SINGAPORE - Most Powerful Passport for 2023
For five long years, Japan has been sitting pretty in the No.1 position in the Henley Passport Index, which measures global travel freedom in terms of how much visa-free and visa-on-demand access to the world different citizens enjoy.
But for 2023, Japan’s been knocked down into third place and the new titleholder is Singapore, whose citizens are able to visit 193 destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free.
And while Asia has long dominated the top of the leaderboard in the index created by London-based global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners, Europe is bouncing back. Germany, Italy and Spain have all moved up into second place with visa-free access to 190 destinations, while Japan and South Korea are joined in the No.3 slot by Austria, Finland, France, Luxembourg and Sweden.
The United States and the United Kingdom have both been on a downward trajectory since the halcyon days when they jointly held the No.1 spot way back in 2014.
Henley & Partner’s list is one of several indexes created by financial firms to rank global passports according to the access they provide to their citizens.
-www.cnn.com, 18 July 2023
Arno's Commentary
This research shows that globalism is well, alive, and thriving. Nations that can open their doors to visitors without a visa must have a well-functioning security system and advanced information-gathering ability. The lowest scores are among nations such as Syria (30), Iraq (29), Afghanistan (27). These are countries whose citizens are limited when it comes to traveling the world. Not to mention that these are dangerous places with somewhat unstable governments.
Is there Biblical significance in this? Yes: we note that Revelation 13 reveals the final government. Verse 3b says, “and all the world wondered after the beast,” or verse 8a, “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him.” Travel is a contributing factor to unifying planet earth.
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
