Former PM Lee Kuan Yew is 1st Asian to receive Lincoln Medal

Singapore's founding Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, urged the United States and China to find a way of working together on the global stage.

He was speaking after being awarded the Lincoln Medal in Washington DC - an honor that is reserved for people who have exemplified the legacy and character embodied by former US President Abraham Lincoln.

The Lincoln Medal is awarded annually at Ford's Theater in Washington DC, a site of the assassination in 1865 of President Abraham Lincoln and is one of the city's major tourist attractions.

Lincoln is revered in the United States as he's held by many to be the nation's greatest former President for leading the country through the Civil War, ending slavery and promoting economic modernisation.

Former Minister Mentor challenged the United States to be forward-thinking about one of its modern relationships.

China's rise, he argued, will be the most dramatic global event of this century.

Mr Lee said: "To grow, China needs American markets, American investments, and with it American technology.

"China also wants to send thousands of her students to American universities and research institutions, to work and learn the kind of intellectual milieu that enables Americans to be so innovative and creative."

China's development, said the former Minister Mentor, should not scare the United States.

The Chinese, he argued, are in no hurry to displace the US as the world's dominant power, and prefer instead of operate within larger groups like the G20 and the UN Security Council.

The relationship between Washington and Beijing has been marked by tensions of late, over issues like the value of the Chinese currency, the Obama administration's decision to modernise Taiwan's stockpile of F16s and China's massive holding of US debt."

But the former Minister Mentor said there's a chance for both sides to manage the relationship in the interests not just of themselves but of the wider world.

Mr Lee said: "Although America is currently facing tremendously difficult economic times, I am confident that America's innate creativity, resilience and innovative spirit will allow it to confront its core problems, overcome them, and regain competitiveness.

"Beyond that, the US should not see China's ascent as a zero-sum game, but should find a way to work together, which will call for a combination of regular dialogues, hard negotiation and mutual reassurances".

Equable relations between the two countries, he said, are the most important for peace and stability in the Asia Pacific region, and the whole world.