Nations Prepare for 6th IISS Asia Security Summit

Nations Prepare for 6th IISS Asia Security Summit: The Shangri-La Dialogue

Defence Ministers and Senior Officials Prepare to Discuss Key Asian Security Issues

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) will bring together 26 official government delegations led by defence ministers and other senior officials from the Asia Pacific region and wider security community to participate in the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, to be held from 1-3 June 2007 in Singapore.

The countries represented are: Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, UK, USA and Vietnam.

The security summit will help to shape the inter-governmental debate between the states of the Asia-Pacific and the major outside powers on the key security issues facing the region.

The 2007 Shangri-La Dialogue will feature many on-the-record events including a keynote address, five plenary sessions, and press conferences. Off-the-record events include three break-out groups that allow delegates to focus on more sensitive subjects in depth.

Issues to be addressed at the plenary sessions include: The United States and Asia-Pacific Security; China and India: Building International Stability; Nuclear Challenges; Securing Regional Waters: How Much Progress?; and Security Cooperation in Asia: Managing Alliances and Partnerships. During the break-out groups the following themes will be explored: Intervening in Fragile States; New Challenges for Security Sector Reform; and Progress in Counterterrorism.

As an important paradiplomatic mechanism, the Dialogue provides an opportunity for delegations to issue policy statements with important multilateral implications. Thus in 2006, the Shangri-La Dialogue saw proposals submitted for greater maritime security cooperation in the Malacca Straits and the establishment of a regional disaster and humanitarian relief centre. With wider participation, as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will attend the summit for the first time, the 2007 Dialogue is certain to build on past discussions and provide the foundation for future security policies.

The Shangri-La Dialogue remains the wider Asia-Pacific region's only regular meeting for defence ministers and is both open and transparent. It brings to the public eye issues that are normally closely held by security institutions and by doing so has contributed to regional confidence building.

ENDS

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