As your average McGill international student, it’s truly not every day that I’m invited to meet my country’s Transport Minister, let alone in the country where I chose to study almost 15,000 kilometres away from home. On September 25, under a gloomy gray sky, I arrived at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Reception organized by Singapore at the Grand Quay in Montreal. I was greeted by beautiful Peranakan-style decor, a sumptuous feast including some of my local favourites (chendol bar, anyone?), and a massive crowd of people with United Nations (UN) pins on their blazers. It all felt a little bit surreal.
Since its founding in 1944, the ICAO has been a specialized UN agency dedicated to helping its 193 member states diplomatically and technically realize a dependable, shared network of global air mobility. Every three years, ICAO delegations from all over the world convene in Montreal, the site of ICAO’s Head Quarters. There, they re-elect the ICAO Council, made up of 36 States selected to speak for all 193 member states in triannual Council sessions. The members of Council are chosen from three criteria:
- Part I: States of chief importance in air transport.
- Part II: States which make the largest contribution to the provision of facilities for international civil air navigation.
- Part III: States ensuring geographic representation.
Next year marks the official start of the ICAO 2026-2050 Strategic Plan, under the theme “Safe Skies, Sustainable Future”. The Strategic Plan for the next 25 years has three main aspirations: to achieve net-zero carbon pathways; to have zero fatalities from aviation accidents and acts of unlawful interference; and to position aviation as part of an accessible, inclusive, and affordable global transport network, ensuring that no country is left behind. The ICAO aims to attain these goals by 2050.
All these objectives have been wholly supported and furthered by Singapore, a small island- state in South-East Asia. Singapore has been a member of the ICAO Council since it was first elected following the council’s three-seat expansion in 2003, and has been fully committed to serving the aviation space ever since. The nation serves the ICAO Council under Part II of its criteria. Compared to its larger counterparts on the ICAO Council, Singapore is a much smaller state, but it is nonetheless considered to have made some of the largest contributions to civil aviation. Singapore’s Changi Airport, which was voted the world’s best airport in 2025, saw 67.7 million visitors in 2024 — more than ten times the Singapore population of 6.11 million. The Civil Aviation Authority Singapore (CAAS) also participates actively in regional and international working groups beyond the ICAO, such as the ASEAN Air Transport Working Group, and the recently established Asia Pacific Sustainable Aviation Centre (APSAC), among many others.
In pursuit of ICAO’s net-zero emissions goal, Singapore launched the Singapore Sustainable Air Hub Blueprint in February 2024. The Blueprint outlines 12 initiatives in an effort to decarbonize the aviation space in Singapore, with an emphasis on promoting the use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) through self- imposed levies, aiming for a one per cent target in 2026 and growing to between three and five per cent by 2030. The use of SAFs is thought to be able to contribute to 65 per cent of reduced carbon emissions by 2050.
Regarding matters of inclusivity and in alignment with the ICAO’s “No Country Left Behind (NCLB)” initiative, Singapore established the Singapore-ICAO Developing Countries Training Programme (DCTP) in 2001, which sponsors 330 fellowships and ten scholarships yearly to aviation specialists from eligible developing ICAO member nations. These include room and board, as well as exclusive on-the-ground training and mentorship opportunities with the Singapore Aviation Academy (SAA). In the last year, the CAAS has also signed Memorandums of Understanding with the Arab Civil Aviation Organization (ACAO) and the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC), which represent 22 and 54 member states respectively, to deepen and augment collaboration in civil aviation training. These underpin objectives of supporting growing aviation markets and meeting global demands for air travel, through not only the aforementioned fellowships, but also in-region training across key fields like aviation safety and security, accident investigation, and sustainability, among others.
Considering Singapore’s accomplishments in civil aviation and air travel sustainability, it comes as no surprise that this year, Singapore was re-elected to the council as a Part II nation with a record 176 of 184 votes. “We were anticipating a particular number of votes and I think it exceeded our expectations,” says Tavis Tan, Technical Expert for the Permanent Mission of Singapore to the ICAO, during an online interview with the Daily. “It was quite a euphoric moment.”
Tan, who graciously extended me an invitation to Singapore’s Reception, is adamant that a nation’s size does not determine its destiny. When asked about Singapore’s position as a smaller state within the intricate nexus of international diplomacy, he says: “It’s a common theory in International Relations that bigger states will do what they want and smaller states will suffer what they must. However, in today’s international geopolitical environment, there’s a bit more room for smaller states to navigate … The better question is: how [does a nation] define [its] role in the larger international ecosystem?”
As an example, he cites Singapore’s establishment of the Forum Of Small States (FOSS) in 1992, which now comprises 108 countries. The FOSS is a voluntary, non-ideological group of small states that convene to discuss respective issues of concern, which are sometimes overshadowed by the interests of their larger counterparts. “When you speak as one, you might be considered small, but when you speak as a hundred: wow, suddenly your collective voice is much louder.”
International diplomacy is an extremely delicate affair — especially in today’s increasingly polarized political climate, where intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) like the UN come under fire for their lack of concrete action and inability to keep international peace.
“[When] I was a political science and international affairs student, I remember feeling the same way [about the effectiveness of IGOs],” ponders Tan, “but I think it’s very easy to make these remarks from the outside. When I joined the UN, [I realized that] people worked very hard and spent weeks trying to amend, replace, or omit one word in a paper to ensure there was consensus. This was important because if the paper didn’t go through, then there would be no progress … The UN is complex, and I think ‘complex’ is already simplifying it.”
It is precisely these growing rifts and dichotomies in world politics that make the job of UN diplomats that much harder, especially when questions of morality hang so precariously in the balance of international diplomacy and competing national priorities.
“As a practitioner of international relations and international diplomacy,” Tan continues, “I can begin to appreciate how difficult it is, managing [the] different interests of different countries but also managing interpersonal relationships. […] When we play this role on the international stage, we navigate these conversations very carefully. There are many things happening that we don’t see.”
When asked about Singapore’s future in the ICAO, Tan emphasizes the idea of Singapore “earning its place.” “Every day, we try to show that we are on it. We pore over papers, spend many hours [in the office]; we collaborate, and we nitpick over things. It’s important to show that we care enough because we don’t take our seat lightly, and we need to be a deserving member of the Council.”
Permanent Secretary of the Singapore Ministry of Transport, Peet Meng Lau, puts it best in a Linkedin post shared on September 28: “[Singapore] may have only one major international airport and one airline on [its] tiny island, but [it] can still do [its] bit for the world.” When one takes into account Singapore’s immense contributions to and involvement in the global aviation space, its small size begins to mean little. In fact, it serves to make its achievements all the more impressive. For Singapore, it seems the sky is the limit from here on out.