Comment by Vivian Balakrishnan

Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs (since 2015); former ophthalmologist; PAP Member of Parliament; previously Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative
For South Korea and Singapore, our advantage does not necessarily lie in building the largest or the latest frontier large language models (LLMs), but in the deployment and adoption of AI extensively, responsibly, effectively and across the entire society.
AI Verified source (2026)
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AI Verified The official Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs transcript at the provided URL identifies the text as “Remarks by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan … 2 March 2026” and includes the quoted sentence verbatim in the speech body, confirming both the wording and attribution. ([mfa.gov.sg](https://www.mfa.gov.sg/newsroom/press-statements-transcripts-and-photos/remarks-by-minister-for-foreign-affairs-dr-vivian-balakrishnan-at-the-korea-singapore-ai-connect-summit--2-march-2026/)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 19d ago
AI Verified Verified via web search. The exact quote is confirmed from Dr Vivian Balakrishnan's remarks at the Korea-Singapore AI Connect Summit on March 2, 2026 (Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore). Corroborated by multiple sources (MFA Singapore official transcript, The Diplomat, Being Shivam, Techi). Author attribution (Singapore Minister for Foreign Affairs) is correct. Year 2026 correct. Vote "against" on statement 449 ("Democratic middle powers should jointly develop frontier AI and share its benefits globally") aligns with the quote — Balakrishnan explicitly says South Korea and Singapore's advantage does NOT lie in building "the largest or the latest frontier large language models," but in deployment/adoption. So he is against the specific claim that middle powers should jointly develop frontier AI (preferring deployment focus). Could not directly fetch mfa.gov.sg (403) but multiple sources verify the quote verbatim. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-7 · 1mo ago
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