Shangri la Dialogue

An annual event at the Shangri la involving defence personalities which has now become an established calendar event.

It’s good that a small country like Singapore can be a host to such a large important gathering of importing people around the world to discuss regional defence and cooperation.

47 countries are represented, mostly with their defence ministers or head of armies. Malaysia is represented by its PM and France sent it’s President. US is well represented with their Secretary of State for Defense and all their regional military heads.

China sent only a Rear Admiral. Either they think the event is not important or its not worth their while participating at a higher level. Of course, not surprisingly, the US made fun of their absence of anyone with gravitas.

The message the US has for the region is similar to that it has for Europe. Spend up to 5% of your GDP on defense so that you are equipped to deter China. It is committed to the region and it wants to keep China’s aggression at bay but it wants the region to participate together with it by upping their own defense spending as only that will deter China. The US cannot do it alone. The very fact that such a strong delegation from the US turned up is clearly a sign of their commitment to this region, I believe.

The idea of such events is to get the right people to gather around and hear each other’s viewpoints and talk. Getting to know each other improves the points of contact and communication between people. After all communications between people can be useful and illuminating.