Defence Minister General Ngo Xuan Lich led the Vietnamese delegation to the dialogue. 

Apart from a keynote address delivered by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the opening session, representatives from member nations of the dialogue focused on discussing and showing their opinions in main topics such as US leadership and the challenges of Indo-Pacific security, de-escalating the crisis in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, shaping Asia’s evolving security order, new dimensions of terrorism and counter-terrorism and raising the bar for regional security cooperation.

Vietnamese Defence Minister General Lich presented a speech, which affirmed Vietnam’s stance and defence policy, contributing to analysing and shaping the changing security order in Asia in general and in the Asia Pacific region in particular. 

Speaking at the final plenary session, Singaporean Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen stressed that despite international order in both security and trade built after World War II has not been broken, regional developments and changes in the power balance of big countries are making the order in the Asia-Pacific change. 

Notably, some unilateral actions by the US in adjusting and imposing trade policies, and the deployment of China’s military ammunition systems in the East Sea are going counter to existing principles and raising security challenges in the region, he noted. 

He urged involved parties to strengthen coordination in building and consolidating an order based on international law in order to maintain development and prosperity in the region. 

Convened by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the Shangri-La Dialogue is the most important regular gathering of defence professionals in the Asia-Pacific, a vital annual fixture in the diaries of ministers and their civilian and military chiefs of staff.

Since its launch in 2002, the Dialogue has built confidence and fostered security cooperation by facilitating easy communication among the region’s most important defence and security policy-makers.-VNA