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Interview With Lee Kuan Yew About The New Global Order (PART I)
Friday, 07 May 2010 06:52 | Written by shabait Administrator | PDF Print E-mail
Articles - Q & A
Read here for full article
...... CHARLIE ROSE: Coming out of the global economic crisis, even though the United States is the dominant country, it is forced to look to build and to engage and build coalitions on a whole range of big issues, and there is never now a guarantee of unanimous support. It’s hard to put together, for example, sanctions against Iran.
LEE KUAN YEW: Iran is a special case. Iran has oil and gas. The Chinese desperately need oil and gas. Russia’s playing a game with Iran. Russia doesn’t need oil and gas, but Russia wants to cut the U.S. down to size and remind the U.S. you need me to run the world.
With the Chinese they are doing their calculations. I think in exchange they must know if they buck the word -- once the Russians say, all right, we agree, I would bet 50/50 the Chinese will also say...
CHARLIE ROSE: So if the Russians say we’ll engage in sanctions, the
Chinese will follow.
LEE KUAN YEW: They would not want to be the odd-man out and be held responsible.
CHARLIE ROSE: What if the United States finds another partner or another supplier of energy for Iran?
LEE KUAN YEW: No, in place of Iran?
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
LEE KUAN YEW: Where will you find...
CHARLIE ROSE: Well, in the Middle East. In Saudi Arabia and -- not possible?
LEE KUAN YEW: No, not possible.
CHARLIE ROSE: But I had a Chinese diplomat say to me that they would welcome that, that if in fact they did not have a necessity of needing Iranian oil, they would go along with sanctions, because they don't think...
LEE KUAN YEW: They need Iranian oil, they need Arabian oil, they need Nigerian oil, they need Angolan oil...
CHARLIE ROSE: They need all the oil they can find anywhere.
LEE KUAN YEW: Yes, of course.
CHARLIE ROSE: To fuel the economic growth at 8 percent.
LEE KUAN YEW: Absolutely.
CHARLIE ROSE: Tell me about Russia and how you see Russia today?
LEE KUAN YEW: Well, look, I’m doing a little bit of business in Russia.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
LEE KUAN YEW: I’m also a member of the board of governors of Skolkovo Business School, invited to join it by Medvedev, who is now the president. So I speak as one who is a semi-Russian colleague. I would say they would do enormously better if they could get their system right. Their system is not functioning and not as functional as it should be because it has gone haywire. They’ve lost control over the various provinces, and they’re trying to bring it back to the center, but it’s difficult.
CHARLIE ROSE: What do you think of the relationship between Putin and Medvedev?
LEE KUAN YEW: Everybody knows that Mr. Medvedev is a very good friend
of Putin and also knows Mr. Putin is a very powerful fellow. And Mr. Medvedev is working through very powerful men called Silovikis, who are all from the FSB.
CHARLIE ROSE: Which is the former KGB.
LEE KUAN YEW: Yes. Now, Mr. Medvedev is a highly intelligent man. He’s a good friend of Putin, and he sees no reason why he would want to clash with Putin.
CHARLIE ROSE: And Mr. Putin will return to be president another day?
LEE KUAN YEW: I would say the probabilities are high.
CHARLIE ROSE: but you also said in a speech I read that the capabilities of Russia are limited.
LEE KUAN YEW: Well, they’ve got enormous nuclear arsenal, but what else? Their army is a very different army now. The air force -- they’re building new fighters, but, I mean, their navy -- and their population is declining -- AIDS, alcohol, drugs, and pessimism. I mean, every year more Russians die than Russians are born because people are not optimistic. In America people are optimistic and say I’ll bring a child into the world. But when your life is so harsh, and from time to time it gets better when the oil price goes up, but that’s momentary, you have a different view of the future, so what’s the point of this?
....
=================================
Interview With Lee Kuan Yew About The New Global Order (PART I)
Friday, 07 May 2010 06:52 | Written by shabait Administrator | PDF Print E-mail
Articles - Q & A
Read here for full article
...... CHARLIE ROSE: Coming out of the global economic crisis, even though the United States is the dominant country, it is forced to look to build and to engage and build coalitions on a whole range of big issues, and there is never now a guarantee of unanimous support. It’s hard to put together, for example, sanctions against Iran.
LEE KUAN YEW: Iran is a special case. Iran has oil and gas. The Chinese desperately need oil and gas. Russia’s playing a game with Iran. Russia doesn’t need oil and gas, but Russia wants to cut the U.S. down to size and remind the U.S. you need me to run the world.
With the Chinese they are doing their calculations. I think in exchange they must know if they buck the word -- once the Russians say, all right, we agree, I would bet 50/50 the Chinese will also say...
CHARLIE ROSE: So if the Russians say we’ll engage in sanctions, the
Chinese will follow.
LEE KUAN YEW: They would not want to be the odd-man out and be held responsible.
CHARLIE ROSE: What if the United States finds another partner or another supplier of energy for Iran?
LEE KUAN YEW: No, in place of Iran?
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
LEE KUAN YEW: Where will you find...
CHARLIE ROSE: Well, in the Middle East. In Saudi Arabia and -- not possible?
LEE KUAN YEW: No, not possible.
CHARLIE ROSE: But I had a Chinese diplomat say to me that they would welcome that, that if in fact they did not have a necessity of needing Iranian oil, they would go along with sanctions, because they don't think...
LEE KUAN YEW: They need Iranian oil, they need Arabian oil, they need Nigerian oil, they need Angolan oil...
CHARLIE ROSE: They need all the oil they can find anywhere.
LEE KUAN YEW: Yes, of course.
CHARLIE ROSE: To fuel the economic growth at 8 percent.
LEE KUAN YEW: Absolutely.
CHARLIE ROSE: Tell me about Russia and how you see Russia today?
LEE KUAN YEW: Well, look, I’m doing a little bit of business in Russia.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
LEE KUAN YEW: I’m also a member of the board of governors of Skolkovo Business School, invited to join it by Medvedev, who is now the president. So I speak as one who is a semi-Russian colleague. I would say they would do enormously better if they could get their system right. Their system is not functioning and not as functional as it should be because it has gone haywire. They’ve lost control over the various provinces, and they’re trying to bring it back to the center, but it’s difficult.
CHARLIE ROSE: What do you think of the relationship between Putin and Medvedev?
LEE KUAN YEW: Everybody knows that Mr. Medvedev is a very good friend
of Putin and also knows Mr. Putin is a very powerful fellow. And Mr. Medvedev is working through very powerful men called Silovikis, who are all from the FSB.
CHARLIE ROSE: Which is the former KGB.
LEE KUAN YEW: Yes. Now, Mr. Medvedev is a highly intelligent man. He’s a good friend of Putin, and he sees no reason why he would want to clash with Putin.
CHARLIE ROSE: And Mr. Putin will return to be president another day?
LEE KUAN YEW: I would say the probabilities are high.
CHARLIE ROSE: but you also said in a speech I read that the capabilities of Russia are limited.
LEE KUAN YEW: Well, they’ve got enormous nuclear arsenal, but what else? Their army is a very different army now. The air force -- they’re building new fighters, but, I mean, their navy -- and their population is declining -- AIDS, alcohol, drugs, and pessimism. I mean, every year more Russians die than Russians are born because people are not optimistic. In America people are optimistic and say I’ll bring a child into the world. But when your life is so harsh, and from time to time it gets better when the oil price goes up, but that’s momentary, you have a different view of the future, so what’s the point of this?
....