Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen spoke at the seventh plenary of the 21st Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) today, on the topic ”Re-imagining Solutions for Global Peace and Regional Stability”, alongside Malaysian Defence Minister Dato’ Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
In his speech, Dr Ng stressed that ”If there is any salient epiphany against this backdrop, it must be ’not here, in Asia’… because we can all agree, that neither Asia nor the world can withstand a third geopolitical shock”.
Dr Ng highlighted the important role of defence establishments in strengthening the regional security architecture. ”In this region, ASEAN plays a key role by upholding itself and its partners to the ASEAN Charter. In defence, the ADMM-Plus Experts’ Working Groups (EWGs) exist to promote military-to-military cooperation for the 18 nations. To date, more than 20 large-scale exercises have been conducted and it is noteworthy that this is the only platform where both US and China militaries participate.” Läs artikel