Trump isn't ‘completely wrong’: Hormuz disruption is Asia’s problem, says Singapore's foreign minister

Singapore's foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan.Horacio Villalobos | Corbis News | Getty ImagesSINGAPORE — U.S. President Donald Trump isn’t “completely wrong” in suggesting that the disruption to energy flows via the Strait of Hormuz is Asia's problem, Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said.Asian economies are among the biggest customers of energy shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf with the Arabian Sea, making any prolonged disruption particularly consequential for the region.Trump has said that Asian economies should shoulder more of the burden of keeping the waterway open rather than relying predominantly on U.S. protection."We don't use the strait. We don't need it. Europe needs it. Korea, Japan, China, [and] a lot of other people," he said earlier this year.Balakrishnan, however, cautioned against viewing the issue simply through the lens of who buys the oil, stressing the importance of maintaining freedom of navigation through international waterways. He made the remarks to CNBC on Wednesday at Milken Institute's Asia Summit in Singapore.For Singapore, that principle is “non-negotiable,” Balakrishnan said, citin...