Ambassador Ong Keng Yong

Ambassador Ong Keng Yong is Executive Deputy Chairman of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Concurrently, he is Director of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS) and Head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR) in RSIS.

Mr Ong continues to hold the position of Ambassador-at-Large at the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is also Singapore’s non-resident High Commissioner to Pakistan and non-resident Ambassador to Iran. Mr Ong has been the Chairman of the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) since 2015.

Mr Ong was High Commissioner of Singapore to Malaysia from 2011 to 2014. He served as High Commissioner of Singapore to India and concurrently Singapore’s Ambassador to Nepal from 1996 to 1998.

Mr Ong served as 11^th Secretary-General of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), based in Jakarta, Indonesia from January 2003 to January 2008.

Mr Ong started his diplomatic career in 1979 and was posted to the Singapore Embassies in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and the United States of America between 1984 and 1994. From September 1998 to December 2002, he was Press Secretary to the then Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Goh Chok Tong, while holding senior appointments in the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, and the People’s Association in Singapore. From 2008 to 2011, he served as Director of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

Mr Ong graduated from the then University of Singapore with a LLB (Hons). He studied at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., USA, and graduated with a MA in Arab Studies.

• ASEAN’s Strategic Role in Regional Architecture
• ASEAN’s Relations with External Parties
• ASEAN’s Community-building Initiatives
• Relations between Singapore and Malaysia and India

Books

• The APPSMO Advantage: Strategic Opportunities

  04 August, 2016

Commentaries

• International Conference on Cohesive Societies - Appreciating Diversity: What Has The ICCS Achieved?

  28 June, 2019

• CO17240 | Israeli-Palestine Conflict: Compromise and Restraint Needed

  26 December, 2017

• CO17148 | ASEAN into the Future: Need For Leadership

  07 August, 2017

• CO17146 | World Agricultural Forum 2017 - Future of Agriculture and Implications for ASEAN

  03 August, 2017

• CO17127 | Singapore and Food Security

  30 June, 2017

• CO16217 | Remembering SR Nathan - Man of Guts, Instinct & Tenacity

  25 August, 2016

• CO16202 | ASEAN Community: Economic Integration and Development of SMEs

  10 August, 2016

• CO15277 | ASEAN and the EU: Different Paths to Community Building

  22 December, 2015

• CO15227 | Strengthening Energy Security: Key to Sustainable Development in Asia

  26 October, 2015

• CO15064 | Pursuing Mutual Strategic Interests: Lee Kuan Yew’s Role in Singapore–US Relations

  24 March, 2015

Journal Articles

• "The ASEAN We Don’t Know" in The Soft Power 30, , , 2018,
• "ASEAN Arts and Culture: The Role of Singapore" in Culture Connections, Vol. 3, , 2018, pp. 9-13
• "The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" in The Little Nation That Can - Singapore's Foreign Relations and Diplomacy, Vol. 26, , 2017, pp. 90-94

Op-Eds

• The Challenge is How We Make the Most of Diversity, The Straits Times, 27 June 2019
• Asia Values: A Free And Open Indo-Pacific, 2018 Halifax Papers, 8 January 2019
• What ASEAN’s enterprises need to succeed