Lawrence Wong was sworn in as Singapore’s fourth prime minister on Wednesday evening, leading a trade-dependent nation that he warned would face turbulence from worsening geopolitical tensions.
The 51-year-old Harvard graduate takes office amid growing concerns in the Southeast Asian country over the cost of living, strained US-China ties and wars in the Middle East and Ukraine that have left Singapore’s economy in a delicate position have brought.
“The great powers are competing to shape a new, as yet undefined, global order,” Wong said after taking the oath of office on the lawn of the presidential residence. “We must brace ourselves for this new reality and adapt to a messier, riskier life. and a more violent world.”
