof Koh has worked with every foreign minister in Singapore’s history, and said the one who left the deepest mark on him was the first, S Rajaratnam, who held the role from 1965 to 1980.

“He had the greatest impact on my thinking, practice of diplomacy. But every subsequent minister brought something to the table, and I learnt from every one of them,” said Prof Koh.

Another principle Prof Koh took from his encounters with Mr Lee is that “small countries have no inherent relevance to the world”.

“So it is Singapore’s perpetual karma to be relevant and useful to other countries and to the world,” he said.

This is among the core principles guiding Singapore’s foreign policy: protecting its sovereignty and territorial integrity, expanding its economic and political space, making the maximum number of friends and fewest enemies, and that it is not without agency despite being a small country, said Prof Koh.

“We mustn’t adopt the attitude that we have no choice but to submit to the great powers and to bigger countries,” he said.

These guiding principles have stood the test of time, said Prof Koh.

“Of course, over time, the role we play in the world differs. In the beginning, we were learning, observing, trying to understand how the world worked, how the international system worked,” he said.

“Later on, as we became more mature, we were able to contribute back to the system. And now, I would say Singapore is highly respected at the UN and in the world, and we give a lot back to the world.”

LOOKING BACK ON 55 YEARS

Prof Koh said he feels well and happy, and looks back on his time in the foreign service with great satisfaction.

One key trait foreign service officers must have, he said, is to “believe in Singapore”.

“We believe in defending Singapore’s national interest. But at the same time, we want Singapore to be a good citizen of the world,” said Prof Koh.

This means Singapore steps up whenever called upon to be a neutral chairman, facilitator or special envoy, to the extent it can.

Prof Koh recalled that when the UN asked him to be a special envoy to make peace between Russia and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1993, the Singapore government was supportive of the decision.

“My government said ‘please do it’, although it took me to a part of the world I was completely not familiar (with),” he said.

He also recalled chairing two World Trade Organization dispute panels, despite not being a trade lawyer. In these ways, Singapore tries to give back to the system, said Prof Koh.

Prof Koh’s greatest challenge in moving from academia to diplomacy was reconciling theory with practice.

“You may believe that international law is the most important thing in the world. But when you’re at the UN and you saw how the Soviet Union completely ignored international law, invaded Czechoslovakia, overthrew the government, then you realise the world is more complicated than we taught our students in law school,” he said.

“So the challenge for me in the last 55 years is: how do I reconcile theory and practice? Not to give up and be cynical, but to be pragmatic and idealistic at the same time.”

Despite a storied career, Prof Koh counts something more personal as a highlight of his life: marrying his wife, Dr Poh Siew Aing.

“I will be eternally grateful to her for being willing to sacrifice a medical career to support me and to support the children,” said Prof Koh. They have two sons.

SINGAPORE AS ASEAN CHAIR IN 2027

With Singapore taking over the ASEAN chairmanship next year, Prof Koh noted much has changed since it last held the role in 2018.

Economically, the bloc has made significant progress, collectively becoming the world’s fifth largest economy and soon to be fourth, said Prof Koh.

“It’s tremendous progress. We remain united. We are a force of peace. We develop a culture of consultation, mutual accommodation, a spirit of give and take, and this growing sense of an ASEAN identity among the people. So I think the last 10 years have been very good years,” he said.

However, the external environment is less favourable now, with some major countries turning inward and away from free trade, said Prof Koh.

Still, others continue pursuing free trade, he said, citing Singapore’s two new free trade agreements with eight Latin American countries: the Mercosur bloc, signed in December 2023, and the Pacific Alliance grouping, in force since May last year.

Holding the chairmanship is a big deal and the world has high expectations of Singapore, he said.

“So we will make our chairmanship next year meaningful and fruitful. I can’t tell you yet what are our most important deliverables, but there will be several,” said Prof Koh.

Prof Koh said that ASEAN’s biggest asset is trust: it can convene regional forums precisely because the great powers do not trust each other.

“The only group of countries that can convene these conferences and be a neutral chairman is ASEAN. So we are so-called driving the bus, not because we are the biggest, but because we are acceptable. Everybody trusts us.”

LONG-RUNNING NEGOTIATIONS

The Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1978 was “the most important challenge” the original five ASEAN countries faced, he recalled.

Prof Koh said the invasion frightened Thailand, since Vietnamese troops sat on its border with Cambodia.

“They appealed to the rest of us to support them, which we did. We also wanted to free Cambodia from Vietnamese control and hegemony,” he said.

“It was a 10-year campaign … concluded in 1991 with the Paris Peace Agreements. So that was one of the longest periods of my life.”

Another long negotiation was the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which took about nine years. In the final year of talks, Prof Koh was elected president of the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea, and guided over 150 countries to agree on the landmark piece of international law.

Other highlights, he said, included the free trade agreement with the US, concluded in 2003, and forging diplomatic relations with China in 1990. He also represented Singapore in two legal disputes with Malaysia, including over Pedra Branca.

Asked if he ever disagreed with Singapore’s foreign policy, Prof Koh said “there were maybe one or two occasions when I did not agree with some proposal and I made my views known”.

“Fortunately, they were abandoned, otherwise I would have to resign,” he quipped. He declined to reveal which were the policies in question.

UPHOLDING INTERNATIONAL RULE OF LAW

During the debate on MFA’s budget in parliament in February, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan called the current state of the international order “a moment of rupture”.

Prof Koh said this is not the first time international law has been abused, citing the Cold War era and the Soviet Union’s disregard for it.

“So do we give up? Not at all. We continue to build a coalition of like-minded countries. We continue to believe we want to build a world governed by law rather than by force,” he said.

“Whether it is Russia, whether it’s Israel, whether it’s any other country, we must hold countries that violate international law and the rule of law accountable.”

Prof Koh said international law can still protect small states to a large extent, but little can be done if a great power insists on using military force. The international community can, however, hold violators accountable through existing institutions, he said.

“And even in the current situation when a major country has gone rogue, I would say: but the rest of us have not. The rest of us continue to believe in international law, in the rule of law, in the courts, tribunals and so on.

“It is not a moment to despair. On the contrary, it must be a moment when we reaffirm our faith in international law and the rule of law.”

Source: CNA/fb(cy)

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