SINGAPORE – As defence expenditure increases, the effort from countries to reassure one another must also increase correspondingly, said Defence Minister Chan Chun Sing on May 30.
This is so that one country’s increased sense of security does not come at the expense of increasing others’ insecurity, Mr Chan said after a meeting of 31 visiting ministers and their representatives whom he hosted at the 23rd Shangri-La Dialogue.
The group included US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles, and Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting at the defence summit running from May 29 to 31 at the Shangri-La hotel in Singapore, Mr Chan said the group discussed “how to build that trust” in a “very open and dynamic” conversation spanning several topics.
One was securing public support and political commitment for the long-term investment in defence. This is not just about spending commitments in national budgets, Mr Chan said.
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