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IISS defense summit to focus on South China Sea, regional challenges
Defense ministers, military chiefs and security experts from 40 countries, including Indonesia, will gather from Friday to Sunday at Singapore’s Shangri-La Hotel for Asia’s premier defense summit.
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Navy personnel of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) take part in a military display in the South China Sea on Apr. 12, 2018. (photo courtesy of the International Institute for Strategic Studies) (Reuters/Stringer)
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efense ministers, military chiefs and security experts from 40 countries, including Indonesia, will gather from Friday to Sunday at Singapore’s Shangri-La Hotel for the 15th IISS Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD).
The dialogue, also known as the Asia Security Summit, will focus on the latest situation in the South China Sea (SCS), de-escalating the North Korean crisis, shaping Asia’s evolving security order, new dimensions of terrorism and counterterrorism and raising the bar for regional security cooperation.
The summit, which began in 2012, is organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
“Defense diplomacy is hard work, and the next three days will see an intense series of bilateral, minilateral and more wide-ranging inter-governmental meetings at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue as well as important public statements, that together have the potential to shape defense and security policy in the region,” IISS director-general and chief executive John Chipman said in a press release sent to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
The track-one intergovernmental security forum comes at a crucial point, just a few days after an assertive China deployed nuclear-capable long-range bombers for the first time on an unspecified island in the South China Sea.
China has built military facilities on several artificial islands and reefs in both the Paracels and Spratly Islands in the SCS.
China's militarization of the SCS, especially with its H-6K bombers that can easily target Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, has been deemed a threat to security and peace in Southeast Asia.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver the keynote speech for this year's SLD on Friday evening. It is expected that Modi may speak about tensions in the SCS and freedom of navigation, regional security architecture, security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and non-security issues such as terrorism and maritime safety.
From the Indonesian side, Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Gen. (ret) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan and Defense Minister Gen. (ret) Ryamizard Ryacudu are to broach issues on the SCS and terrorism.
On the second day of the SLD, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis is scheduled to speak on US leadership and the challenges to Indo-Pacific security.
Defense ministers from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and the UK have confirmed their attendance at this year’s summit. (dmr)
