Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan on Tuesday warned of “bleak” future for Southeast Asian nations and the Indo-Pacific region if tensions in the South China Sea escalates.

Balakrishnan, here on an official visit, said: ''The moment you have an escalation of tension or collisions or military action In the South China Sea, it will immediately impair and impede trade.”

Balakirshnan said Singapore has been watching recent developments in the South China Sea with “concern.”

“If it is just the law of the jungle, where the powerful do what they will and the weak must suffer, what they must, then the future will be very bleak for Singapore and the Philippines,” Balakrishnan said.

“Singapore's interest is in maintaining peace and stability in one of the world's busiest waterways which is what the South China Sea is,” he said. DMS