I’ve not really seen a Singapore politician speak so openly and frankly about American foreign policy. There was always much more hedging and reading between the lines
“The US is the moving spirit behind most of the post-World War II constructs, together with its alliance, particularly for globalisation based on inclusive free trade. We signed a free trade agreement with the US some years ago. But now I am sure you have your own characterisations of what American foreign policy is, but in my mind, it is that America's primacy has become the overriding consideration. Not that it never was, but I think that it has now become the Pole Star of foreign policy, even at the expense of bilateral ties or multilaterals. It is a great disruption, so we have got to recognise that. How countries and regions respond to this significant shift in US foreign policy bears watching.”
“For Asia, the US in the last 60 years since President John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech – that one form of tyranny (colonial control) will not be replaced by an iron tyranny, that was the moral legitimacy in which US presence was in our region. US has now willy-nilly – the image has changed from liberator to great disruptor to a landlord seeking rent.”
tl;dr ‘we would very much prefer if America would do what they set out claiming to do. In the last administration, America ignored this region, which sucked, but now we expect active hostility that will drive us towards being okay with a multi-polar region in which China plays a lead role, which gives us more work to do re protecting our sovereignty from China’s ambition in the area, but America is no longer a trusted partner’
https://www.mindef.gov.sg/news-and-events/latest-releases/15feb25_speech