SINGAPORE (Kyodo) Singapore's Foreign Ministry on Monday brushed off leaked data from the secrets-divulging website WikiLeaks that exposed controversial comments by several of its diplomats on other countries in the region, including Japan, saying they are not expected to affect ties with these countries.
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The leaked U.S. State Department cables were made available exclusively to Australia's Fairfax Media group, including The Sunday Age and The Sun-Herald newspapers.
The newspapers said Singaporean Ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh had described Japan as "the big fat loser" in the context of improving ties between China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in a September 2009 meeting with a senior U.S. official.
Coincidentally, Koh, one of Singapore's most respected diplomats, was awarded the prestigious "Order of the Rising Sun" (Gold and Silver Star) by the Japanese government for his "contribution to the promotion of intellectual exchanges and mutual understanding between Japan and Singapore" the same year.
The reports said Koh "was equally merciless toward India, describing his 'stupid Indian friends' as 'half-in, half-out' of ASEAN."
Bilahari Kausikan, the permanent secretary at Singapore's Foreign Ministry, was said to have described Thailand's political elite as "corrupt" in a September 2008 meeting with a senior U.S. official, while he said "a lack of competent leadership is a real problem for Malaysia."
Singapore's Foreign Ministry said Monday "these press reports are based on American interpretations of confidential conversations that did not provide the full context and, in some cases, were from third-party sources."
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