TOKYO -- It is up to Japan and China to drive free trade and economic integration in Asia, and they have to do it "in tandem, not as rivals," Goh Chok Tong, Singapore's former prime minister, said on Monday. On the Trans-Pacific Partnership, specifically, Goh called on Japan to take the lead and open the door for China to eventually join the pact.
Speaking at Nikkei Inc.'s Future of Asia conference in Tokyo, Goh warned that the growing sentiment against economic integration in the West is "not in Asia's interest."