Third Nations have a role to play in today's geopolitical landscape - Danny Quah

Third Nations have a role to play in today's geopolitical landscape.

Li Ka Shing Professor in Economics and Dean of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (NUS) Prof Dr Danny Quah said these 'third nations' need to come together on the things that matter to them and help each other to rise up the economic ladder

"So the third world was a term that came out of an era when there were colonial masters that had just exited from these countries.

"There was a firm transatlantic industrial base, America and Western Europe, and the rest of us were natural resource-based agricultural economies, these countries were a lot poorer, we were the third world.

"Now, I say third nations as a way to think about how in the geopolitical landscape today where we have got two great powers, United States and China, and if we go with that, outside of number one and number two, are the rest of us - the third nations," said Prof Quah during an interview with Astro AWANI's Consider This.

Explaining further, he added that that the 'third nations' are not a force to be trifled with.

"If the world were truly a democracy, we would acknowledge that third nations are 80% of humanity.

"It is this democratic majority that needs to take a central, play a central role in determining where the world goes. So third world nations was a phrasing that referred to weakness.

"Third nations, however, I want you to think about a democratic majority, an argument from strength, where we don't yet fully recognise the strength and the agency that we have," said Prof Quah.

He was speaking on the sidelines of Malaysia Futures 2023 in Kuala Lumpur recently.

Malaysia Futures 2023 is a forum jointly organised by LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre (SEAC) and Khazanah Research Institute (KRI).