{"id":56039,"date":"2026-05-28T20:15:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T12:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=56039"},"modified":"2026-05-28T20:15:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T12:15:41","slug":"shangri-la-dialogue-44-nations-to-attend-defence-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=56039","title":{"rendered":"Shangri-La Dialogue: 44 nations to attend defence summit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SINGAPORE \u2013 <!-- -->Forty-four<!-- --> <!-- -->countries, including 54 ministerial-level delegates, will attend the 23rd Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD), which takes place from May 29 to 31 at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Vietnamese President To Lam, who is also the general secretary of his country\u2019s Communist Party, will deliver the keynote speech on May 29, with Timor-Leste\u2019s President Jose Ramos-Horta scheduled to give a special address the following day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">President<!-- --> <!-- -->Tharman Shanmugaratnam will host delegates to a reception at the Istana on May 30.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Other notable attendees include the Deputy Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is also the Minister of State for Defence Affairs; Shanghai Cooperation Organisation secretary-general Nurlan Yermekbayev; and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Organised by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, the dialogue is Asia\u2019s premier defence summit for discussing critical security challenges in the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/politics\/47-countries-to-attend-22nd-shangri-la-dialogue-in-singapore?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">Representatives from 47 countries<\/span><\/a> had attended the 2025 dialogue, with French President Emmanuel Macron delivering a keynote speech that marked <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/world\/europe\/macron-touts-positive-new-asia-europe-alliance-amid-us-china-rivalry?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">the first time a European leader<\/span><\/a> had done so during the forum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The event is typically attended by top defence government representatives from China and the US, making it a platform for the two superpowers to hold talks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun will, however, not be attending for the second year in a row.  Officials from institutes run by the People\u2019s Liberation Army as well as the navy will represent China.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In a statement on May 28, the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) said Singapore\u2019s<!-- --> <!-- -->Defence Minister Chan Chun Sing will<!-- --> <!-- -->speak at the final plenary session on May 31. His speech will be titled \u201cEvolving Security Partnerships in a Fragmenting World\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">There will be six<!-- --> <!-- -->plenary sessions in all, along with three special sessions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">MINDEF added that Mr Chan will host visiting ministers to roundtable discussions on May 30 and 31, and will also host defence ministers under the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) to breakfast, as a regular feature of the dialogue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The FPDA, which comprises Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom, took form in 1971 to safeguard the external defence of Singapore and Malaysia amid the withdrawal of British forces from Singapore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Mr Chan will also co-host a breakfast meeting<!-- --> <!-- -->for ASEAN defence ministers with his counterpart from the Philippines, the Secretary of National Defence Gilberto Teodoro Jr, the ministry said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The Philippines is the ASEAN chair now; Singapore will assume the role in 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Mr Chan will, in addition, have bilateral meetings with ministers and senior officials from various countries on the sidelines of the SLD, said MINDEF.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The dialogue, which began in 2002, has provided a \u201cvaluable platform for the exchange of perspectives on defence and security issues and initiatives\u201d,<!-- --> <!-- -->said the ministry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">It has also enabled like-minded nations to come together and work towards addressing new challenges,<!-- --> <!-- -->MINDEF said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/politics\/44-countries-to-attend-23rd-shangri-la-dialogue-vietnams-president-to-deliver-keynote-address\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SINGAPORE \u2013 Forty-four countries, including 54 ministerial-level delegates, will attend the 23rd Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD), which takes place from May 29 to 31 at the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}