I have great pleasure to warmly welcome all of our friends to this Inaugural Seminar between ASEAN and New Zealand. We in ASEAN are particularly appreciative of the friendship and support, which New Zealand has shown to us for decades. For instance, New Zealand was the first dialogue partner to negotiate an FTA with ASEAN. We in Singapore also remember with gratitude the tremendous efforts in the area of defence cooperation that New Zealand has helped us with since World War II through the Malayan Emergency to Confrontation and the FPDA, until today, when our Singapore Armed Forces trains in New Zealand.

Several ASEAN countries are small states, except for Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, and Myanmar. We all admire and appreciate what a small state like New Zealand has achieved on the world stage. In world sports like sailing, rugby, cricket and others, New Zealand has shown that a small population is no hindrance. In economics, she has been a pioneer in economic reforms. In opera, a New Zealander, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is a world-class singer. In terms of beautiful scenery, famous movies like the “Lord of the Rings” series have show-cased New Zealand, now also known as Middle Earth. The wines of New Zealand are excellent and win awards. In innovation, Kiwis are famous for their No. 8 wire hands-on approach to problem solving. So ASEAN members have a lot to learn in terms of best practice from New Zealand. This seminar provides a platform for an exchange of ideas between the two sides.

As a research institute, ISEAS is particularly interested in the exchange of ideas and information. Analyses and policy-oriented research are our focus and raison-d'être, particularly when the wider region is changing rapidly, with the rise of China and India, and the establishment of new moves like the Trilateral Security dialogue between the United States, Japan and Australia, and closer ties between India and the United States. New Zealand shares certain common interests with us as fellow members of ARF, APEC, ASEM, EAS and as an ASEAN dialogue partner.